Sears pulls 'kafir' cap from shelves after complaint from Muslim activist

Council on American-Islamic Relations confirms dept store has stopped selling the baseball caps

US Department store, Sears, has decided to stop selling a baseball cap bearing the words 'kafir' and 'infidel' on its website after a Muslim activist complained about it.

Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Arizona, tweeted about the cap bringing it to the attention of the department store. “Instead of buying your "Infidel" hat from fringe websites - you can now get from Sears?” Siddiqi wrote in his tweet.



https://twitter.com/imraansiddiqi/status/656116228650463232/photo/1

He also questioned whether Sears was “becoming the official outfitter of armed mosque protestors”.

Is @Sears becoming the official outfitter of armed mosque protestors? pic.twitter.com/iImWxrtdRO

— Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) October 19, 2015

Sears responded promptly, saying, “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are advising our online team and requesting they review this 3rd party item.”

@imraansiddiqi Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are advising our online team and requesting they review this 3rd party item

— Sears (@Sears) October 19, 2015

CAIR confirmed in a Facebook post that the “infidel” cap which had been sold at Sears website by a third-party seller, had been removed.

“We thank Sears for its prompt action in dealing with this issue and hope the controversy sends a message to other major corporations that they should closely monitor their product lines so as not to inadvertently assist in the promotion of bigotry,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in an email sent to The Daily Caller.

“Anti-Muslim bigots should not be allowed to monetise their hate,” Siddiqi added.



According to CAIR, the words 'kafir' and 'infidel' are commonly used by the nation’s growing number of Islamophobes as a provocation directed at American Muslims. The word “infidel” originated in Latin and means “a person who does not believe in a religion that someone regards as the true religion,” according to Merriam-Webster. The word “kafir” is an Arabic word which means “a person who is not a Muslim.”

Siddiqi also tweeted asking everyone to thank Sears for listening to the oversight and correcting it.

Also, everyone please thank @Sears for listening to the oversight and correcting it.https://t.co/RAmzJOcuaI

— Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) October 19, 2015

The “Infidel” cap is still available from several third-party Amazon sellers including SevenBros, Zeckos and CafePress.