11 June 2008

Lyndsey Matthews

Inter Press Service

NEW YORK: "There are almost 1.2 billion Muslim people in the world. At least 15 of us are not terrorists," quipped Obaida Abdel-Rahim, 28. "It could even be more than that. Maybe even a lot more." The Calgary, Canada-born  Abdel-Rahim owns the Muslim t-shirt business Phatwa Factory, one of several Middle Eastern-accented t-shirt businesses to spring up in saucy retort to the outpouring of anti-Muslim sentiment since 9/11. From Rootsgear's "100 percent Randomly Searched at the Following Airports" and casualdisobedience.com's "Enemy Combatant" tees, to the lighter "Lebanese Princess," and "Allah's Little Angel," they are getting their message across.

Abdel-Rahim, who now lives in Gainesville, Florida, said he hopes to use humorous slogans to bust US stereotypes about Muslims.

"The best thing to happen to Muslim clothing since pants under a thawb [traditional men's robe]," says a slogan for Phatwa Factory, which he started in 2006.

"I'd like Muslims to know that it's okay to laugh," he said, "and non-Muslims to know that we have a sense of humor."

Dalia Ghanem had a similar idea. The New Jersey-born, Egypt-descended clothing designer dreams up hip t-shirts for people of Arabic heritage. She decided Arab-Americans needed a more optimistic representation of their culture after 9/11.

"Every store that sold t-shirts was selling 'Everyone loves an Asian girl,' 'Latin girl,' 'Italian' and 'Irish Girl,'" said the 29-year-old Ghanem, who develops prints and patterns for a New York fashion company. "I wanted one that said 'Everyone loves an Arab girl!'"

So she designed one, launching her one-woman t-shirtat.co (the Arabic plural of "t-shirt") in 2004.

Abdel-Rahim named his company to poke fun at the typical US interpretation of fatwa. "Most people hear fatwa," he said, "and they think of Don Mohammad Corleone issuing a hit on some poor infidel."

Just as the Western media has misappropriated the word jihad,  Abdel-Rahim asserted, the word "fatwa" has become synonymous with an errant death sentence. In reality, he pointed out, it's just an Islamic scholar's religious ruling.

Neither Ghanem nor Abdel-Rahim has received any deadly fatwas as a result of their irreverent designs. "I'm a little disappointed," Abdel-Rahim joked. "I was kind of hoping for at least a death threat or two."

Some observers approve of the t-shirt humor, seeing it as a sign that Muslims are successfully being integrated within American popular culture. The brand of humor cultivated in this casual wear isn't to everyone's taste, though, particularly those who feel closer to the political problems in the Middle East than they are to the discrimination faced by Muslims trying to live in North America.

"I don't feel [the tee shirts] are derogatory," said 20-year-old Rosalind George, a US citizen raised in the Palestinian section of Occupied Jerusalem, "just a little gimmicky." She complained that the shirts seemed too Americanized.

"I'd prefer a 'Free Palestine' shirt to an 'I heart NY-like shirt,'" said George, who lived in Occupied Jerusalem while her father worked for the aid organization Save the Children.

She did like the shirt printed with "Yallah, bye" ("Let's go, bye"), a common saying used among her friends.

Copyright The Daily Star 2008.