Fear of Islam and Muslims in the western world is running so high, use of the Arabic language alone has been enough to provoke irrational terror fears. There have been several reports, for example, of passengers allegedly being removed from flights simply for uttering common Arabic phrases like “inshallah,” which means God willing.
Now, some activists and designers are using that fear to poke fun at Islamophobia and the prevailing political climate.
A black billboard appeared alongside the highway heading into Dearborn, Michigan, the city that boasts the largest Arab population in the United States. The name “Donald Trump” is written in English, followed by Arabic script (which reads from right to left) that translates to “He can’t read this, but he is afraid of it.”
Source: Héikal Fawwaz twitter
The Dearborn billboard isn’t the first to employ humor with the Arabic language in order to make a bigger point. Over the summer, two Palestinian designers created a tote bag that went viral after a journalist snapped a photo of someone carrying it in Berlin. The text in Arabic script cheekily reads, “This text has no meaning except to scare people who don’t understand it.”
Source: Zarah Sultana Twitter
