Court Jails DJ For Remixing Call-To-Prayer

A Tunisian court handed a British DJ a one year jail term in absentia Thursday after he played a remixed recording of the Muslim call to prayer, a judicial source said.

Dax J, who left Tunisia after last weekend’s set in the northeastern town of Hammamet, was sentenced to “six months for public indecency and six months for offending public morality”, said Ylyes Miladi, a spokesman of a court in the nearby town of Grombalia.

The court dismissed charges against the nightclub owner and an organiser behind the event in the coastal resort, but the prosecution has appealed saying the two should have checked what the DJ would be playing, he added.

A video of the alleged incident shared widely online since Sunday shows clubbers dancing to music that includes the call to prayer. It sparked a storm of debate on social media.

On Monday, authorities announced they had closed the nightclub.

The DJ has issued an apology, as have the organisers of the event.

Tunisia’s religious affairs ministry has said: “Mocking the opinions and religious principles of Tunisians is absolutely unacceptable.”

AFP