Austria: divided welcome for Muslim jeans

A new Italian line of jeans designed for Muslims and named after the holy city of Al-Quds has drawn mixed reactions among young Austrian Muslims.

"It is a victory for Islam, to my way of thinking, when clothing makers race to lure Muslims into buying their designs," Egyptian-born student Haitham Abdul-Mohsen told IslamOnline.net Saturday, April 22.

Other Austrian Muslims are not enthusiastic to name clothes after Muslim sacred places like Al-Quds, seeing it as "cheap propaganda" from such profit-seeking companies.

"I'm pretty sure that the company at issue knows well how dear Al-Quds is held by the Muslims," Syrian researcher Samer Ziyad said.

"We have never heard about any products named after the Vatican, Knesset of the 'wailing wall.'"

And he has got a clear message for the Italian company: "Stop exploiting our sanctities and Al-Quds," which is home to Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.

Other Muslim youths said the jeans entrench the stereotype that Muslims were isolationists, who tend to create ghettos or parallel societies inside their respective European countries.
Tunisian-born student Ahmad Salama said Muslims are in no need to specially-designed jeans.

"We can buy baggy jeans flooding the stores," added his colleague Ahmed Basiouni.

Source: Islam Online (English)

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