Pop star Rihanna has apologized to the Muslim community after she was criticized for using a song at her fashion show that included a sacred Islamic verse.
What happened:
- Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty fashion show debuted on Amazon Prime on Oct 2.
- The event included models of different sizes, races and genders.
- At one point, models danced to a song that included audio of someone reading the Hadith, which is “the holy narrative of the Prophet Mohammad that is deeply revered by the Muslim community,” NBC News reports.
Rihanna issued an apology soon after.
- “I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our savage x fenty show,” Rihanna wrote in an Instagram story. “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!”
- “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! Moving forward we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Thank you for your forgiveness and understanding.”
Coucou Chloewrote, the song’s artist, also apologized on social media for what happened, according to USA Today.
- “I want to deeply apologize for the offence (sic) caused by the vocal samples used in my song ‘DOOM’ “ Coucou Chloewrote. “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.”