MUSLIMS WANT NIKE TO APOLOGIZE : COUNCIL SAYS LOGO RESEMBLES ALLAH IN ARABIC SCRIPT.Byline: Donna Abu-Nasr Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency.Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The Council on American-Islamic Relations The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an advocacy group for Muslims in North America; its professed goals are to "enhanc[e] understanding of Islam, promot[e] justice and empower American Muslims. demanded Wednesday that Nike Inc. apologize for using a logo on athletic shoes An athletic shoe is a generic name for a shoe designed for sporting and physical activities, and is different in style and build than a dress shoe. Originally known as sporting apparel, today they are known as casual footwear. that resembles the word ``Allah'' in the Arabic script. Nike said the logo was meant to look like flames for a line of shoes to be sold this summer with the names Air Bakin', Air Melt, Air Grill and Air B-Que. The company said it caught the problem six months ago, long before the shoes went into production. A new logo separates the A in ``Air'' from the IR, Nike spokeswoman Vizhier Corpuz said. ``We absolutely regret any misunderstanding, and we regret that this appeared in retail stores,'' Corpuz said at Nike headquarters near Portland, Ore. ``We have changed the design to ensure that there's no confusion between the word `air' and any other word.'' ``Allah'' is Arabic for God, used by Muslims and Christian Arabs to refer to the deity. The Islamic council's executive director, Nihad Awad Nihad Awad is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington D.C.-based American Muslim political and civil rights group. , insisted at a Washington news conference that the shoes have been seen at stores across the country, one pair in New Jersey as recently as Tuesday. Holding up a pair of black-and-white Nikes with the logo, which he said were bought recently in the Boston area, Awad demanded that the company investigate to determine whether ``there are people at the company who want to insult Muslims.'' In 1995, Nike removed a billboard near the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission that depicted a basketball player with the headline, ``They called him Allah.'' The Council on American-Islamic Relations had told Nike officials the billboard offended Muslims. Another leading athletic supplies manufacturer, Reebok Ree´bok` n. 1. (Zool.) The peele. International Ltd., was embarrassed in February to learn that the designation of its women's running shoe, ``Incubus incubus (ĭng`ky  bəs), lascivious male demon said to possess mortal women as they sleep and to be responsible for the birth of demons, witches, and deformed children. ,'' is the word for a mythical demon that preyed on sleeping women. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, calls on Nike to apologize. Associated Press |
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