Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Eid, Best Buy Snafu
by Sheila Musaji
Best Buy wished a Happy Eid to customers in a Colorado ad for Black Friday (which will be Eid this year) in a small bubble in the ad. In fact, it is so inconspicuous that I needed to look at the ad for some time in order to actually find it. However, this kind gesture set off a firestorm of craziness. While, I don’t understand the raging anti-Muslim vitriol, and downright ignorance of some of the posters, I do understand those that were concerned that only one holiday was being acknowledged. It looks like the ad did not say Happy Thanksgiving, and in previous years Best Buy had made a decision to only say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas in their ads. It is unfortunate that what seems to be a change in policy on the part of Best Buy, and a copy reading snafu, involved the Muslim community and turned into yet another opportunity for blaming Muslims. I think it would be a wonderful thing for all holidays to be acknowledged. For example, my local Target has a large display of Channukah merchandise including menorah’s as well as a section of Christmas items - and that not only doesn’t threaten me, it makes me smile.
Best Buy immediately issued a statement on their forum:
“Thanks for sharing your point of view regarding our recent ad, which included a wish for a “Happy Eid al-Adha”.
Best Buy’s customers and employees around the world represent a variety of faiths and denominations. We respect that diversity and choose to greet our customers and employees in ways that reflect their traditions.
We do use the word “holiday” in some of our advertising because it is meant to be inclusive to everyone. However, just as we have in the past, we will also reference specific holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in our weekly ads, store signage and other advertising vehicles.
We encourage our employees to interact with customers naturally and feel free to wish them a Merry Christmas if they are celebrating that holiday. Thanks again for your feedback.
~Elizabeth
Community Supervisor
Best Buy® Corporate “
But that doesn’t seem to have made any impact and there are still calls for a boycott of Best Buy, and angry comments being made on the Best Buy site as well as many other sites. The story is everywhere on the net, and the comments, as always, are a sad commentary on the level of animosity directed towards the Muslim community.
Here are just a few of the comments:
“Please elaborate. As someone said above, when is the last time someone said “Merry Christmas” in an ad in the US? I can’t remember the last time. Now, Best Buy is acknowledging a holiday that the terrorists do before wishing all of us in their homeland a Merry Christmas. I’m pretty sure there is not a Best Buy store in the Middle East, so why make these people who are at war with us and who killed close to 3,000 of our fellow Americans 8 years ago happy? I remember the newfound patriotism that everyone in America had post 9/11. I see where that is heading now, electing a Muslim president and having happy Muslim holiday ads in our holiday circulars.” From Freep.com
“It’s preposterous, who cares about this eid? We celebrate Chanukkah or Christmas and I accept any Hindu or Buddhist holiday, but no headbanger celebrations. Man i am so sick to death of the liberals love affair for a child raping, child molesting, mass murdering, racist, genocidal homosexual physchopath named mohammed… Enough of this vile bullshit Boycot Best buy..” From Jihad Watch
“WTH?? This PC crap is KILLING THIS COUNTRY. ENOUGH ALREADY!! How bout Happy SATAN DAY. BUNCH A FRICKEN MORONS.” From Free Republic
“It makes perfect business sense NOT to acknowledge and celebrate a holiday that three out of four people don’t celebrate, especially in light of the American people’s view towards Islam and Muslims in general…”
On the Best Buy forum itself:
“Anything to make a buck. I’m sure the only reason Best Buy is posting a Happy Al-Adha is to attract muslim shoppers. What they don’t realize is how many shoppers are going to go elsewhere to shop because of this. I for one will no longer shop at Best Buy, ever. I think there are plenty of other option available. I’m not sure what message is being sent to our troops overseas by Best Buy. Wrong choice at the wrong time. We don’t need to water down a traditional American holiday (Thanksgiving) by including anything else. If you’re muslim and living in this country, you should be celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday.”
“I agree with you. My beef is with Best Buy saying no the “Merry Chrstmas”, not mentioning Happy Thanksgiving (not a religious holiday) and then saying it is okay to extend a greeting to someone else. I am not against the greeting itself or non-extremist muslims. I am against discrimination and Best Buy is commiting it.”
”“Makes sense. Stop saying Christmas because you dont want to be associated with Jesus, and instead associate yourself with goat sacrifice. Truly noble. I think ill go to Best Buy with a dead goat.”
I will be celebrating Thanksgiving today, and celebrating Eid tomorrow, as will most American Muslims. And, for those who are so distressed about this, they will be pleased to know that our holidays move forward by about 11 days a year on the solar calendar, so next year we will be celebrating this Eid that much earlier.
I think that this would be a good time to send a comment to the folks at Best Buy and let them know that the gesture is appreciated, and that as Muslims, we would hope that all the coming holiday celebrations will also be acknowledged - Christmas, Channukah, and Kwanzaa.
Here is the contact us page for Best Buy so that you can thank them for their ad http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat12104&type=page
Customer Service, Web Site, Store and General/Corporate Inquiries
Best Buy Corporate Customer Care
P.O. Box 9312
Minneapolis , MN 55440
1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289)
Media Inquiries
Best Buy Public Relations Department
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Phone: 612-292-NEWS (6397)