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Anti-Muslim Greeting Card Causes Outrage In Chicago

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By Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht, Sat, May 04, 2013

A greeting card picturing a talking Muslim terrorist doll on the front with the message “Hope Your Birthday Is a Blow Out” is causing controversy in Chicago.

The Chicago Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote an official letter to the greeting card maker, NobleWorks Inc., over the card. The doll pictured on the cover wears a traditional headscarf, a Hijab, and messages on her box read “The Talking Doll, Pull string for message, if you dare,” and “She’ll Love You To Death! She’ll Blow Your Brains Out!” 

"There are those who will claim Muslims do not have a sense of humor," wrote CAIR-Chicago director Ahmed Rehab. "But one would like to think humor comes with (even a minimal degree of) intelligence."

CAIR-Chicago pointed out card makers may have also infringed on copyright. The dolls are an actual Arabic language product made by Desi Doll Company.

Aamina the Talking Muslim Girl is a bilingual plush doll is described as a “fun way for young children to learn languages” and “learn about Islam and its teachings.” Aamina recites words from the Quran like “As-Salamu-Alaikum” (peace be upon you) and “Insha’llah” (if Allah wills).

Noble Works publisher Ron Kafi, who claims to have created the bomber doll card, says on the company website that “Political humor, religion and current events are among the themes to which NobleWorks gives a sick, provocative and sometimes controversial spin.”

In an op-ed for The Chicago Monitor, Rehab wrote that the mother of three who founded Desi Doll Co. probably would never imagine her “laudable endeavor could be twisted into such a bigoted excuse from humor to by another entrepreneur who does not seem as concerned with the message he would be conveying to his own children.”

He urged supporters to “Contact the makers of the greetings card and let them know that you do NOT think that stereotyping Muslim women and girls is OK.”

“Islamophobic generalizations and negative stereotypes often hit those who are most visibly perceived as Muslim, and women wearing the Hijab are often the group hit the hardest,” he said.

Sources: Chicago Monitor, Gawker