KINGDOM Discards All Initial Album Copies Due To Album Cover’s Similarity To Islamic Scripture

KINGDOM will recall and discard all 70,000 copies of their initial album with covers that look like the Quran

On September 25th, Kingdom’s agency GF Entertainment released an official statement, saying “We recently received feedback concerning the cover of KINGDOM’s 7th mini album, which was originally scheduled for pre-order on the 21st, bears some resemblance to the Islamic scripture”.

Earlier, KINGDOM unveiled the cover images for the pre-order of their 7th mini album, and some people pointed out that the album cover looked similar to the Islamic scripture Quran. They believed that the use of the Quran, a sacred scripture of Muslims, as a reference for a K-pop album is an insult to the religion.

The agency continued, “KINGDOM is a group that strives to showcase the richness of world cultures through K-pop, with a strong commitment to promoting cultural diversity and coexistence. We deeply regret that this controversy has arisen due to our lack of awareness and oversight, and we acknowledge our shortcomings in this matter”, adding “We offer our sincere apologies to the Muslim community and anyone else who may have felt discomforted by this situation. We will take this opportunity to assure you that we are committed to taking steps to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future”.

According to the agency’s solution, they decided to discard all 70,000 copies of the initial album edition and reissue new versions. Therefore, pre-orders for KINGDOM’s new album will resume at 11 a.m. on September 26th, and the official album release will proceed as scheduled on October 18th. 

Source: Naver