Rihanna faced criticism this week after her b lingerie fashion show featured a sacred song that included Islamic verses. But now, the SavagexFenty Brand boss is apologizing.
During the show, the models danced to a song called “Doom” by Coucou Chloe. The song was released in 2017, and it included a remix of hadith narration about the end of times and judgment day.
The Hadith is a sacred text to Muslims and comes secondary to the Quran in terms of textual authority. The text is a written record of the Prophet Mohammed and his closest companions’ sayings and actions.
The SavagexFenty Volume 2 playlist included the song on Amazon, where the Lingerie Fashion show streamed.
As a result of the backlash, Coucou Chloe apologized for using the sacred text in her song, saying, “I want to deeply apologize for the offense caused by the vocal samples used in my song ‘DOOM.’” She said, “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,” according to CNN.
The singer said that she takes full responsibility for not doing research on what the Islamic verses meant and that she is working to get the song removed from all streaming platforms.
Meanwhile, clothing designer Farrukh Ershad, who is the CEO of a fashion brand inspired by Eastern and Islamic culture called 5ive Pillars, described the song’s backlash as “The collective outrage of Muslims.”
“For us Muslims, Ahadeeth are a sacred scripture and fundamental part of our religion,” he told CNN. “To see a Hadith used in this type of context both by the artist and by Rihanna’s Fenty team was distasteful and disrespectful.”
Not only did people in the fashion industry take offense to the song, but some of Rihanna’s longtime fans expressed disappointment as well.
19-year-old Myesha Choudhury told CNN, “Personally, I felt very disrespected, especially since the show was supposed to be revolutionarily inclusive.” She said, “While I do extremely appreciate how the show showcased all types of races, ethnicities, and body types, I was disappointed that such an inclusive show would alienate its Muslim audience.”
She also slammed the people who said that the Muslim community was overreacting.
“I honestly was not surprised. Muslims are so accustomed to being disrespected in the media, that the community has become numb to it,” she said. “Muslims have been disrespected and mocked in the mainstream media for the longest time, from awful portrayals in TV shows to disrespecting to excluding modest fashion, and I am glad that artists are now being held accountable and learning from their mistakes.”
Fans even flocked to Rihanna’s Instagram post, where she announced the release of her second fashion show, asking her to apologize for the usage of the song.
“Rihanna, I used to cheer you up for everything you did, but today you disrespected my religion, I’m so hurt, you have been too far, you and the girl who made the music have to apologize for what you did, that’s the minimum you can do,” a Twitter user wrote Sunday.
On the other hand, some fans said the song’s usage was unintentional but encouraged the Bajan superstar to issue an apology to the Muslim Community.
“It’s okay to do a mistake, but it’s not okay to not apologize for it, you used a religious verse in your show, and it’s disrespectful for Islam and Muslims. Please remove it,” another user wrote.
Designer Ershad appreciated singer Coucou Chloe’s apology, saying, “I hope a negative moment like this can be used positively, to educate everyone involved about the sanctity of religious scriptures and texts within the Muslim world,” he adds, “with the hope that something like this doesn’t happen again.”
But on Tuesday morning, Rihanna took to Instagram to issue a formal apology, as she acknowledged the unintentional oversight. “I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our Savage x Fenty show,” she said. “I would, more importantly, like to apologize to you for this honest yet careless mistake. We understand that we have hurt many of our Muslim brothers and sisters, and I’m incredibly disheartened by this!” She continued, “I do not play with any kind of disrespect toward God or any religion, and therefore the use of the song in our project was completely irresponsible!” She said, “Moving forward, we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding. Rih.”
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