A British DJ was sentenced to imprisonment for a year in Tunisia after he played a remix of the Islamic call to prayer in a nightclub that many found offensive to religious sentiments, The Guardian reported on Friday.
Dax J, who has now left Tunisia after playing the derogatory remix last weekend, has been charged with public indecency and offending public morality, said Ylyes Miladi, a spokesman for the Tunisian court.
A video, widely shared online since Sunday, shows clubbers dancing on the weekend to music that includes the call to prayer at the club in the northeastern town of Nabeul.
The footage sparked a storm of debate on social media following which the authorities ordered the closure of the club immediately.
“We will not allow attacks against religious feelings and the sacred,” Nabeul governor Mnaouar Ouertani had said.
The party, near the popular resort of Hammamet, had been organised by two European DJs who said they were unaware that the music would offend religious sentiments of the people.
“Dax J is English and played the track recently in Europe,” they said, adding that he did not realise “it might offend an audience from a Muslim country like ours.”
Dax has also apologised for playing the record. “I want to offer my sincere apologies to anyone who may have been offended by music that I played at Orbit festival in Tunisia on Friday,” he said.
“It was never my intention to upset or cause offence to anybody,” he added.
