Nike controversy

Nike caused quite a stir ten years ago when many Muslims thought the fancy "Air" stitching looked very similar to the "Allah". (I vaguely remember reading about this while I was working in Nebraska.)
First, here is the symbol for Allah:

Now here's the back of the Nike shoe:I have to admit that I didn't read "Air" when I first saw the shoes, but that's clearly what the company meant.You can click on the picture above to see them beside each other.

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My students genuinely believed Nike was intentionally insulting Islam. I first had to dispel the belief that Nike was owned - or at least controlled by the US government. Here's a shortened version of my response:

Nike is a private company owned by thousands of investor's. The goal of a company is to make a profit, right? How would they make a profit from insulting millions of Muslims? Nike's goal is to sell shoes. If they thought you were willing to buy pink tennis shoes that went up to your knee they would make pink tennis shoes that goes up to your knee. That's what successful, profitable companies do, they respond to their customers.

Apparently I swayed some opinions. Ann has many of these students later in the day and she said they had come to believe that Nike was not part of a grand conspiracy to insult Muslims.