The Kenyan designer,Zedekiah Lukoye has apologized over an image of Lamu’s Riyadha Mosque.
The move follows uproar from the mosque’s management after American rapper and business mogul Jay Z was recently spotted wearing one of the designers T-shirts.
Zedekiah Lukoye, popularly known as Zeddie Loky, the chief executive officer of Blkkburd Genes, a firm based in Los Angeles, California that printed the T-shirt, said he was sorry for using the famous Riyadha Mosque portrait for the firms collection.
In the letter sent to Riyadha Mosque and Islamic Centre Secretary General Abubakar Badawy and privy to nation.africa, the designer confessed that he was unaware, during research and design stage, that the portrayal of the mosque on their T-shirts would end up in sacrilegious joints.
Mr Loky goes ahead to appreciate the mosque management for bringing the matter to their attention.
“In this respect, we are willing to make this right with you. We will make sure to remove all the inappropriate portrayal of Riyadha Mosque Lamu on our T-shirts,” Mr Loky says in the letter.
He further explains that they had alerted their friends and family who received the T-shirt design to respect the dignity of the mosque, its founder-Habib Swaleh, and the general Muslim community “by not wearing it in bars nor clubs if they happen to decide to wear it.”
He says that their intention was in good faith and in line with the company’s mission of educating people around the world about history using various art designs.
Mr Loky promised to frame the entire collection and put it at the museum for exhibition, “to bring awareness of their work in order for them to continue appreciating what the company does.”