A photo of a German commuter's bag with Arabic script has caused quite a stir on social media.
The cotton tote bag reads: “This text has no other purpose than to terrify those afraid of the Arabic language.”
A photo of a person wearing the bag was posted to Facebook on Tuesday by the Berlin-based TV and radio journalist Nader Al Sarras.
This bag was spotted today in Berlin. It reads:"The only purpose of this text is to terrify those afraid of Arabic." pic.twitter.com/CwJVq6Oz4R
— Tarek El-Messidi (@Elmessidi) August 17, 2016
The image quickly went viral, and was re-posted by thousands of people. Some thought it was funny. “Sometimes I think Arabs invented the sense of humor,” said Gus Linton.
@Elmessidi @MohamedGhilan @lsarsour @DMogahed @muslemapurmul @FarazRabbani @fawakih Sometimes I think Arabs invented the sense of humor.
— Gus Linton (@guslinton) August 17, 2016
“Someone should take it to Trump’s rally,” another Twitter user said.
But others were irritated by the message. “SMH [shaking my head], always finding ways to disrupt the peace,” Twitter user @ObnoxiouslyKim said.
@Elmessidi @Giomarg2 smh always finding ways to disrupt the peace
— Kim (@ObnoxiouslyKim) August 17, 2016
“So [there’s] no problem if I put on a t-shirt with a picture of Mohamed fucking his teen wife and walk around Neukölln?” said a user calling himself “Gradinko.” (NB: Neukölln is a neighborhood in Berlin where many Turkish people live.)
“Carry bags with swastikas too. It’s just a symbol, right?” another commentator said.
“If you feel terrorized by Arabic then you are wrong,” Niclas Brundell, a student at a university in Sweden responded.
More people seemed to find the message amusing than offensive, though. At least a dozen Twitter users were asking where they could purchase one.
Turns out the bag is sold by a shop in Israel, in the northern city of Haifa, which has a large Arab population:
@CascadiaForever @MaddowBlog To purchase the bag, FB page is: https://t.co/XK6iTf4JYV & the Instagram account is: https://t.co/6eMM61vcsu :)
— Zarah Sultana (@zarahsultana) August 16, 2016
Photos of the satirical bag first appeared online in Arabic back in May.
-Hunter Stuart
