Playing the Islamic Call to Prayer (Azan) and Quranic verses has been played by a number of DJs. While many of these DJs meant no harm, little did they know what they were doing was considered heresy. The most recent incident of this occurred when Bosnian-German Producer Solomun played a track that sampled the Islamic Call to Prayer. His set was played Saturday June 7th at the Italian Techno Festival Kappa Futur.
Today, Solomun took to Facebook to issue a personal apology about the incident. He stated that he “unknowingly made a big mistake” and had received the track containing the vocal sample shortly before the show. He goes on to say “I receive countless demos each month. I skipped through the track and upon this first listen I really enjoyed the beat, but hadn’t noticed it contained a vocal sample.”
Solomun’s continued his apology focusing on asking forgiveness from Muslims for hurting anyone’s religious feelings. He stated that “As I am a religious person myself, nothing could be further from my intentions. I am deeply ashamed that this has happened.”
Making the apology was crucial. Previously, other DJ have faced worse consequences from playing religious Islamic excerpts. In April of 2017 DJ Dax J faced charges for remixing the Islamic Call to Prayer, and barely escaped imprisonment.
You can read Solomun’s full apology below.
