Gap Praised for Response to Racist Graffiti; Iran and Turkey Call for Syrian Cease-fire; Amanda Knox Retrial Winding Down
MALVEAUX: So Gap is actually being praised for how it responded to a racist attack. This is on one of its holiday ads. This is what the ad looked like before it was vandalized. It features a Sikh American actor wearing a turban along with a female model. Now, it was seen and Sunday it was posted in New York City subway's system. The caption reads, "Make love," followed by the Gap logo.</s>HOLMES: And there's the "after" shot and you can see what the vandal did to it, the person changing the caption, "Make love," to, "Make bombs," and right under that, someone else it appears also wrote, "Please stop driving taxis." Now the senior editor at TheMuslimGuy.com posted it to his Twitter account. What happened was Gap moved really quickly, responded, thanked him for flagging it.</s>MALVEAUX: And then to show solidarity for diversity inclusion, the company, Gap, changed its Twitter background to the picture of the original ad. So I want to bring in Arsalan Iftikhar to talk about -- he's the founder of TheMuslimGuy.com. And so you post this, the vandalized version, on your Twitter account after seeing it on Facebook, and then it goes viral. Explain why this was important to you to post it in the first place.</s>ARSALAN IFTIKHAR, FOUNDER, THEMUSLIMGUY.COM: Well, Suzanne, you know, first of all, my first job in high school was at the Gap, and so I've always been interested in their advertising campaigns. And, so, one of my Facebook friends, a photographer named Robert Gerhardt in New York City, took this photograph in the Bronx at a subway station by his house, and I saw the racist graffiti, saying, "Make bombs," you know, alluding to the Taliban, and, "Please don't drive taxis." And I thought, Well, this sucks. And so I wanted to share it with my 40,000 Facebook and Twitter followers. And Gap responded immediately, directly to me. I've been in contact with Gap corporate. And the response from them has been remarkable, especially changing their Twitter background photo to the Sikh model. And you know it, really shows they are dedicated to inclusion and diversity. And this is just a perfect example of how special media and the Internet can be used for good things, as well.</s>HOLMES: I suppose like most racist acts, this was ignorant, as well, I mean, sort of trying to relate the Taliban with somebody who is a Sikh, clearly not the same. I mean, what is -- this was one incident, too. Don't want to make it too out of control here. But what does that indicate to you, especially in a city where I think a third of the population is from somewhere else?</s>IFTIKHAR: Yeah, you know, Michael, I think it's important to keep in mind that this also speaks to our traditional American notions of what is considered beautiful. You know, I want to live in an America where a brown, bearded man wearing a turban is considered as beautiful as you know, a blonde-haired white woman in lingerie might be. And so I think that this sort of goes to what we as Americans consider to be beautiful, and you know, in a multicultural, diverse country like the United States, I applaud the Gap for including more multicultural, more brown models in their advertising. I hope many more companies will take that route, as well.</s>MALVEAUX: And Arsalan, how have people responded to you and that fact that you've put this up on social media? Have you gotten people who are ignorant like those who put on the vandalism, the graffiti or has it been mostly positive?</s>IFTIKHAR: You know, Suzanne, the response has been overwhelming. To be honest, I could not even imagine this would become international news. But Gap and myself, we've received tens of thousands of messages on Twitter and Facebook, thanking us for pointing this out, showing solidarity with the Sikh model whose name is Waris Ahluwalia, who is actually an actor and a fashion designer. He's been in movies with Luke and Owen Wilson. It really has been a wonderful, wonderful outpouring of support for the Gap and for the social media campaign. And I truly hope that will -- whenever people see any sort of racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic statements made anywhere on social media, that they'll share it with their friends to let people know what's going on out there so that we can make America a better place for all people.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, noble aims, hopefully successful, too. Want to thank you, Arsalan Iftikhar, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com.</s>IFTIKHAR: My pleasure. Thank you.</s>MALVEAUX: The governments of Iran and Turkey are calling for a cease- fire in Syria before the international peace talks begin in Geneva. That is happening next year. At issue is how to end the country's civil war which began back in March of 2011.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, more than 100,000 dead people so far in that conflict, a majority of them, innocent civilians. Now, Syria's foreign ministry says it is going to send a delegation to the talks. It is still unclear which opposition groups, if any, will take part. The opposition outside the country says it will go along, but the Free Syrian Army, the guys who are doing the fighting on the ground, well, they don't support the Syrian representatives outside of the country, so they say they're not going to go. The spokesman for the FSA says that the international community has not lived up to previous promises, such as aid delivery, prisoner releases from al-Assad's jail. They don't see the point. They're not going to go. So even if some sort of by-miracle resolution happens at those Geneva II talks, the guys on the ground doing the fighting say they're not buying into this.</s>MALVEAUX: Not going to happen. And now to Rome, the Italian senate, it has now expelled former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from parliament. That is effective immediately. Now, that is because of his tax fraud conviction. Berlusconi was sentenced in august to four years in prison, but his punishment was commuted to a year of community service. Well, he was banned from holding public office, as well for two years.</s>HOLMES: Stunning. Many, many years that man has not been in parliament. Amanda Knox's retrial, winding down, this in Florence, Italy. She, of course, he American woman accused of killing her British roommate back in 2007, Meredith Kercher, when they were exchange students.</s>MALVEAUX: Prosecutors demanded a 30-year prison sentence for Knox in their closing arguments. The defense attorneys are going to sum up their case. That's going to happen in December, with a ruling that is expected in January. Now, Knox has been living in the United States since her original conviction was overturned. That was back in 2011.</s>HOLMES: Her family attorney says there is a chance the Italian government could request her extradition if she is convicted this time around.</s>MALVEAUX: And, of course, we're keeping you posted on the weather, your Thanksgiving travel, as a nasty winter storm trying to mess things up for a lot of travelers there. Two live reports straight ahead on what you can expect if you are flying or driving.