ADVERTISEMENTAlmost 3,000 people have signed a petition calling for Italian designer Roberto Cavalli to scrap the logo he uses on his perfume bottles because of the similarity it bears to a religious symbol.
Protesters accuse Cavalli of replicating a sacred Sufi symbol on his Just Cavalli scent.
2,875 supporters added their name to a Change.org petition started in London.
Earlier in the year, the London branch of the Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism (MTO) registered a cancellation action against Cavalli’s logo with European and US trademark offices.
The MTO, which has its roots in Iranian Shia Sufism and dates back 1,400 years, has several international centres. It owns the copyright on the symbol which it describes as representing “peace, purity and the name of God.”
The Cavalli company denies that its Just Cavalli logo is based on the MTO’s, describing it as “clearly very different.”
Sufi students have held protests around the world including in New York, Washington, California, Dusseldorf and London.
@Roberto_Cavalli our supporters calling to you from #orangecounty#oc#TakeOffJustLogopic.twitter.com/rQTobfescg
— Take_Off_Just_Logo (@Take_off_Logo) June 14, 2014
#TakeOffJustLogo#sufirigths#Vancouver#LA#NY#fashion#design@Roberto_Cavalli hands OFF our sacred logo pic.twitter.com/G8H0NC4AWF
— Majid Doroudi (@doroudim) June 2, 2014
It’s not the first time the designer has offended religious groups. In 2004, Cavalli’s swimwear range featured a Hindu goddess. After a Hindu human rights organisation lodged a complaint, London’s department store Harrods removed the range.
As part of their social media campaign, Sufi followers posted a video online explaining why they are so upset.
More protests are planned in Paris, Vancouver and Milan later in June.