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Rapper John Gabbana, previously known as Boonk Gang, is trending on social media, but it's not for any new musical releases.
Gabbana went viral on Friday, December 29, after an Instagram post with multiple slides in which he questioned why rappers converting to Islam was becoming a "trend." He reiterated his Christian faith and even claimed that Islam was not the "true world religion."
Netizens had mixed reactions to Gabbana's opinions. Some felt like the rapper was not lying and that the conversion to Islam was becoming a trend. Meanwhile, others criticized Gabbana for condemning people's choice of faith, which is heavily influenced by personal choices.
"Becoming Muslim a trend?" asks John Gabbana
On Friday, December 29, John Gabbana released a series of Instagram posts, with the title post showcasing a compilation of rappers who recently converted to Islam with "Becoming Muslim a trend?🤔" written across the image.
The rapper, who converted to Christianity, a few years ago, seemingly due to a "supernatural encounter" that led him to Christ, wrote under the post:
"Following Jesus FR comes w real persecution. I ain’t see nun of dese ppl get as much hate n rejection as I do for sharing one’s faith."
The rapper stated in a video in the series of posts that he was seeing celebrities converting to Islam like it was a trend. He claimed that it was "cool to be Muslim now."
He asked people what was drawing them to Islam, claimed that there was no "miraculous information" about Muhammad being a prophet, and pointed out that he "didn’t even write the Koran." The rapper said:
"The Koran was gathered and put together 600 years after the events of Christianity. Now, why would we take a document written 600 years later to tell us what happened to Jesus when we have eyewitness testimonies to tell us what happened to Jesus?"
He added:
"It’s called the New Testament. It’s in your Bible. And the Muslim would claim the Bible is corrupt except where it helps their theology. Islam is not the true world religion. Christianity is."
In the following video, he reiterated his faith and stated that he was not forcing his religion on people. In the next slide, he wrote down what he believed were the differences between Islam and Christianity. In the final slide, John Gabbana compared Jesus and Muhammad in a manner that was extremely critical of the prophet Muhammad.
John Gabbana's rant receives mixed reactions online
X (formerly known as Twitter) users had mixed reactions to John Gabbana's posts. Some claimed that he was speaking the truth and stated that Christianity was losing its way while Islam was becoming a trend. Many others criticized John Gabbana for questioning people's personal faith.
Underneath his original Instagram post, Gabbana was on the receiving end of a slew of harsh criticism. Netizens accused the rapper of bashing Islam and started criticizing Christianity in response.
In response to the criticism, Gabbana made another post stating that he was not going to spend time researching another religion when he was devout in his Christian beliefs. He reiterated that he had a supernatural experience with Jesus in his jail cell, which led him to convert to Islam.
He said that he was just trying to reinforce the word of God. In the caption to his post, he asked his critics to "start taking notes" and stop trying to be "da one heard."
