Arabs Protested : Firm Stops Sale of Anti-Shiite Slogan Shirts

An Arab-American group Wednesday won its battle to halt sales of T-shirts that it says degrade the Shiite Muslim religion.

Loco Shirts of Northridge on Wednesday told its 12 retail stores in Southern California to stop selling shirts imprinted with the slogans and to ship them to the company’s headquarters, possibly for disposal, a company spokeswoman said.

The $8.95 shirts, rated as better than average sellers, came in two forms. One ahead: “We’ve had enough of your Shiite.” The other said: “We’re not going to take any of your Shiite.”

“That is really derogatory and it offends the Moslems in Los Angeles who are Shiites,” said Hind Baki, assistant coordinator of the Los Angeles chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The shirts were produced during the recent incident in which 39 Americans on a TWA flight from Athens were held hostage for 17 days, from June 14 to June 30, by Shiite extremists in Beirut.

Baki led the group’s effort, which began in late July, to ban sales of the T-shirts through letters and phone calls to Loco Shirts stores.

‘People Wanted to Lash Out’

“When this hostage crisis came, people just wanted to lash out at someone,” Baki said. “The T-shirts contributed to racism and it hurt people here who feel they’re Americans.”

Peggy Newton, a partner with her husband in Loco Shirts, said she pulled the shirts from shelves because the group’s complaints were not worth weathering. She said sales of the shirts dropped after the hostages returned from Beirut. She estimated that most of the stores sold 10 to 20 of the shirts a week during the hostage crisis.

“I wasn’t going to fight with them because it’s not a big item. It’s not worth my time and effort,” Newton said.

“I did not realize that Shiite was a religion. I felt it was a race or class of people,” she said. “I didn’t do it to hurt anyone. I only do it to make a living.”

The anti-discrimination committee had been seeking a meeting with company officials, and, earlier Wednesday, threatened to picket Loco Shirts if sales were not stopped this week.

The committee said it has about 20,000 members nationwide and about 2,000 in the Los Angeles area. It held a news conference June 27 to condemn the taking of hostages from TWA Flight 847 and to protest violence and threats instigated against Arab-Americans.

“We’re trying to change the stereotypes of Arabs in the American media,” Baki said.

Shirts Removed From View

Newton said she was not aware of objections to the shirts until two weeks ago, after receiving a letter from the anti-discrimination committee.

At the time, she told store clerks to remove the shirts from public view and instead keep samples of the slogans in a display book customers use to pick out other catchwords, including sexually suggestive ones. Customers select a slogan and a store employee presses it onto a T-shirt, dress or hat.

Newton said that it was too early Wednesday to estimate her financial loss from the sales ban but that it would not be significant.

“I can’t understand their objection,” Newton said. “Just as they have the right to tell me how they feel about the shirt, I have the right to sell them.”

Newton said that, during the hostage crisis, the hottest-selling T-shirt read: “Free the hostages. Send Rambo to Beirut.”

Once the hostages were released, Newton said, the big seller had emblazoned on it: “It’s not too late to retaliate. Send Rambo to Beirut. Remember TWA 847.”