No need to patronize sketchy anti-Islamic sites to get “infidel” hats to wear to your next armed mosque protest – Sears has you covered.
As activist Imraan Siddiqi flagged on Twitter Monday, the big box retailer sells “INFIDEL Baseball Cap Patriotic Hat Arabic” on Sears.com via a third-party retailer.
The hats, which the site shows were added Oct. 12, are listed for $19.98 to $34.99, depending on the color. They are sold by Dreamway Trading, LLC through the legacy retailers’ site.
Reached Monday by TPM, a spokesman for Sears Holdings, the corporation that owns Sears and Kmart, said that after unspecified “feedback,” the company is pulling the merchandise.
“This item is sold by a third-party seller via the Sears Marketplace. Given the feedback we’ve received it is being removed,” the spokesman said in an email to TPM.
The hats appear to have been removed from the Sears site as of late Monday afternoon. Sears Holdings did not respond to further questions about the vetting process for third party retailers. Sears.com offers users a free account to upload their wares, with the company charging retailers a $39.99 monthly fee, plus a commission on sales, to sell through the site.
Conservative groups repurposed the term “infidel” for an individual who rejects religion as an anti-Islam rallying cry post-9/11. Touting “infidel” has remained popular with the advent of anti-Sharia law hysteria, and among the far-right fringe groups loosely united by a penchant for habitually equating Islam, a faith that counts nearly 1.6 billion followers around the world, with violent extremism.
The term has also been embraced in some military circles as an antagonistic middle finger to the enemy in the wars in the Mideast, espoused by brands like Major League Infidel.
According to a guide on terrorism and religious extremism from the Islamic Society of North America, infidel is not a correct translation for Karif, the Arabic word used on the hats.
“Islam does not consider people of other faiths as ‘infidels,’ and does not advocate violence against them,” according to the ISBA.
Similar hats are sold for as low as $2.37 (plus $4.49 shipping) by third party retailers on Amazon.com, with some styles eligible for Amazon Prime two-day shipping.
Sears was among the major retailers who said they would pull Confederate flag merchandise, including from third party retailers, amid the tide of anti-flag fervor sparked after a shooter with white supremacist leanings left nine parishioners dead at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C. in June.
This post has been updated.
