Of Fashion Sense, New Age and Gucci Muslims

Maryam Ismail (ISSUES)

12 May 2009

Muslims are boring. They don’t have any fun. They dress funny. They wear the same clothes all the time. They only shop for food and sandals. How many turbans veils can one buy?

This is a branding brainstorm session. One that was more than likely a part of strategy in winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim world in the war on terrorism.

Finding marketable moments in the tragedy of the attack on the World Trade Center follows along with the idea that it is poverty, and lack of consumer opportunities that were the primary cause of terrorist activity. It is not Islam. It is a simple case of jealousy. Which is why “they hate us.” Characters such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri and anyone who are associated with them are seen as branding spoilers and potential new customers at the same time. Imagine if you could get a Wal-Mart in the tribal areas of Pakistan , a Carrefour in every neighbourhood in Baghdad , and Disneyland in Bahrain . If there should be a limit on the marketeering of global brands and even copies of them, then the world of globalism might collapse even more than it already has.

Back in the 1980’s the British TV show, Good Neighbours portrayed an English couple who grew their own food and generated their own electricity, all to the amazement of their to-the-manor- borne, neighbours. Yet, this often-hilarious sitcom was not a threat to the English way of life. The Muslim ideal of “giving up the worldly life”, is not cute as it was in that British sitcom.

It is thought that most Muslims don’t do much shopping. They don’t wear bright colours; they don the same attire most of the time. Unlike David Beckham, they don’t set style trends, or sport super sexy women along side of them for other women and girls to emulate. Though they do have marketability, their product choices are limited to shalwar khameez and turbans-overall bummers in terms of global 
brands’ marketability.

Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, claimed that the purpose of all human activity was to strive to gain wealth, which fuels the capitalist economy. Not constantly consuming the latest, the new and the improved, will eventually lead to the destruction of capitalism: “It is those who are striving to attain wealth are unwitting improvers of the world.” Or so he thought. He didn’t know what dangerous lopsided globalisation could be.

In the findings of a recent market research study, which wanted to see what were the important factors within the Muslim world of consumerism. JWT-MENA wanted to find out what the Muslim world might want to buy and how to sell it to them. Its parent company, JWT, is the second largest advertising firm in the world, with a 145 year history and links to the US military, was the first advertising company to establish an office in Afghanistan in 2004. There is a lot at stake and the fact that there is also a seemingly untapped new market of Muslims who are not so consumer savvy, but are getting there-albeit not fast enough, and well there you have it, a true basis for war.

JWT MENA’s report found that Dubai was the home of the New Age Muslim. The term New Age, is 
supposed to be a sort of nice title bestowed upon the Muslim consumer, as way of saying, “Hey guys, you are finally just like us.”

You are free from Allah. You shop, you dress like us, and you’ve exchanged your bukhoor for Chanel eau de toilet. Free marketers hoped that Muslim girls would be coming out of their jilbabs, burkhas, and abayas. It has happened, to some extent, but not they’re not exactly Bratz girls yet.

When they started to drop bombs on Afghanistan they thought that burkhas would be flying and every Afghani women would be looking for fashion designers like Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole. They even sent an army of hairdressers and makeup artists. It didn’t work. Also, in this JWT study they found out to their surprise that Muslims chose Islam first and that they were more conservative. One thing, as New Age Muslims are just about to slumber, I hope they wake up out of the stupor and understand what their Native American brothers observed before them at the end of the 19^th century: “One day, the white man will realise that you cannot 
eat money.”

The Turkish munshed, Emrullah Coskun takes it a step farther in his nasheed, Angel of Death, he sings, “Your hair may be jet black or like the fallen snow, you may be a simple man or a Pasha, Know for sure, the Angel of Death will come knocking on your door”.

Perhaps, it’s this persistent thought in the minds of many Muslims that not even the best of Ad agencies, can make them forget-that when a Muslim dies, Gucci, won’t get him into Heaven.

Maryam Ismail is a Sharjah-based
writer. She can be reached at: 
maryam@journalist. com