Nike Says Offensive Shoe Logo Has Been Booted

The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded Wednesday that Nike Inc. apologize for using a logo on athletic shoes that resembles the word “Allah” in the Arabic script.

Nike said the logo was meant to look like flames for a line of shoes to be sold this summer with the names Air Bakin’, Air Melt, Air Grill and Air B-Que.

The company said it caught the problem six months ago, long before the shoes went into production. A new logo separates the “A” in “AIR” from the “IR,” Nike spokeswoman Vizhier Corpuz said. The council insists, however, that the shoes have been seen recently in stores.

“We absolutely regret any misunderstanding, and we regret that this appeared in retail stores,” Corpuz said at Nike headquarters near Portland.

“Allah” is Arabic for God, used by Muslims and Christian Arabs to refer to the deity.

Houston Rockets star center Hakeem Olajuwon, a Muslim who endorses another brand of athletic shoe, told Nike president Tom Clarke in a letter that the logo offends Muslims.