Very practical, I wore one through most my early training and then onwards.

I tend to wear civvie coloured ones these days through force of habit.

Look at pictures of UK (and other nations troops) in Afghan and Iraq and you’ll see they are pretty universal with soldiers, we wore them in Europe too in the winter.

I am sad that this item of clothing, which is also somewhat of a cultural symbol in different Arab countries, is portrayed so negatively here (i.e. your photo of a man wielding a gigantic gun). Perhaps it’s because many people around the world don’t know where it comes from and what it means, so I would like to explain.

It has nothing to do with terrorism or toughness. It doesn’t signify whether a person is Muslim or not. It is simply a traditional male headdress which varies in color and style throughout the Middle East.

The red and white is used in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. Plain white or other colors are used in Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
The black and white version is used generally by Palestinians (and some Lebanese/Jordanians), and so unfortunately this scarf has become associated with the political violence in the West Bank, Israel, etc. Thus, fundamentalist militant groups who claim to be in solidarity with the Palestinian cause (such as in Indonesia etc) often wear this scarf.
HOWEVER, it is a source of national pride and culture INDEPENDENT of war or violence. The negative associations are fairly recent and mostly propagated by images on the news.

Thank you.