May 29, 2008, - 11:02 am
ABC News Cites Schlussel on Meghan McCain, Dunkin’ Donuts and the Keffiyeh
By Debbie Schlussel
Today, ABC News interviewed me and cited my February column on the keffiyeh and First Daughter wannabe Meghan McCain, in connection with the Rachael Ray/Dunkin’ Donuts story. Here’s the excerpt:
Debbie Schlussel, a Detroit attorney who writes a daily column for her conservative Web site debbieschlussel.com., said, “I think they [Dunkin’ Donuts] ought to be applauded for that.”
But Laila Al-Qatami, spokeswoman for the [DS: Muslim-dominated] American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League [sic: it’s Committee, not League], a Washington-based civil rights and cultural organization, believes that this is all much ado about nothing. “I think Dunkin’ Donuts jumped the gun,” she said, adding that the scarf’s mere resemblance to a keffiyeh makes the company’s action seem “unreasonable.” . . .
Al-Qatami believes people like Malkin and Schlussel are overreacting. “It’s just an article of clothing,” she said. “It only carries that kind of symbolism for people like Debbie Schlussel, who are promoting fear of Arabs.” [DS: Ahem, I don’t have anything against Arabs and like a lot of them, girlie. It’s Muslims–who want to impose their extremism on America–that I have the problem with. Get a clue.]
Schlussel, the Detroit attorney and blogger, disagrees. She compares the keffiyeh to the Ku Klux Klan’s white hoods. “People need to realize it’s not just clothing,” she said. “It’s come to symbolize the garb of terrorism.”
Schlussel said it’s no accident that in some pictures and videos of Islamic terrorists who have kidnapped and killed Americans, their faces are covered with a keffiyeh.
In February, she took John McCain’s daughter Meghan to task when several pictures surfaced of her wearing keffiyehs. In one, her mother, Cindy, sits beside Meghan, who has the headscarf wrapped around her neck. “It didn’t occur to her that her daughter shouldn’t be wearing that,” Schlussel said. “The possible future first lady doesn’t see that?
“People need to be educated,” she added. “I think they can’t have an excuse these days when wearing that.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
The article also quotes and cites the observant Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, who–as I noted, yesterday–broke the story of the Dunkin’ Donuts/Rachael Ray keffiyeh garb.
Yay! Debbie!
PrincessKaren on May 29, 2008 at 12:37 pm