Playing the Islamic Call to Prayer (Azan) and Quranic verses has been played by a number DJs. While many these DJs meant no harm, little did they know what they were doing was considered heresy. The most recent incident 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 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.