Kuffeyeh and Cross

May 31, 2008 at 1:15 am · Filed under Amman, Roba

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[Courtesy of a little shop on Rainbow Street]

As I passed down this shop, I could not help but think about how the kuffeyeh now represents terror. Religion these days also represents terror. It seems like most wars stem out of religion: the French Wars of Religion, the Crusades, and the Reconquista, and that’s to cite practically irrelevant ones, compared to the Zionist-Arab wars, Sunni-Shia strifes, and so on.

Yet the person who chose these elements in his shop window disagrees. To him, the kuffeyeh and religion are all about love, rather than hate.

I am not an idealistic person, and neither am I religious, but these little things sometimes make me stop and wonder.

Would life be so much better if we were all just idealistic?






  • http://www.za3tar.net/ za3tar

    I know you probably did not mean it .. but i refuse the notion that “the kuffeyeh now represents terror”.

    If some arab-phobic nut-job from the American left & fox news (Michelle Malkin) says so does not make it true … and i guess it is even much worse if we agree with Malkin !!!

    the kuffeyeh does not represent terrorism, and never will.

  • http://andfaraway.net Roba

    Za3tar, of course it will never represent terrorism to you or to me, or to other Palestinians and most Arabs. But we are a very small part of the world.

  • http://www.iread.blogspot.com manal y

    wow that shop window provokes alot of questions, we had a discusion last week with my 14 year old brother about the items displayed…though he had a diffrent wonderment than yours

    ok i had to erase my long comment cause i guess i got mixed up with words here, u didnt mean “7ata” by saying “kuffeyeh”?

    anyway if kuffeye is 7ata (and ill keep it short)…i dont think kuffeyeh represent terror anywhere, cause these days in teh states and other countries around the world the red and black 7ata is a fashion thingy..they even come in different colors too.

  • AG

    believe it or not but the kuffieyh is a fashionable article of clothing in the States now adays…Rapper Kanye West was seen wearing one not too long ago and now people think its a cool thing. I saw a kid wearing a red one now too long ago in my Uni. I went to talk to him only to find out hes filipino. At first I was kinda angry, but then I realized that its a fashion thing.
    They have it in some retarded colors too. Like purple, green, and blue

  • http://www.black-iris.com Nas

    i disagree that most wars stem out of religion, rather they are due to ideology and power. Both ideology and power can be manifested in religious reasoning, such as the crusades, but as history has shown, most wars are based on ideology and power in their purest form, stemming away from religion. world war 1, world war 2, french revolution, american revolution, arab-israeli wars, the cold war, the hundred years’ war, war of the roses, etc etc etc.

    as for the kuffeyeh: its an ethnic symbol that has no religious connotations, except for attempts by the stereotyping western world to lump us and everything that represents “us” into one big entity and call it terror.

  • http://www.za3tar.net/ za3tar

    Roba: Yes but it does not represent terror for the rest of the world either. The Dunkin Donuts comment was made by one commentor on the right wing channel Fox News. So not all Americans either took it to represent terror, and the rest of the media actually slammed Michelle & Dunking Donuts for their stupidity.

    What i wanted to say is that we should not take the comments of that one person to be a fact, or to be a representative of the non-Arab world, and i thought your statement “factualizes” Michelle’s extreme right-wing views.

  • Tijl

    It’s true that religion played a role in many wars, but I don’t think most wars stem out of religion. Take for example the Reconquista: Imagine that the Arab and Berber conquerors of Spain would have been christians. Don’t you think that the Visigoths would have started a campaign to get back the lands that used to be theirs? Obviously, religions, like other ideologies, come in handy for war propaganda and for gaining support. The fact the the invaders happened to be muslims, who discriminated against the christian population of the Iberian peninsula, helped the Visigoths in gaining support for their war. But they would have fought a war anyway against the invaders. Even if they couldn’t find a religious reason to do so.

    As for the kuffeyeh: where I live (Belgium) we call it an “Arafat sjaal” (Arafat shawl). Most people here see it as the symbol of Yasser Arafat and his struggle against Israel. Some people see Arafat as a terrorist, so for them the kuffeyeh is a symbol for terrorism. For others, it’s a symbol for Palestinian freedom fighters. Kuffeyehs used to be very popular here 15 years ago or so.

  • Ahmad Al-Sholi

    Kuffieyeh is an arab and oriental symbol. It is being mixed with Islam as much as some westerns are shocked when they find out that 15% of grand syria are non muslims. Again its part of mixing between the arabs and muslims where niether shoul be attached to terror.

    Religion itself is an idelogy and not spiritual guidence especially when its presented in a philosiphical approach and giving all answers and ways to human minds, where it turned to be science as well to extract laws pertaining to new occurence.

    Yet religion was an easy ride for war fanatics across history, closest example are al-qaeda and their rivals at the right wing of western societies.

    Even if Kuffieyeh was tagged with a terror label, we should not just accept that it is.. what kind of culture would it be that throws its symbols and habbits or reject them at any foriegner attack -be it in good faith too- ?

  • Husams

    I’ve never knew a religion which didnt cause a war! is this because God is love?

  • http://halalhippie.blogspot.com/ Halalhippie

    Oh, the irony: I remember – in the 70-80es – lefties like myself would wear the black-and-white keffiyeh (which we called the “partisan-scarf”). We would show our solidarity with the oppressed, in this case the Palestinians. And – may I add – it was practical against Scandinavian climate. And it looked cool.
    Those were the days…..US/Israel were evil, Palestinians were victims, the PLO or atleast the PFLP were lefties, and the world was black/white.
    Today,it’s so much more complicated: now, we have actual Palestinians in Denmark, and generally they’re giving the PA cause a bad name. And the sole wearing of the keffiyeh can cause such controversy.Give me back th’good old days.

  • Catapult

    I know this discussion is about the kuffyeh, but since i started reading your posts, I noticed something very interesting! you always state ( like you wanna leave no doubt in our minds ) that you are not religious! I’m not trying to be on the offensive here?! Or by extra critical ! But, why do you think it is so important to tell everyone, quite often, that you are not religious!

    I can only think of three reasons:

    1- You think that religion is a stigma, and conceived as a bad influence, which you don’t want to be associated with!

    2- You genuinely hate religion.

    3- Or you want to hide the fact that you are religious!

    So, which one is it?

    And please don’t take offence, it’s just an observation that i have.

  • Catapult

    and i probably posted here a little bit too late :)