In 2007 I can remember being pulled into a school assembly thrown especially due to a news event. The Head of Year, a Christian of relatively open mind, organised us into the hall for an urgent message.
A British teacher in the Sudan had been jailed. Protestors in the city ordered for her death. Lashes were on the cards.
Her crime: blasphemy
The crime: naming a teddy bear after a pupil, who had the most popular first name in the world. That name was blasphemous as it was also the name of the Islamic prophet.
It took a special envoy of two of Britain's Muslim MPs to sort out the fiasco in a country where slavery, genocide, racism and poverty are rife. Moving on...
Misinterpretation
I am no fan of Nicki Minaj at all. In fact, I could probably blog about how her career has been from her surreal image more than lyrical and musical capabilities. However, fuore came about from a 2009 (before she was signed/mainstream) track called 'Beam Me Up Scotty'.
The lyrics to this song are as hotch-potch as any from the clearly mentally 'different' songstress. But it was these lyrics which got the juices flowing 'Where the fuck is Akbar, give him the keys and tell him valet my car'.
First of all, as a singer whose political message and philosophy is non-existent, I don't think Minaj has any particular qualms on any religion. Many in the hip-hop industry, such as Akon and T-Pain, are Muslims, so it is a no-go zone in rap as much as racism.
Second, the Muslim God is Allah, described as 'Akbar' (great). Christian God is known as the almighty, but the word is used all of the time to describe others, as either pompous or as a sign of affection. Akbar is itself a Muslim first name. In America, Arab immigrants are often stereotyped as having valet/taxi driving jobs. I'd heard it said that this Akbar was a chauffeur of Minaj's rival Lil Kim who had quit his job, which would make a lot of sense. But it's up to you to check that. And who insults deities by telling them to chauffeur them? Had Minaj directly insulted Allah, her neck would be on the block. That would be fucking stupid, especially in such a nonsensical song.
Backlash
Groups on Facebook promoting this hatred have made racist insults to Minaj, and believe me, racism is ALWAYS worse than religious hatred because race is a) non-ideological and b) unchangeable. Apart from the predictable references to the oldest profession, there were also ridiculous allegations of Masonry and Illuminati (q.v)
However, some users were unexpected bright sparks. They said that there was not enough evidence of who Minaj was referencing to, and that also only Allah could judge her and not humans.
It came at a time also of a similar allegation against Barcelona striker David Villa. Villa had been hit by Real Madrid's Turkish midfielder Mesut Ozil, and similar to the 2006 Zidane headbutt (when allegations of isults to Islam were spoken of and debunked by Zidane himself), the Internet sought the answer from unreliable sources. Ozil's 'twitter account' said that Villa had insulted Islam, which was eventually debunked when it was revealed that Ozil dis not have a Twitter. But that has fallen on deaf ears to some people... http://www.thecheapseats.ca/2011/08/david-villa-made-a-racist-by-fake-twitter-account.html
Playing like that is libellous, slanderous and just disgusting to the emotions of Villa and his family. The story was barely scratched by REAL news outlets. It was nothing but the work of trolls and the backlash could have been so severe. Don't believe everything you read. Keep an open mind, think of fallacies and bias. Have rationality.
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