Rihanna has issued an apology to the Muslim community after receiving backlash for using sacred Islamic verses in a song played at her fashion show.
The 32-year-old singer Rihana’s star-studded Savage X Fenty fashion show debuted on Amazon Prime on Oct. 2. Furthermore, its praised for its inclusivity, featuring models of different sizes, races, and genders.
It is pertinent to mention that praise brings criticism too. Viewers took offense to a portion of the show in which models clad in lingerie danced to a song including hadith in it.
& left y'all STARVIN' đ #SAVAGENOTSORRY https://t.co/hi0g0d3mDh
— Savage X Fenty by Rihanna (@SavageXFenty) October 2, 2020
After the Qur’an, hadiths consider as some of the most important religious texts for Muslims. The Arabic verse used in the song is part of a Hadith about judgment day.
Rihana’s Apology
The Barbadian singer took her Instagram account to apologize to the Muslim community. By ensuring that such an incident would not happen again, and thanked fans for their âforgiveness and understandingâ.
âIâd like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our Savage X Fenty Show. I would more importantly like to apologize to you for this honest, yet careless mistakeâ.
âWe understand that we have hurt many of our Muslim brothers and sisters, and Iâm incredibly disheartened by this! I do not play with any kind of disrespect towards God or any religion and therefore the use of the song in our project was completely irresponsible.â
Chloe – the producer of the song
The producer of the song, Chloe also issued an apology on Monday, after initially deactivating her Twitter and Facebook accounts.
I want to deeply apologize for the offence caused by the vocal samples used in my song âDOOM'. The song was created using samples from Baile Funk tracks I found online. At the time, I was not aware that these samples used text from an Islamic Hadith. 1/2
— COUCOU CHLOE (@coucou_chloe) October 5, 2020
“I want to deeply apologize for the offense caused by the vocal samples used in my song ‘Doom’. The song was created using samples from Baile Funk tracks I found online. At the time, I was not aware that these samples used text from an Islamic Hadith,” she said.
“I take full responsibility for the fact I did not research these words properly and want to thank those of you who have taken the time to explain this to me. We have been in the process of having the song urgently removed from all streaming platforms.”
The singer also included the hijab-wearing model Halima Aden in the launch of her cosmetic brand Fenty Beauty in 2017. Moreover, she promoted Fenty sunglasses last year with a hijabi model.
Netizens’ Reaction
The use of the hadith in the show came as a surprise to many. While some people on social media accused Rihanna of using Islam as an âaesthetic”.
Rihanna is messed up for using a song with a Hadith in it to play at her LINGERIE show. What is up with artists using Islam as an aesthetic?? Have some respect.
— n (@nelirv_) October 4, 2020
Idc how much u Stan Rihanna. If you arenât Muslim you have no excuse of defending her with this situation. Our religion is not your aesthetic. Using Hadith with a music video like that is BEYOND disrespectful. pic.twitter.com/JYBgQlInP4
— sara (@iamsxraa) October 5, 2020
this is the person whoâs hadith is being played as an entertaining song in Rihannaâs show. this is who weâre defending. this is who we look up to when weâre trying to learn kindness and equality. donât ever invalidate us being upset over the man who taught us humanity. pic.twitter.com/IR0g71C3lp
— sania (@PeppyCamila) October 4, 2020
Can you all non Muslims stop invalidating us Muslims. What Rihanna, or whoever was behind that song, did is utterly despicable. The song called "Doom", the hadith used is abt doomsday (judgment day) it was intentional
She's dated a Muslim fgs!!!! & now she's disrespecting them.— GummyBearHo (@atzin81) October 5, 2020
okay the fact that rihannaâs show was supposed to be a keystone for âinclusionâ while she completely alienated the Muslim community by disrespecting a Hadith recitation is the perfect showcase of how fashion brands & the media have never considered us as a part of their audience
— myesha thee stallion (@myeshachou) October 5, 2020
rihanna is responsible for this even if she didnât choose the music. she hired her team and she mustâve heard the songs beforehand and just because sheâs rihanna doesnât give her a free pass to disrespect a religion pic.twitter.com/V2oZErQhOg
— Maria (@selenarules6) October 4, 2020
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