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Britain
I'm Hatin' It
2006-05-25
Hat tip to Little Green Footballs

Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006. From a September interview with Rashad Akhtar, a twenty-seven-year-old British Muslim, who alleges that the graphic used on the lid of Burger King ice-cream cones resembles the Arabic spelling of “Allah.” The interview was conducted by Davina Patel, a reporter for the London newspaper Eastern Eye. Burger King apologized and said they would redesign the lid. Originally from Harper's Magazine, March 2006.

The Enlightenment happened at half past 12 a.m. in Burger King, Park Royal. I had ordered my food, and a French guy got talking to me and asked, “Are you Muslim?” He said, “Look at this,” and he showed me the cone. I saw it and I thought, “Wow,” like anyone would. He said, “Turn it around.”

I was thinking of my stomach. I was hungry. I would have loved to eat an ice cream. When I saw it, my mouth fell open. I dropped the ice cream. I canceled my order. That was the defining moment of my life.

The Burger King logo is there in Arabic. “Allah” is spelled exactly how it is there, and the Burger King logo is where the ominah should be. Why, there is no way it could be a coincidence. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? How does it spin on something that is static? You cannot spin it around unless you have a mechanical device. You spin it one direction, to the right, and it is offending a billion people.

I’m not talking about Muslims in the Park Royal vicinity, or in the U.K. I’m talking about globally. Everyone who sees this is going to be offended. If you put a different symbol on there, you’re offending Jews, Christians, Sikhs, or Hindus. I am going to try my best in life, so that these people do not operate in a single Muslim country again, so that we get an apology to every single Muslim on this planet in their language, in their country, on a national TV station: “Sorry. We, as an American company, are sorry. We didn’t mean to offend you.”

What angers me most is that most people, once they have finished with it, they look at it and say, “Nice cone. Nice design. Nice cone design.” They chuck it away. That is disrespectful. Don’t throw it away. Keep it as evidence. A reminder of what these people are doing every single day of our lives.

We showed this to Muslim customers in Burger King and they were disgusted. We went to the manager. “Is this true?” we asked. He said, “Yes, my brother. It is true.” I spoke to two other Pakistani Muslim guys there and they said, “We are sickened.” They were cussing Burger King.

I feel humiliated. I want to humiliate the person who did this to an extent that he never works again. I’m going to make him see that it was the biggest mistake in his life. I want to meet the guy. I want to ask the guy, “What does this mean to you?” then never see his face again.

In a way, I’m glad he did this to me. It has opened my eyes. The fear of God, the love of God, the love of not letting anyone disrespect God. Even though it means nothing to some people and may mean nothing to some Muslims in this country, this is my jihad. I’m not going to rest until I find the person who is responsible. I’m going to bring this country down.
Posted by:ryuge

#25  Rashad - You win the prize! Instant rendition to Gitmo. You will learn to get your priorities straight.

Every friggin' day we're confronted with another Islamic absurdity. What is it going to take to get THE SYSTEM to stand up to these ass-clowns? Is it going to take a mushroom cloud over Manhattan, or Balitmore?

We need to kill a whole hell of a lot more of these pukes, and do it a hell of a lot faster.
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2006-05-25 23:50  

#24  Oh like you guys have never had a profound life-defining moment while playing with your food. Hell, it happens to me everytime I shove habañeros up my nose to impress the chicas in Cancun.
Posted by: Glese Thriling3969   2006-05-25 20:41  

#23  Time to go Teutonic on this fleas. YOU WILL HAF IT UNSER VAY!
Posted by: Burgher Koenig   2006-05-25 19:55  

#22  Poor ol' Allan (pity be upon him) must be rolling his eyes wondering what he ever did to get such fuck-wit followers.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-05-25 19:51  

#21  Why should Burger King be blamed for Allan's name looking like an ice cream swirl?.. or a dog turd.
Posted by: bool   2006-05-25 18:34  

#20  I hear that if you eat all the ice cream out of the cone you can see a picture of mohammed looking up from the bottom!

(lol - burn baby burn)
Posted by: flash91   2006-05-25 17:50  

#19  No, no, no...this is a spoof!

Isn't it?
Posted by: Bobby   2006-05-25 17:23  

#18  I have hated Burger Kig food my entire life. Tonight though, I dine at the King.
Posted by: Mike N.   2006-05-25 16:37  

#17  I am going out on a limb and guess that Rashad is on the Dole...

Damn. Now I'm hungry for a Dole Whip.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-05-25 15:46  

#16  I might go for 'puss be upon him' (as well as all other rapists, pedophiles and murderers), but please, please, no rap, hip-hop or 'gansta' references.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-05-25 15:24  

#15  So, was it a sugar cone or a wafer cone ?
Posted by: wxjames   2006-05-25 15:21  

#14  'geek - hey, can you tell me what "playa" or "player" is in arabic? How about "pimp daddy"?
We could put that shit on t-shirts! How about "there are two infidels fucking on the back of my shirt"........then on the back of the shirt you have - "just kidding, believe in Mohammad (puss be upon him)!" or "Mohammad did it for the underage chicks."

I'm smelling a capitalistic idea here for exploitation of arab sensibilities for my own personal gain.......mwhahahahaha
Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-05-25 15:11  

#13  The fear of God, the love of God, the love of not letting anyone disrespect God.

-I'm fairly certain the Almighty can handle himself. Then again, the God I believe in is way different then the God this tool belt prays to.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2006-05-25 15:06  

#12  Like this?

ÇäÊ Ýæß
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-05-25 15:01  

#11  My suggestion to Burger King would be to redesign the lid to the Arabic spelling of Fuck You.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-05-25 14:31  

#10  We, as an American company, are sorry
This guy obviously doesn't know much about modern business. Burger King isn't an "American" company. Until 2002 it was owned by a British firm (Diageo), then the equity firms, Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, bought it and took it private. It now plans to go public again with an IPO.
Posted by: Spot   2006-05-25 14:26  

#9  More graphic designers should work harder at inserting more offensive arabic sayings into their art.
That one wasn't nearly offensive enough.
Posted by: Gene the Moron   2006-05-25 14:10  

#8  A link to the images in question. As a courtesy of Little Green Footballs I've linked rather than hot-linked the image.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/pictures/BK-Cones-pbuh.jpg
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-05-25 14:03  

#7  The graphic on the icecream cone looks like a turd. Is this guy actually comparing Allah to a turd? We report, you decide.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-05-25 13:59  

#6  Eloquent as ever, Frank. F him and the camel he rode in on.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-05-25 13:59  

#5  "I was thinking of my stomach. I was hungry. I would have loved to eat an ice cream. When I saw it, my mouth fell open. I dropped the ice cream. I canceled my order. That was the defining moment of my life." Talk about wrapped tooo tight! I am going out on a limb and guess that Rashad is on the Dole and has a LOT of time on his hands to contemplate. FYI MANY things in the world form a cross but I don't drop my Western Bacon Cheeseburger and run away like a little girl.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2006-05-25 13:58  

#4  stupid twit
Posted by: Frank G   2006-05-25 13:52  

#3  Only Mel Brooks could dream up something this dumb. Rashad will soon be seeing Allah in the clouds and wan't to burn the earth. Good god!
Posted by: 49 Pan   2006-05-25 13:18  

#2  Except they occasionally get so twitchy they explode and kill innocent people.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2006-05-25 13:17  

#1  When I saw it, my mouth fell open. I dropped the ice cream. I canceled my order. That was the defining moment of my life.

Somehow, I find it hard to fear a people so twitchy that they become dysfunctional over a Burger King ice cream cone.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-05-25 13:05  

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