‘Blasphemy’ in Katy Perry video

A music video by one of the world’s most popular artists has been forced to be edited after tens of thousands of signatures were gathered via an online petition, arguing that the clip was blasphemous.

Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ music video has received more than 30million views on YouTube yet it was the burning of jewellery, which appeared to show the word ‘Allah’ on it, that led to Shazad Iqbal launching the petition on change.org.

CONTROVERSY: The music video to the song, Dark Horse, by Katy Perry has now been edited, removing the controversial scene

He wrote: “The video is considered as highly controversial to its viewers as a result of its portrayal of blasphemy.

“At 01:15 into the video Dark Horse; a man is shown being burned, whilst wearing a pendant (also burned) forming the word 'Allah', which is the Arabic word for God.

“Such goes to show, that blasphemy is clearly conveyed in the video, since Katy Perry (who appears to be representing an opposition of God) engulfs the believer and the word God in flames.

“This is the reason for lodging the petition so that people from different walks of life, different religions and from different parts of the world, agree that the video promotes blasphemy, using the name of God in an irrelevant and distasteful manner would be considered inappropriate by any religion.”

As well as signatories from the UK, people from countries including Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Lebanon and the US, have also added their name to the petition, which had more than 65,000 names.

CONTROVERSY: The music video to the song, Dark Horse, by Katy Perry has now been edited, removing the controversial scene

After surpassing the 50,000 target, the video was edited and the clip removed to which Shazad added: “Guys I'm thrilled to let you all know the name of Allah has been removed from the 'Dark Horse' video we couldn't have done it without everyone's support so I thank each and every one of you deeply, our voices have been heard! God bless you all.”