Mosque design backfires
Publish date: 12 April 2021
Issue Number: 917
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Religion
A US-based designer has apologised for using a portrait of a historic mosque in Kenya's island of Lamu on a T-shirt worn by celebrity Jay-Z. BBC News reports that Riyadha Mosque's leaders had objected to the shirt which could be worn on ‘sacrilegious joints’ like bars. ‘We have accepted the apology letter because it was done in good faith,’ said Abubakar Badawy, the secretary general of Riyadha Mosque and Islamic Centre. Designer Zeddie Loky produced the shirt to promote Lamu, a Unesco-listed World Heritage site and the 19th-century mosque is a top tourist attraction. It has manuscripts dating back to 1837, and is one of the oldest continuously functioning Islamic teaching institutions in East Africa.
