This recent online ad for Dunkin' Donuts featured Rachael Ray wearing the scarf that sparked the controversy. (Dunkin' Donuts/Associated Press)

Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring celebrity chef Rachael Ray after criticism from conservative U.S. bloggers over her choice of scarf.

Ray, while promoting an iced coffee, was wearing a black-and-white scarf, similar to the kaffiyeh, a scarf commonly worn in the Middle East.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez once donned a kaffiyeh in a gesture of solidarity with Palestinians.

Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, argued that Ray should not be wearing such a scarf because, they said, it has come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism.

The kaffiyeh "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad," Malkin said in her blog last week.

"Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant [and not-so-ignorant]fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons."

In the spot, Ray wears the fringed scarf loosely around her neck, while holding an iced coffee and standing in front of trees with pink blossoms.

Ray, host of the Food Network television program 30 Minute Meals, has been a representative for Dunkin' Donuts since March 2007.

The chef issued a statement saying the silk scarf, which has a paisley design and was not checked as are most kaffiyeh, was chosen by a designer.

Dunkin' Brands Inc., which owns Dunkin' Donuts, withdrew the spot, which appeared on its website and other online sites, and issued a statement saying "no symbolism was intended."

Malkin welcomed the decision, saying, "it's refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists."

Amahl Bishara, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Chicago who specializes in the Middle East, said complaints about the scarf reflect a misunderstanding of Arab culture.

"Kaffiyehs are worn every day on the street by Palestinians and other people in the Middle East — by people going to work, going to school, taking care of their families and just trying to keep warm," he said.

"I think that a right-wing blogger making an association between a kaffiyeh and terrorism is just an example of how so much of the complexity of Arab culture has been reduced to a very narrow vision of the Arab world on the part of some people in the U.S.," Bishara added.

With files from the Associated Press