ISIS Books forced to change name after nonstop sign vandalization

By Patrick Hogan  |  December 29, 2015 | 4:25pm
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For more than 35 years, ISIS Books and Gifts has been the “premier metaphysical source on the world-wide-web and in Denver, Colorado.” But thanks to the Middle Eastern group of the same name, ISIS Books is no more. The terrorists have won the branding war.

The Denver-area New Age bookstore has apparently changed its name after dealing with months of harassment and vandalism with people who associate the word Isis with the English language abbreviation of the terrorist group Islamic State, and not the Egyptian fertility goddess.

In a post on the Denver subreddit, a user commented that a new sign has gone up in front of the store with the name “Goddess Books and Gifts.” The store’s website, isisbooks.com, has also been rebranded with the new logo, although the domain name and text on the site still contain the word ISIS.

The bookstore, which says on its website it is “part library, part apothecary and part temple,” first reported the stores repeated vandalization in a November Facebook post that attracted national media attention.

In a November interview with local TV station KDVR, owner Karen Charboneau-Harrison had trouble understanding why someone would confuse her Colorado store dedicated to omni-spirituality with a religious fundamentalist terrorist organization.

“… I don’t know if somebody walking down the street just saw our name on the sign and kind of lost it for a moment and threw a rock through it,” Charboneau-Harrison told KDVR. “Or if it was an ignorant person who actually thought this was a bookstore for terrorists, I don’t know.”

In a separate interview with Villager Publishing, Charboneau-Harrison had said she planned a new sign to de-emphasize the all-capital letter ISIS part of the store’s name.

“Hopefully, people will get that visual cue, and say, ‘Ah, these aren’t the terrorists,'” she told the Villager.

ISIS Books and Gifts is just the latest to fall in the war on fans of Egyptian mythology. A mobile payments company, a Florida condo, a pharmaceuticals firm and even the fictional spy organization on the TV show Archer have all also undergone name changes.

If only ISIS (the terrorists) could’ve picked a name we wanted to get rid of, like say Terrorists Revolting Under Malevolent Practices. T.R.U.M.P. for short.

 
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