Most people in the world would love to have a high-profile celebrity like Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter wear their image on his T-shirt to make a fashion statement.
But believe it or not, everyone is on the “Jay-Z is the greatest train.”
A historic Kenya mosque called Lamu’s Riyadha is asking for the Hip-Hop mogul to issue an apology to the institution’s clerics for wearing the shirt in public.
Paparazzi snapped the shot of him while he was out munching in a restaurant in Santa Monica, California.
But they may be barking up the wrong tree.
The shirt was a featured piece by Kenyan designer Zeddie Loky for his blkburd genes clothing brand. He posted it on his Instagram without the rapper even knowing it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJUnaL6BOug/
The Riyadha Mosque shared a letter stating that the management committee and worshippers were left “insulted” by Jigga rocking the shirt.
In very harsh language written in a letter posted on Facebook, the Secretary and Trustee of the Mosque and Islamic Center wrote, “Rest assured, we neither consider it an honor nor a privilege for the Historical Mosque and its Founder Habib Swaleh to be included on the shirt.”
“When wearers of these T-shirts end up in bars, clubs and at all sorts of sacrilegious joints, it is certainly an affront to the spiritual respect and dignity towards all those who revere the Mosque, its Founders, and the General Muslim community within and outside Lamu.”
According to the United Nations’ cultural agency, Kenya’s island of Lamu is “the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa,” noting it has “hosted major Muslim religious festivals since the 19th century, and has become a significant center for the study of Islamic and Swahili cultures.”
Jay has not responded.
But Loky has, stating that only 20 have been printed up and he asked everyone he sold them to stop wearing them. He has apologized and the Mosque has confirmed receipt.