The Madness of Muslim Crowds

A Muslim woman in the United States was recently horrified to discover that her McDonald’s McChicken sandwich was enveloped in a blue and white wrapper, which she was quite convinced showed secret support for the colonial-settler apartheid genocidal state of Israel, as those are the very colors of the Israeli flag. A world away, a maddened Muslim crowd in Lahore, Pakistan was getting ready to lynch a woman because, they claimed, she was wearing a dress with Arab writing all over it which, the crowd claimed, must surely be quotations from the Qur’an. And that would constitute a form of blasphemy. In Islam the punishment for blasphemy is death. Robert Spencer wrote briefly on the latter incident here, and more on the story can be found here: “‘We use Arabic, it is our language’: Kuwait-based designer company slams Pakistanis for ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ slogans against a girl wearing Arabic dress,” OpIndia, February 26, 2024:

Following a near-lynching incident of a Pakistani girl wearing an Arabic print dress, and her facing threats of ‘sar tan se juda’, the Kuwait-based company that designed the dress lambasted Pakistanis for sending them “disturbing” messages and dragging them into the episode.

Instagram handle semplicitakw shared a story in which it reminded Pakistanis that the brand uses Arabic texts in different fonts ‘everywhere’, hinting about the dress that triggered an Islamist mob. Notably, the mob had assaulted the woman while chanting slogans of ‘sar tan se juda’ because they believed she committed ‘Gusthaki’ [blasphemy] by wearing a dress with Arabic calligraphy.

In their post, the Kuwaitian company wrote, “Dear pakistani people, We have nothing to do with the recent incident that happened to the innocent girl. We are based in Kuwait company (sic) And we do NOT ship worldwide. Please stop following and messaging since its (sic) really disturbing.”

The Kuwaiti company simply asked the Pakistani mob to stop blaming it for the girl in Pakistan who had chosen to wear one of its dresses — one with Arabic lettering all over it. By insisting that “we do NOT ship worldwide,” it is attempting to suggest that it would never have expected that dress to be worn by someone in Pakistan, so please don’t get your knickers in a twist and threaten a perfectly innocent woman with death. Her dress was made in Kuwait, and was not intended for the export market. What the company ought to have said is quite different: “Listen, you Pakistanis. Calm down. The Arabic writing, which you cannot understand, has nothing to do with the Qur’an. Whoever suggested that it did is either an ignoramus who is pretending to recognize the Arabic writing as from the Qur’an — it isn’t — or more likely, is a malicious rival in the clothing business who wants to inflame the Pakistanis, and other Muslims as well, against our products. Let us repeat it; the Arabic on the dress is NOT from the Qur’an.”

Pointing toward the use of Arabic on the dress based on which Islamist mob considered it an act of Gusthaki [blasphemy], the company added, “We use arabic words and letters in different fonts everywhere since its our language!”

Meanwhile, according to the Instagram handle, the dress had been in the public [sic] for almost over 48 weeks, that is nearly a year. Notably, Kuwait is also an Islamic country where the company had unveiled and sold its dresses but the outrage erupted in Pakistan. Pakistanis got outraged over the presumption of Arabic texts being some ‘Quranic verses’ which according to Islamists would be wrong to print on dress casually and attracts ‘Gusthaki’ or blasphemy which is punishable by death in Pakistan.

These Pakistanis have only encountered the Arabic language in the Qur’an; they assume that any Arabic that crosses their path must, therefore, come from the Qur’an. So even if they haven’t the faintest idea what is printed on that woman’s dress, it must surely be the Qur’an, and she — even though she too can’t read Arabic —should nonetheless be held liable for blasphemy, and executed.

Several netizens also slammed Pakistanis over the incident and putting a woman’s life in danger for the random use of Arabic and considering anything written in Arabic as Quranic verses or its adulteration.

Along with the lunatics screaming about blasphemy, there have been Muslims on social media pointing out, again and again, how idiotic is the charge against the dress and all those who wear it.

Pakistani journalist in exile Taha Siddiqui wrote, “Even the designer is fed up!,” along with a poster on which the text read, “The designer of Arabic print dress that became controversial doesn’t want Pakistani followers.”…

The Kuwaiti company clearly is fed up with these semi-demented Pakistanis screaming “blasphemy” over the perfectly inoffensive dress. The designer of the dress doesn’t want his creations sold in Pakistan, doesn’t want Pakistanis following him — and no doubt excoriating him — on social media.

Given the craziness of this Muslim mob, no appeal to common sense had any effect. Could it possibly have been that a Pakistani woman, a Muslim, would be out in public in the middle of Lahore, wearing a dress with Qur’anic verses printed on it, which would be a suicidal undertaking? Would a Kuwaiti company, its market consisting overwhelmingly, and possibly exclusively, of Muslims, have printed Qur’anic verses on one of its productions? It’s all absurd. But once a Muslim mob, having been whipped up into a frenzy, decides that something must mean such-and-so, it will no longer listen to reason. The madness of crowds takes over; the truth no longer matters; the woman must be punished for her nonexistent blasphemy. It was only a policewoman who protected her from the mob and no doubt saved her life.

Despite what the Kuwaiti dress designer said, despite what other native speakers of Arabic have maintained, about the Arabic words on the by-now infamous dress having nothing to do with the Qur’an, the Pakistani woman remains, possibly permanently, in danger. There is bound to be some Muslim fanatic in Pakistan who will take it into his head — next week, next month, next year — to punish her for what he remains convinced was an act of blasphemy.

Yes, this is one more for the books. And the book in question is “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Muslim Crowds.” It’s being compiled right now by that famous authorial team of siblings — Hazmat, Zamzam, Hadith, Jihad, and Osama Barghouti. And “The Tale of the Blaspheming Dress” will certainly be included.