Poor King Ahasuerus (Xerxes?). He didn't notice but his beautiful queen Esther, it appears, had two tails - coming all the way up to her crown (she also appears to be the missing link between land and water animals). We now know all of this because of this Egyptian cleric (Safwat Higazi) below (tip from Olga Gershenson). By the way, he does have a point: "Esther" means star in Persian - and the buck part...well...well...she liked adventures, just like Buck Rogers. OMG! He is right. The Starbucks logo does have Queen Esther on it.By the way, anyone from Egypt here? What kind of program is this? And do people take him seriously at all? Hey - I also occasionally switch to see the 700 Club - and find craziness oozing out from everywhere.
By the way, here is a full body shot of queen Esther on the old Starbucks logo (its rated R for the tails)...
Fascinating. My question is: was this a deliberate fabrication, or do they actually think it's true? If they think it's true, where did they get the idea from? If it's a deliberate fabrication, what possible motivation could they have for this?
ReplyDeleteDifficult to tell if it is a deliberate fabrication or not. My guess is that his anti-semitism runs so deep that he may simply want to believe in any crazy idea that may reinforce his own hatred. Why Starbucks? My only guess is that it is because of its ubiquity. And such a success, in Higazi's mind, must be connected to a Jewish conspiracy. But how does one connect that to Starbucks of Seattle?? Hmm...hmm...oh wait. Look at their logo: a woman and a crown. Of course, Higazi wouldn't make any effort to look at the history of Starbucks or of its mermaid logo - that will be asking too much. He gets on TV for speculations not facts. Pathetic, yes. But he may still have a big audience.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a guess. May be there is some other underlying reason for attacking Starbucks in such a matter...
Interesting hypothesis ... could well be right. Monomania -- so obsessed with something that you automatically invent fictions to link everything under the sun to that thing. Probably also appeals to an audience of similar monomaniacs, and therefore has a marketing appeal.
ReplyDeleteFrom a policy perspective, though, what's the real enemy? Is it him personally, his religion, or his obsession with Israel? I tend to think it's the last one. Take away his religion, he'll still hate Jews on cultural/ethnic/political grounds and come up with the same foul reasoning, using different symbols.
If we want to bandage these wounds, seems like we need to get to the heart of the issue -- the deep (and in at least some ways ways justified) distrust of Israel and anxiety about its influence and power.
Seems to me the enemy here isn't religion, but rather fear and hatred which are independent of religion. He is seeing Queen Esther everywhere not because he's Muslim, but because he sees Jews and Jewish power everywhere, sees his own people and culture as powerless to stop their advance, and religion provides the symbols necessary to rationalize and articulate his terror.
Seems to me if we try to battle irrational thought and behavior like this on the battlefield of religion, we'll lose, because it's not a religious issue. If this is an issue of fear and marginalization, perhaps our efforts to solve the problem should focus on those causes.