Tunisia hands British DJ jail term for remix of Muslim call to prayer

A Tunisian court on Thursday (6 April) handed a one-year jail term to a British DJ in absentia for playing a remixed version of the Muslim call to prayer.

The DJ, known as Dax J, was sentenced to "six months for public indecency and six months for offending public morality", a spokesman of a court in the Tunisian town of Grombalia said. The DJ has already fled the country.

Charges brought against the nightclub owner and an event organiser were dismissed, but the prosecution has appealed against it, saying the duo had checked what the DJ would be playing.

The development comes after a video showing people dancing to the remix version of the Muslim call to player surfaced on Sunday (2 April), sparking anger.

The music was played by two European DJs near the famous seaside resort of Hammamet, at a Friday night party. The event was part of Orbit Festival in the north-eastern town of Nabeul.

The club was closed soon after people expressed their outrage. "We will not allow attacks against religious feelings and the sacred," Mnaouar Ouertani, the governor of Nabeul, said when the club was shut down.

Earlier in the week, the Orbit Festival's organisers also apologised for the incident on the event's Facebook page. However, they said they did not hold themselves responsible for the disrespectful music that was played.

The DJ "did not realise it might offend an audience from a Muslim country like ours," they said in the online post.

Dax J has also apologised for the incident and said: "It was never my intention to upset or cause offence to anybody."

Tunisia's religious affairs ministry said: "Mocking the opinions and religious principles of Tunisians is absolutely unacceptable."