Islamabad-based singer and musician Abdullah Qureshi’s announcement that he is quitting a professional career in music for ‘religious reasons’ got a lot of mixed responses from the internet.
The singer announced his decision to quit music through an Instagram post after a brief social media hiatus. Acknowledging his absence, he told his followers that he had ‘pressed the pause button’ for a while in an effort to ‘find who he is, where he’s headed and who he wants to become’.
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“I want to take a moment to announce my exit from the music industry as I have decided to stop doing music as a full time profession. I took this decision purely because of religious reasons,” he said, adding that he has had a great time playing concerts and making music, as well as ‘facing controversies and making wrong decisions. “But I believe that the actual purpose of life is way bigger than this,” he wrote.
The singer had been accused of harassing women by sending untoward DMs on Instagram a year ago. He had apologised for the incident saying that he owed his daughter an apology too, and that he had settled the incident with his wife, and they were happy now.
However, his recent departure from music has been met with criticism from some people.
Singer Natasha Baig voiced her concern on his announcement, saying that citing ‘religious reasons’ for quitting music paints other musicians who are still making music in a bad light.
2/2 Your act might be something which Islam never appreciates but music is divine and it has nothing to do with any sinful act unless you are unable to control your nafs and nafs can become a problem in any profession.
— Natasha Baig (@imnatashabaig) October 6, 2022
“So please go ahead and congrats on your awakening but do not make us look like villains in the process,” she said, adding that music is ‘divine’ and has nothing to do with any ‘sinful act’.
Another Twitter user commented that it was a ‘typical Pakistani male’ thing to take refuge in religion after being exposed for something wrong.
Abdullah Qureshi a well known harasser has left music industry solely for religious reasons (after being exposed of sexual harassment). Lmao typical Paki man taking refuge in religion
— tea. (@chaii_rusk) October 6, 2022
love that men can just choose god and religion after fucking around, harassing women and everyone just forgives them
— hoziers hoe🌈 (@la9at) October 6, 2022
https://twitter.com/stonerchakka/status/1578066473272090626
