In 2010, a Quran was published that showed a six pointed star on the cover. When a private retailer imported the book to Algeria, the country went crazy. The government declared that the symbol on the cover “is not in keeping with the general ethics of the state”. The importer was accused of “disrupting public order.” Algeria’s parliament blamed the religious affairs minister for the debacle.
Eleven years later, Algeria does not seem to have gotten over its hexaktinoasteriphobia (fear of six pointed stars, a word I just coined.)
Last summer, some Algerians were up in arms about perceiving a Star of David on the dome of the new Grand Mosque of Algeria, with conspiracy theories galore on social media.
Now, they are mobilizing to fight their latest enemy – imported pencils.
Algeria’s Eshorouk Online reports, “The phenomenon of dumping the Algerian market with products bearing Jewish and Talmudic symbols continues to spread from time to time in our country by some importers who neglect the control of the quality of what they import.”
An importer brought in a shipment of colored pencils that had a decoration of a six pointed star.Some bookstores and school supplies stores in one of the western states [sold] boxes of colored pencils with the Star of David symbol.The Directorate of Education urged students not to acquire these pencils and called for not using them in order to sensitize and raise awareness of the conflict of this type of supplies with the Algerians’ faith and religion.In turn, the Directorate of Education of the Wilayat of Al-Tariq carried out the same procedure and wrote to the directors of educational institutions across the state through a dispatch sent by the Education Department under No. 26/M/T/2021.The letter stated, “It was recorded that there are colored pencils in school supplies stores with a symbol of the Star of David. This product is Chinese-made and imported by the “M.S.L. and LLC of Al-Baraka and Al-Ghazal, located in the Wilayat of Oran.”The Directorate of Education asked the principals to take appropriate measures by sensitizing students to the meaning and danger of the symbol, and to withdraw these boxes, if any.
The funniest part is that Muslims have used six pointed stars as decorative motifs for centuries. Which makes it even more clear than before that the fear that Algerians have towards the symbol is pure Jew-hatred.
(I had no luck finding a picture of the actual pencils. I’ll update if I find them. H/t Yosef for the “H.”)
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