.

.

My continuing search for the mystic in the muslim world has required a certain understanding of middle-eastern culture trends and the forces that create them. Recently I’ve repeatedly come across these mysterious arabic letters. I’m told by trusted muslim sources that they are appearing in this same form—always the white letters (purity? holiness?) on a red background (jihad?)—with increasing frequency in Islamic nations and represent an infiltrating western concept of “sustenance from an unknowable source” (loosely translated) that is seen by many muslims as an increasing encroachment on traditional values. I’m not sure who’s really pulling the strings behind the movement that subversively reproduces these images, but I know that it’s powerful and far reaching—with cells in many other nations as well.

What could it mean? Why always these colors? Are you literate in Arabic? Can anyone help me decipher them? Is this the gospel of the west finding its way into the east? What are the consequences?