By It’s the cup that launched a thousand ships… The new Starbucks cup, created in the spirit of Christmas, has become a controversial topic among many who fear that it is promoting Islam.
How?
“The giant coffee chain is calling this year’s monstrosity the ‘unity’ cup… Hmm, what else is unified… ISIS!!?! The unified caliphate of the Islamic State?!”
The Huffington’s Post article, “Starbucks Cup Controversy Prompts Bizarre Link to Islam,” featured a Twitter user’s two cents on the topic as he attempted to compare the Starbucks cup to the Arab League symbol, insinuating that there is no difference.
Other Starbucks customers, who are no fans of the new design, have even gone as far as accusing the company of creating ties with the Islamic State because of the design of the logo on the cup.
The article also featured William Hick’s personal views on the questionable cup as he stated, “The giant coffee chain is calling this year’s monstrosity the ‘unity’ cup… Hmm, what else is unified… ISIS!!?! The unified caliphate of the Islamic State?!”
Really, people? Why are we trying to over analyze the true intentions of the message this cup is trying to promote? Starbucks clearly stated that the new design and symbol represents unity, and that is the only message customers should be getting from the design change.
But this isn’t the first time the company has had to defend the message it’s trying to promote on it’s coffee cups. Last year around this time, Starbucks was accused of not supporting the image of Christ and Christmas on their coffee containers. By plastering just a simple shade of red on last year’s cup, customers declared World War III, claiming the franchise dumped the “Christmas spirit” within its products.
Really, people? Why are we trying to over analyze the true intentions of the message this cup is trying to promote?
After analyzing last year’s Christmas cup controversy and this year’s current “brew” brouhaha, let us take a minute and try to answer this question: Why is it when Starbucks fails to represent a religious holiday on their cups, that is justified anger — but acceptable; but when it is falsely thought to represent Islam, all of the sudden there’s no justification, the company is considered a sell-out to Islam, and the country is being taken over y extremists? Would you like a shot of Islamophobia with that latte?
Let’s get something straight, customers! Starbucks is required to maintain a neutral position (except maybe when it comes to the support of Israel’s illegal settlements in Occupied Palestine — but that’s a whole different article on BDS we should explore.)
Meanwhile, customers like Joshua Feuerstein mentions, “Starbucks isn’t allowed to say Merry Christmas to customers,” but still continues to believe that they’re promoting a message against Christianity and Christmas. In his Facebook video that he posted, he even goes to the extent of asking his followers to not boycott the company, but to tell the barista that their name is “Merry Christmas” so they are forced to invoke the Christmas spirit despite the company’s decision to remain neutral during the holidays.
Very funny, Feuerstein, but so not original. Muslims who go to Starbucks have been playing around with baristas’ abilities to pronounce foreign names by giving them Arabic words and Muslim phrases for a while now. So, if you’d like to join in the fun while waiting for your “Islamic State” cup to be called out to you, go ahead and tell them your name is “Mashallah,” “Inshallah,” “Allahu Akbar,” or “Bismillah.” (Note: Please do not seriously do this. We understand that it is a safety risk, and this is pure sarcasm.)
I mean, if their policy is to yell out a name to inform you that your drink is ready, and people think the company has gone Muslim, let’s have fun with it while it lasts. (Note: Still sarcasm.) Tomorrow, the cup may change again, confusing the company for something else that people are uncomfortable with — like anti-occupation, or something crazy like that.
This whole issue arose due to PC gone wrong, they never should have change the cups in the first place. Yes Christmas is a designated “Christian Holiday” but in reality for a vast majority of people it has nothing to do with the religion – it is Santa Claus – Reindeer – Frosty The Snowman etc it has been comercialised as a tradition.
Set your porky body on fire, Muslim filth and burn in hell.