A pendant depicting the Arabic word for "Allah" has been edited out of the video for "Dark Horse", the latest single by pop star Katy Perry, following complaints that the video was blasphemous.
A petition was started by Shazad Iqbal of Bradford, and gathered more than 65,000 signatures and hundreds of comments expressing outrage at the inclusion of the pendant in the video. In the petition's introduction, Iqbal explained his problem with the image:
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.
This is the reason for lodging the petition so that people from different walks of life, different religions and from different parts of the world, agree that the video promotes blasphemy, using the name of God in an irrelevant and distasteful manner would be considered inappropriate by any religion
We hope that the video itself depicting such images is removed. Such acts are not condoned nor tolerated, we hope YouTube will remove the video.
Since the petition was launched, the version of the video available to view on YouTube has been clearly edited – the "Allah" pendant has been airbrushed out, with no pendant now hanging on the chain around the character's neck. Following the edit, Iqbal has updated his petition, declaring "victory" for the complainants:
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.
