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Feb. 10 2021, Updated 2:23 p.m. ET
You're probably wondering why the words "Nessa Barrett is cancelled" are floating around on social media. Countless fans have been flooding the TikTok star's social accounts with harsh comments and insults after she shared a video that came off as completely tone-deaf and particularly insulted the Muslim community. And even though she tried to apologize, fans think that it was far from genuine.
So, what did Nessa do to get the fans so upset? Here's a breakdown of what happened.
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Nessa Barrett shared an offensive video of herself dancing to the Quran.
The 17-year-old shared a short clip of herself and her friend dancing provocatively to a man's recitation of the Quran. The two were all smiles and giggling as they danced, treating the audio more like a club song. And to add insult to injury, Nessa captioned the TikTok "fave sound."
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Nessa has since deleted the TikTok and apologized.
She took down the post and did a live video to apologize and explain how it happened. Apparently, she and her friend were trying to brainstorm new ideas for her page until she stumbled upon the video of a guy singing the Quran.
She said, "We were trying to think of ideas for TikToks and scrolling on my page and I saw a video of an old guy singing something. I didn’t understand what he was saying, but I really thought it was the cutest thing."
In an effort to justify her actions, she said, "My step-siblings, like my step-mom is from Egypt and all that stuff, so… I know that it could have been taken offensively. I just want to apologize for anyone who took it that way and was offended, I think… I'm sorry to anyone that practices that religion."
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Fans are definitely not accepting Nessa's apology.
Fans weren't satisfied with how the teen addressed the issue because her words didn't seem genuine, especially since she said "I think I'm sorry." Muslims took it as a sign that she doesn't fully understand the gravity of the situation and has no intention of educating herself.
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Even those who don't practice the religion found the video insensitive, claiming that it was uncomfortable and uncalled for. As a result, fans are unfollowing and claiming that they've lost respect for the TikTok star.
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Is Nessa Barrett Muslim?
This actually isn't the first time that she's had drama with the Muslim community. In a previous TikTok from 2019, she claimed to be Muslim. However, she can be seen singing along to a worship song about Jesus while video's caption reads: "I'm Muslim, and I oop." Some believe that she only meant this as a joke, but even so, followers have pointed out that it was problematic and very insulting to Muslims.
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Fans were quick to bring this up after she apologized for her dancing video. They mentioned her previous claim of being a Muslim and how she talked about people in her family practicing the religion. So now, fans are finding it hard to believe that she couldn't understand the words of the Quran.
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Nessa gave one last apology, but the fans still aren't buying it.
Perhaps she took notice of people's reactions and decided to give her apology another shot, just to show that she is, in fact, sincere. In her statement, she said: "I'm truly sorry and sincerely apologize for my actions. I'm still only a teen and am learning while being watched by millions."
But even that apology backfired, because quite a few fans called her out for trying to play the victim card. Though she claimed that she's only a teenager and that she's being watched, people have pointed out that she's old enough to understand that what she did was wrong.
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Nessa's boyfriend Josh Richards also commented on the backlash.
Fellow TikTok star Josh posted a video with Bryce Hall and defended his girlfriend. He explained, "[Nessa] was like 'I had no idea even what it was, I just thought it was like, someone singing, so I just thought I'd do a dance and I thought that would be funny.' ...She didn't know," he said with a shrug.
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But it turns out that, like Nessa, Josh didn't understand the video either. He continued, saying, "I'm gonna be honest, personally, I had no idea what it was either when I first saw the video, I didn't know that was the Quran."
After slightly butchering the name, he mentioned that he felt really bad for struggling to pronounce it. Bryce responded with: "That's f---ed up... You should just know religions dude." Honestly, we couldn't agree more.
