Samsung withdraws ad in S’pore after backlash from Muslim community

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Samsung has pulled an ad in Singapore showing a Muslim mother expressing support for her drag queen son, after backlash from some parts of the Muslim community, the BBC reported.

Several social media users alleged it was “an attempt to push LGBT ideology”.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Samsung said it was aware the video “may be perceived as insensitive and offensive”.

Singapore remains largely conservative on LGBTQ issues, even as local groups call for greater acceptance, the report said.

The ad was meant to promote Samsung’s new wearable products, like noise-cancelling earbuds and a smart watch with a heart rate monitor.

It filmed several participants’ reactions as they listened to heartfelt recorded messages from their loved ones. One of the pairs of participants featured a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf as she heard a message from her son, who was a drag performer.

“You are just unbothered having people looking or judging you differently, having a son that does drag,” he tells her in his message.

The scene sparked outrage online, with some saying it was insensitive to the Muslim community, although others defended it and criticised its removal, the report said.

“We are against the ideology of mainstreaming homosexuality and transgenderism into a conservative society,” one user Syed Dan wrote on Facebook.

“It disrupts the harmony within the Malay-Muslim community”, the report said.

Another user, Muhammed Zuhaili, posted that the video had “surfaced much confusion and questions amongst the (Muslim) community”.

The South Korean tech giant later scrubbed the video from all its public platforms.

“We acknowledge that we have fallen short in this instance,” the company wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Singapore has a minority ethnic Malay community, most of whom – though not all – identify as being religiously Muslim, the BBC reported.

–IANS

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