If Rachael Ray had known such a big scandal would start following her Dunkin’ Donuts commercial, she’d surely have chosen her clothing much more carefully. But who could have suspected a simple piece of cloth could lead to such fierce debates?

The strange thing is that Dunkin’ Donuts actually believed that its customers could think Rachael Ray was a terrorist sympathizer, and decided to cancel the ad.

One of the biggest critics of the ad was, of course, the ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, who suggested there should be a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott. Malkin also accused other celebrities such as Collin Farrell, Mary Kate Olsen, or Kanye West, of wearing “hate couture.”

In her column, Malkin explained the symbolism of the keffiyeh, the scarf which Rachael Ray wears in the ad, and the way it was made popular out of ignorance or intentionally.

"The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons," Malkin wrote.

Indeed, making popular a piece of clothing that could promote hatred and terrorism is maybe not such a good idea. But keffieyehs have become a very trendy item of clothing lately, and suggesting that all the people who wear these scarves are terrorist sympathizers means exaggerating a lot. Most of the people who wear keffiyehs have no intention to make a political statement. It is true that people should be better informed so that they are aware about what their clothes symbolize, but it is too much to make such a fuss out of a commercial for iced coffee…

Moreover, these strong protests against keffiyehs could promote fear of Arabs, in a period when this issue is already controversial.