Spinning out of control

"Cone-demned . . . 'spinning whirl ice creams look similar to the word Allah written in Arabic script," captions a UK Sun report [via Dhimmi Watch] re a British Muslim's jihad on junk food.

"Burger King is withdrawing its ice cream cones after the lid of the dessert offended a Muslim," reports the Scotsman [via The List Of Sicilian Messenger via Technorati]:

The man claimed the design resembled the Arabic inscription for Allah [turned one quarter turn to the right] and branded it sacrilegious, threatening a "jihad."

The chain is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the lid with backing from The Muslim Council of Britain. It apologised and said: "The design simply represents a spinning ice cream cone."

Burker King's cowering dhimmmitude reminds us of the Larry Summers response of architect Paul Murdoch to the recent unpleasantness directed his way by leading conservative bloggers over the unfortunately named "Crescent of Embrace" at the heart of the Flight 93 Memorial:

Designer Paul Murdoch said he is "somewhat optimistic" that the spirit of the design could be maintained: "It's a disappointment there is a misinterpretation and a simplistic distortion of this."

A disapppointment, indeed, but the families of Flight 93 -- all of them, not some self-appointed politically motivated subgroup like "The Jersey Girls" of Ground Zero -- are not taking it lying down.  With a "Let's roll" attitude that does their lost loved ones proud, they have cut through the smears and innuendo of their attackers to tell their side of the story:

Since the announcement of the Memorial design, we have welcomed Paul Murdoch and his team into our family and have had the opportunity to discuss this naming issue at length. We know this design was not intended to hold any religious undertones nor desecrate, as some have said it does, the memory of our loved ones. We strongly support this design and the design team.

It was Paul Murdoch himself that mentioned to family members that refinements may need to be made to the design. We are supportive of his wishes, but remain steadfast in our support of it. We are confident in Paul’s ability to memorialize our loved ones. With our continued input and support, this memorial will be built.

The most important lesson we can learn from the passengers and crew of Flight 93 is that positive action must be taken in the face of adversity. We must not be distracted, but instead remain positively focused on the acts of the heroic strangers who came together to avert a larger disaster on September 11. When completed, this Memorial will give us all a place to remember their deeds and offer the country a place of healing.

We're used to seeing identity-politics leftists (the Larry Summers affair) and jihad-happy Islamicists (Allah in the ice cream logo above) using hysteria to cow their enemies. But it was a rude awakening in the last week to see respected opinion shapers from the right side of the aisle resorting to the same tactics without bothering to get their facts straight.

Technorati tags:  crescent of embrace, flight 93 memorial, larry summers, jihad

Comments

[goomp]

Rest in Peace, Arc of Embrace.

[andophiroxia]

It is sad to see that everything is so politically nuanced, so that everyone is on edge for some apologetic or appeasement of the terrorists or whatever may offend thee. Sometimes people are right and sometimes they are wrong.

Sometimes, I wonder if this whole hypersensitivity stuff got started when being politically correct was required. Kind of sad, really.