By Janet Smith
Producer Cry Lehlaka only realised the serious error of judgment which DJs Tea and Kay had made on their latest hit house mix when he received a bomb threat.
The sound of the Muslim prayer known as the Ayat-ul-Qursi had "simply appealed" to them, so they had lifted a version of it and used it as part of their new House Therapy compilation.
But it wasn't long before Lehlaka, operations manager at the popular House Therapy production house in Pretoria, was taking calls from Muslim fans furious at the apparent blatant exploitation of a sacred verse.
"There was only one person who threatened me with a bomb," Lehlaka said, "but most people who phoned were angry. We honestly didn't realise how serious the lyrics were, so we immediately promised to take the song off the CD, which is what we have done."
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Lehlaka has since been on community radio station Channel Islam to set the record straight, and was scheduled to go on SABC1 last night to emphasise the unbiased position of his production house to Muslim house music fans - and the Muslim community.
"We had gone to see an Islam expert and he explained that we were not supposed to use the prayer in this way," Lehlaka said on Friday. "Now the people have been very understanding and we've removed all the offending lyrics."
The debacle has cost House Therapy dearly, as the company has had to recall hundreds of discs. But it appears both potential legal action - and bombings - have now been averted.
Suraya Dadoo, of the Media Review Network, said: "We accept that they did not realise that this was an important verse from the Qur'an."
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Argus on December 08, 2007
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