My latest at PJ Media:
If you’re sensitive to overt displays of “Islamophobia,” avert your eyes: the Turkish publication Daily Sabah reported Tuesday that “U.S. rapper and business mogul Jay Z was spotted exiting a restaurant in Santa Monica, California last week.” This would have been a trivial event of interest only to Jay-Z fans had it not been for one all-important detail: “What caught the paparazzi’s and fans’ attention, however, was the T-shirt he was wearing, which bore the image of a mosque.”
The Daily Sabah report explained that Jay-Z’s sartorial choice “featured the Riyadha Mosque in Lamu, Kenya, and was created by Kenyan born-and-bred fashion designer Zedekiah Lukoye, popularly known as Zeddy Loky. Both Jay Z and Lukoye quickly earned praise on social media for bringing more attention to black designers and cultural symbols.”
Not everyone was thrilled by this, however: “it seems that using such a holy symbol as a design on a T-shirt has frustrated the management of the mosque and the Muslim fraternity in Lamu. The Riyadha Mosque is recognized as one of the most prestigious centers for Islamic studies in East Africa.”
“Frustrated” is a mild way of putting it. “Enraged” would have been more accurate. “In a letter dated April 3, 2021, and addressed to Lukoye,” Daily Sabah reported, “the mosque said it was deeply concerned about the portrayal and misuse of the mosque’s image, asking the designer to issue a public apology.”
Abubakar Badawy, the secretary-general of Riyadha Mosque management, fumed in the latter: “We don’t consider this an honor, nor a privilege, for the historical mosque and its Founder Habib Swaleh for its imagery to be portrayed in such a way.”
This wasn’t the first time that Lukoye’s mosque t-shirt had enraged Badawy and his colleagues. “On Feb. 7,” Daily Sabah reported, “a man wearing the same T-shirt in a bar also drew ire from the mosque and Muslims in the county after a photo of him was posted on Facebook.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
mortimer says
Sounds like the mosque would like a ‘cut’ of the proceeds for the use of the image. But such images are not the property of the owners of a building. I am not a lawyer, but I imagine that any artistic design belongs to the artist and that photos of a building are in the public domain.
Michael Gallie says
Since these ragheads think they have the right to tell us what to do, I think everyone should take every opportunity available to offend them.
Alfredo says
The duty to offend these sanctimonious hypocrites is a moral imperative to all free people who don’t have any obligation whatsoever to act like submissive dhimmies to these haters who see nothing wrong when gangs of fanatical murderers enter a village and proceed to sumarily execute innocent villagers for the great crime of being “infidels”
The message to these zealots is an unequivocal one, who do you think you are Islamo-fascists?
David says
Muslims are always on the offensive.
Mount Zion says
I figure if you can turn a church like the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque , built by unbelievers and where unbelievers have worshipped , then it should be a small matter having this prestigious Mosque , the Riyadha Mosque” depicted on a T-shirt . And also , what is more offensive , the Hagia Sophia turned into a Mosque or the depicting of the Riyadha Mosque on a T-shirt ?
It’s never enough with Islam , I thought Moh is the only undepictable , turns out I was wrong .
Andrew Blackadder says
Perhaps a new design for such a T-Shirt would be with a Plane flying into the mosque… that would be cool…
Linda M Gusch says
AMEN!!
Howard Goodman says
I agree with you 100%.
Princess says
The woke brigade is getting a taste of their own medicine, which isn’t always such a bad thing. It might teach them a lesson or two about their own behavior.
Frank Anderson says
Please take some time to read about sociopaths and psychopaths. They do not learn. They do not care. All they want is their way. There is no other way. I found one example at the suggestion of another comment here, the book Without Conscience, by Robert Hare, to be helpful in seeing the futility of expecting evil people to feel shame, embarrassment or remorse, or to seek to reform and repent their evil. They are happy with themselves, seeing themselves as “perfect” and us as nothing more than trash and victims.
gravenimage says
Sadly this is often the case, Frank.
And grimly, Jay-Z has flirted with the Nation of Islam before:
https://english.alarabiya.net/life-style/entertainment/2014/04/07/Jay-Z-wears-symbol-linked-to-anti-white-Nation-of-Islam-offshoot
Michael Gallie says
Not likely. Those people have no connection to what the rest of us fondly call reality.
Howard Goodman says
Exactly.
Oren says
Considering that islam is conquering africa, and slaughtering, raping and bringing back slavery to millions of africans, to serve an arab master, you would think some black americans would stand up to them, but mostly, black americans are A bunch of chumps, hating whoever the billionaire owned media tells them to hate. In G-d I trust.
David says
What is worse than a muslim? A black muslim. They have a chip on each shoulder.
Dieks62 says
Exactly: those black muzzies are about the lowest on the IQ chart of creatures, next beside their slightly lighter toned deadcult brother sandrats on this planet!
Lisa says
#DrawMohammed daily
May 20 is #DrawMohammed Day
#ReligionOfPeacemyass
gravenimage says
+1
James Lincoln says
Jay-Z was trying to be hip, cool, and “with it” while wearing his mosque pictured T-shirt – it is jolted back into the islamic version of reality.
I’ll bet anyone here a “C-note” that he never wears that T-shirt again…
Princess says
He and his wife are known to be part of the celebrity woke brigade, I bet that he never imagined to get the push-back from the side that he actually sympathizes with.
gravenimage says
Yep.
Ken Johnson says
Can anyone tell me of anythng other than rape and murder that is not offensive to an Islam.??
It’s offensie to look one in the eye, it’s offensive to mention Islam in the papers, it’s offensive to transpot a mummy that has hair showing, etc. Ken
gravenimage says
Muslim Leaders Enraged, Demand Apology as Jay-Z Wears T-Shirt with Image of Mosque on It
……………..
Does it matter that Jay-Z was likely being pro-Islam here? Of course not…