Katy Perry’s latest music video for her track “Dark Horse” has been accused of “portraying blasphemy” by some Muslims.
The video has been criticised in some quarters because it depicts the pop star as an Egyptian queen who then magically disintegrates those attempting to seduce her into sand. According to the BBC , one of Perry’s potential suitors was even spotted wearing a pedant with the Arabic word for God scribed on it.
Because of this, Shazad Iqbal, who hails from Bradford, England, started an online petition asking for the track to taken down from YouTube. Over 65,000 people signed the petition, and their contributions have lead the offensive material to be edited out of the “Dark Horses” video.
Shazad confirmed their victory by informing his comrades, “Guys I’m thrilled to let you all know the name of Allah has been removed from the “Dark Horse” video we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support so I thank each and every one of you deeply, our voices have been heard! God bless you all ???? ???? ????.”
Previously, he had registered his disgust with the creation by explaining, “At 01:15 into the video “Dark Horse”; a man is shown being burned, whilst wearing a pendant (also burned) forming the word ‘Allah’, which is the arabic word for God. Such goes to show, that blasphemy is clearly conveyed in the video, since Katy Perry (who appears to be representing an opposition of God) engulfs the believer and the word God in flames.”
Shazad’s supporters had previously stated that this “ignorance” showed a lack of “respect” towards their religion. After his “peaceful” triumph Shazad noted “by getting everybody talking we have put the message out there that such inappropriate material will not be accepted.”
It’s been a rather hectic few days for Perry. On Saturday she was spotted smooching on stage with Miley Cyrus during the latter’s Los Angeles concert, while on Wednesday rumors started to swirl that she had “amicably” split up from her boyfriend of two years, John Mayer, just weeks after they had reportedly become engaged.
And then later that day she informed her legion of Twitter followers that she had just helped to deliver her friend’s baby in a hopefully sterile living room. The 29-year-old wrote:
Finally you can add “helps delivers babies in living rooms” to my resume! It’s been a miracle of a day…?? Auntie Katy aka Stylist Auntie