We would like to thank Justin for his support and kindly suggest that he cancel his upcoming concert in Jeddah. The team at Rosie & Beirut would like to send a sincere thank you to all Jeddah citizens who kindly replied to our post expressing their anger at this concert and hoped that you would understand our feelings. The true spirit of Islam is based on peace, tolerance and social harmony. Nobody knows what will happen in Saudi Arabia tomorrow. We hope that everything will be peaceful and we won’t attack our fellow human beings. This is our message to Justin Bieber: Turn your planned concert into your show of love and give us the hug we deserve. May Allah protect our sisters and brothers in Saudi Arabia!
Today, the fiancée of a Saudi Arabian journalist who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul wrote a letter to the pop star directly asking him to cancel his Saudi Arabia concert.
Erika Lummus, who was engaged to writer Jamal Khashoggi, received a public letter from the singer’s team asking her to “please understand why we cannot officially communicate with you now.”
In the letter, obtained by The New York Times, one of Bieber’s representatives described recent security concerns with Khashoggi, including “imminent threats to the safety of you and your team from individuals known to Saudi authorities.”
The letter was in response to a social media post Lummus put up Monday, requesting that Bieber cancel his Saudi Arabia concert scheduled for November, due to the ongoing Khashoggi murder controversy. Khashoggi’s fiancée called the humanitarian issues surrounding their August 22 wedding “more important to us than a concert.”
Khashoggi was a Post columnist who wrote about Saudi Arabia, but before he disappeared, Khashoggi was critical of the Saudi regime and its image among his native nation’s Muslim public. Khashoggi was never heard from again, having visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. His remains were later discovered by intelligence officers, after Turkey claimed he had been murdered and mutilated.
Watch a powerful video showing the outpouring of backlash from Saudi citizens over Bieber’s concert planned for November 21:
Read the full story at The New York Times.
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