The popular footwear manufacturing company, Nike, is facing pressure from Muslims around the world to recall Nike Air Max 270 from the worldwide market.
According to a petition filed on a leading platform for petitions, Nike Air Max 270 bears a logo on the sole which resembles the name of God in Arabic ‘Allah’.
Here is how it looks.
The petition titled ‘Nike needs to recall offensive shoe with Allah’s name from worldwide market’, has a target of 25,000 signatures. It has already amassed 23,396 signatures and the campaign against the leading brand is gaining more ground by the day.
The petition terms Nike’s step as ‘outrageous and appalling’.
It is outrageous and appalling of Nike to allow the name of God on a shoe. This is disrespectful and extremely offensive to Muslims and insulting to Islam.
The customer, Saiqa Noreen, has urged Nike to “recall this blasphemous and offensive shoe and all products with the design logo resembling the word Allah from worldwide sales immediately’ as it will ‘surely be trampled, kicked and become soiled with mud or even filth.”
On the other hand, Nike has denied hurting any religious sentiments in a statement, saying that the logo is a stylized representation of its Air Max trademark.
Any other perceived meaning or representation is unintentional. Nike respects all religions and we take concerns of this nature seriously.
The customer further went on to question Nike’s policies as the company has already been through a similar situation where it had to recall certain athletic shoes because they bore a logo resembling the word ‘Allah’ following the protests by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in 1997.
Saiqa requested tighter scrutiny of products before releasing for the market.
After recalling trainers in 1997, which had a similar logo depicting the word Allah, Nike claimed to have tightened scrutiny on logo design. So why has a similar design been approved?
With Saiqa’s petition nearing its target, it remains to be seen how the multinational corporation responds to the request made by the Muslims.
Via: Bloomberg
