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Why NCT’s latest MV isn’t offensive: a thread by an Arab muslim.
When these two teasers dropped, people lost their shit saying that they were posing in a mosque (first pic) and that they were standing on prayer mats w their shoes (second pic). CA and islamophobia accusations were flying around and i haven’t really seen people listen to us
these are mosques. notice how, regardless of their size, they have a pillar with the crescent moon (islam’s symbol) at the top. they also usually have domes and islamic writing in them.
THIS is an islamic building, because it has writing on it from the quran. any other building that resembles it but has no religious writing on it or the features of a mosque is NOT a mosque, it’s just a building with MENA architecture.
here’s is a bathroom and three living rooms all using middle eastern/north african (MENA) architecture design. notice how this kind of architecture is used anywhere?? just because it is used in religious buildings and monuments does not make it exclusively religious.
if we look at the teasers again, we see that there are MENA architectural influences but no religious writing. you can also see from shotaro’s picture that this is not a even a building it’s lowkey like a gazebo. so in conclusion: this is NOT a mosque
On to the carpet: here are some prayer rugs used by muslims. Notice how they’re small and meant to fit one person?
here, all seven of them fit on the combination of persian carpets. these are literally just big carpets you can find literally anywhere in a home. so no, they are not dancing on a prayer mat.
lastly we have this. now i’ve seen people say he’s mocking/imitating how muslims pray, but we do not pray with our hands clasped. our prayers are complex sets of steps and if we have a prayer/wish to make we lift our hands up to pray. the lyrics say to put your hands together+
and make a wish, hence why they repeatedly put their hands together in the mv and choreo. i’ve seen people also mention how this may pertain to SEA culture, but since i am not south east asian i cannot speak on their behalf on this topic.
i’m making this thread because i couldn’t believe how many non muslims and non MENA people were dragging nct abt smth they clearly know nothing about. Why would you go out of your way to speak over us? why would you use our culture and/or religion to fuel your fandom wars?
it is beyond disrespectful to spew random CA accusations bc you don’t like the group. i really don’t care what you think abt nct bc this goes beyond kpop. culture and religion are important and scared topics. anyone who made comments abt these things just to make a group look +
bad is clearly insensitive and does not actually care. if you cared abt this being an issue you would do more research before accusing. some people are quiet when the middle east and north africa are being destroyed in wars and when muslims are being killed as i type this, but+
wanna be loud if it means they can cancel a group or see some twitter drama. literally fuck whoever thinks that way. if you really care go focus on the bigger things affecting my people. ALSO, the notion that anything related to MENA culture is also muslim is very harmful, +
especially to people from the MENA region who are not muslim (and there’s a lot of them)
and to the muslim and MENA non nctzens who pulled the “this is offensive” card to start fanwars; are you proud? using our religion and culture for fan wars? do you even care abt our people? are you not ashamed?
that’s all i want to say, if anyone read this thread entirely thank you so much. i am sick and tired of all the misinformation abt MENA culture and Islam, so thank you for reading this. Let’s all just appreciate the beauty of our architecture in the MV instead of all this mess
!!! (SEA oomfs and non oomfs add on to this if you’d like to add more info!) https://twitter.com/smoljungwoo/status/1316162706685083648
i’m loving these keep em coming you guys https://twitter.com/lovieatte/status/1316215549261615104
seeing as how this blew up i’m letting anyone who sees this know you can feel free to use this thread and link it whenever you wanna educate someone on CA regarding MENA and islamic culture!
