# Do Other Religions See Holy Images In Potatos Too?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 13, 2000, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448 "2000-07-13T16:17:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Drogulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Drogulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drogulus)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2000, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448/21 "2000-07-14T12:51:21Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by TomH \*  
> \*\*Muslims tend to see Arabic words of some religious significance, often the name of God or of the Prophet or the opening words of the Koran. \*\*

A few years ago, there was a story in the papers about a Muslim in California who claimed that the markings on the side of his pet fish formed the Arabic characters for ‘Allah’.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2000, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448/22 "2000-07-14T15:19:06Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by soulsling \*  
> \*\*  
> I’ve never heard of a Buddhist seeing anything in a potato other than potato, and i’ve never heard of a Jew seeing anything in a matzoh ball other than some parsley flakes. \*\*

Actually a Zen Buddhist would tell you there was no potato, or rather, what do you see in the potato does not matter so much as what you don’t see in the potato.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dystopos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@Dystopos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dystopos)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2000, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448/23 "2000-07-15T01:30:02Z")

</div>

[QUOTE]  
\*Originally posted by The Ryan \*  
\*\*

> [@](#):
>
> Do you have any evidence for this claim? \*\*

Only visual evidence. It certainly looks arabic-flavored to me. I can’t vouch for the resemblence to the word “Allah” in particular, but in my book, if it looks like Allah to a Muslim and looks like Arabic to me then I would believe readily that it seemed like a cool thing to do to the designer, who may never have diculged his intention to his superiors who know better than to admit to any intentional defamation. The above stated is my opinion only.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448/24 "2000-07-15T21:53:27Z")

</div>

I remember that story. The script was indeed stylized. Perhaps a bit too much.  
Now I don’t like Nike any more then anyone else for their explotive practices (both in urban USA and Asia), but I’m inclined to believe their explanation - I don’t think they’d have been that stupid.

The logo was the word AIR in flaming letters. Nike was distributing these world-wide, they were not targetting Muslims. Since people have seen “allah” in a sliced tomatoe, I’m inclined to chalk this up to religious hysteria.

Here’s an article on it:  
[http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~eden/personal/articles/nike\_building\_playground\_at\_islamic\_center\_to\_atone\_for\_allah\_logo\_on\_sneakers.html](http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~eden/personal/articles/nike_building_playground_at_islamic_center_to_atone_for_allah_logo_on_sneakers.html)

Here is an AP photo of the sneakers in question.  
[http://www.theeunderground.com/Features/allah\_ap.jpg](http://www.theeunderground.com/Features/allah_ap.jpg)

Here is a site which has some amusing sightings of Allah:  
[http://people.goplay.com/mist91/index2.html](http://people.goplay.com/mist91/index2.html)

(something tells me Arabic script isn’t sufficiently redundant…)

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-religions-see-holy-images-in-potatos-too/25448.md?page=1)