Rachel Ray and the "SCARF"

From The Associated Press:

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzray0530,0,1925547.story

“Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.”


“Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf wrapped around her looked like a kaffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress. Critics who fueled online complaints about the ad in blogs say such scarves have come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism.”

"Amahl Bishara, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Chicago who specializes in media matters relating to the Middle East, said complaints about the scarf's use in the ad demonstrate misunderstandings of Arab culture and the multiple meanings that symbols can take on depending on someone's perspective."I think that a right-wing blogger making an association between a kaffiyeh and terrorism is just an example of how so much of the complexity of Arab culture has been reduced to a very narrow vision of the Arab world on the part of some people in the U.S.," Bishara said in a phone interview. "Kaffiyehs are worn every day on the street by Palestinians and other people in the Middle East -- by people going to work, going to school, taking care of their families, and just trying to keep warm."

Well, this being Saturday I was not planning on posting anything today.

But tell me how I could pass this news item by the wayside.

Come on people---------lighten up.

It is just a scarf for pete's sake.

I doubt very much that Miss Ray or her stylist (because we all have one---you know)

intentionally meant anyone to even notice her wardrobe choice.

Are people becoming so paranoid that a little thing such as a scarf draped around Rachel Ray's neck would cause such an uproar.

What REALLY bothers me is that Rachel Ray is making commercials for Dunkin' Donuts!