Muslim t-shirt designers take a smack at American ignorance

 mens t shirt"There are almost 1.2 billion Muslim people in the world.At least 15 of us are not terrorists," quipped Obaida Abdel-Rahim,28. "It could even be more than that. Maybe even a lot more." TheCalgary, Canada-born Abdel-Rahim owns the Muslim t-shirt businessPhatwa Factory, one of several Middle Eastern-accented t-shirtbusinesses to spring up in saucy retort to the outpouring ofanti-Muslim sentiment since 9/11. From Rootsgear's "100 percentRandomly Searched at the Following Airports" andcasualdisobedience.com's "Enemy Combatant" tees, to the lighter"Lebanese Princess," and "Allah's Little Angel," they are gettingtheir message across. Abdel-Rahim, who now lives in Gainesville, Florida, said he hopesto use humorous slogans to bust US stereotypes about Muslims. "The best thing to happen to Muslim clothing since pants under athawb [traditional men's robe]," says a slogan for Phatwa Factory,which he started in 2006. "I'd like Muslims to know that it's okay to laugh," he said, "andnon-Muslims to know that we have a sense of humor." Dalia Ghanem had a similar idea. The New Jersey-born,Egypt-descended clothing designer dreams up hip t-shirts for peopleof Arabic heritage. She decided Arab-Americans needed a moreoptimistic representation of their culture after 9/11. "Every store that sold t-shirts was selling 'Everyone loves anAsian girl,' 'Latin girl,' 'Italian' and 'Irish Girl,'" said the29-year-old Ghanem, who develops prints and patterns for a New Yorkfashion company. "I wanted one that said 'Everyone loves an Arabgirl!'" So she designed one, launching her one-woman t-shirtat.co (theArabic plural of "t-shirt") in 2004. Abdel-Rahim named his company to poke fun at the typical USinterpretation of fatwa. "Most people hear fatwa," he said, "andthey think of Don Mohammad Corleone issuing a hit on some poorinfidel." Just as the Western media has misappropriated the word jihad, Abdel-Rahim asserted, the word "fatwa" has become synonymous withan errant death sentence. In reality, he pointed out, it's just anIslamic scholar's religious ruling. Neither Ghanem nor Abdel-Rahim has received any deadly fatwas as aresult of their irreverent designs. "I'm a little disappointed,"Abdel-Rahim joked. "I was kind of hoping for at least a deaththreat or two." Some observers approve of the t-shirt humor, seeing it as a signthat Muslims are successfully being integrated within Americanpopular culture. The brand of humor cultivated in this casual wearisn't to everyone's taste, though, particularly those who feelcloser to the political problems in the Middle East than they areto the discrimination faced by Muslims trying to live in NorthAmerica. "I don't feel [the tee shirts] are derogatory," said 20-year-oldRosalind George, a US citizen raised in the Palestinian section ofOccupied Jerusalem, "just a little gimmicky." She complained thatthe shirts seemed too Americanized. "I'd prefer a 'Free Palestine' shirt to an 'I heart NY-likeshirt,'" said George, who lived in Occupied Jerusalem while herfather worked for the aid organization Save the Children. She did like the shirt printed with "Yallah, bye" ("Let's go,bye"), a common saying used among her friends.