MPHO RANTAO
RIHANNA and her lingerie brand have come under fire on social media by Muslims for her use of a sacred Islamic text in music which was featured in her recent Savage x Fenty fashion show.
The Bajan singer recently held the show on October 2 with the new release of her Savage x Fenty collection, which was hailed for continuing to be inclusive with their featured plus size, racially diverse and LGBT+ representation.
However, while many were celebrating and hailing the singer’s brand, others – mainly Muslim fans and social media users – called out the singer for her use of a song titled ‘Doom’. The song features narrated selected text from the Hadith, a collection of sacred texts which represent the words from the Prophet Muhammad.
The song was played in the background when American rapper Rico Nasty made an appearance wearing an item from the collection.
Fans took to Twitter to call Rihanna out for her lack of knowledge and seemingly blasphemous behaviour, with some calling her act “disrespectful and should be apologised for”.
Rihanna has been consistently praised for her inclusion of Muslim models who wear hijabs in her beauty and fashion campaigns, but she has also faced criticism in the past for her transgressions against the Islam community – namely her infamous 2013 forbidden photoshoot in Abu Dhabi, where she and her team were asked to leave the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.
The song was originally produced and released by London-based producer Coucou Chloe, which contains Hadith text on the signs of Judgement Day and the end of times.
Coucou Chloe released an apology via, explaining that she took that section from another previous song and was not familiar with the narration being from the Hadith.
Other Rihanna fans have come to her defence, noting that the singer’s camp has apologised.
The singer’s camp have released apologies through their Fenty beauty and Savage x Fenty account through responses to fans’ comments, apologising for the use of their song and their lack of knowledge over the Hadith. They affirmed that they were already working to edit and remove the song from the show’s Amazon Prime taping.
Rihanna herself later addressed the criticisms of her Savage x Fenty show via her Instagram story. She wrote, “I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight – moving forward we will make sure nothing like this ever happens again”.
