Who Is Daud Kim? The Muslim YouTuber Embroiled In Multiple Controversies

To what extent do second chances apply?
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Serah S. Cherrie
Serah S. Cherrie

Content Warning

This article includes descriptions of sexual assault and violence that may disturb some readers.

Kim Jae Han is a successful YouTuber who has been embroiled in controversy since 2020. After his highly publicized conversion to Islam, he became known as Daud Kim.

Daud Kim | @jaehan9192/Instagram

Kim’s YouTube channel was prospering pretty well, with 2.27 million subscribers in 2020, when a shocking exposé left his viewers and the general public aghast. A few months after Kim converted, a foreign woman claimed that he had attempted to rape her while she was asleep, with a video posted on TikTok as evidence. In the video, a man was hurriedly putting on his underwear on the stairs of an apartment while the woman could be heard crying while recording.

The woman, who also belongs to the faith of Islam, posted the video, claiming that the incident took place in 2019. After confronting Kim, they reached a legal agreement where he was supposed to apologize to her for his actions publicly. Kim posted an apology on his Instagram but took it down swiftly, which prompted her to take a step and expose his crime.

In response, Kim posted an apology video, essentially admitting that the accusations were true, but stating that it was a mistake he made in a drunken state. According to his testimony in the video, the woman invited him to her apartment, but he was too intoxicated to remember anything of what happened.

On 27th June 2019, I drank alone at a club in Hongdae, and I met 2 girls there. We talked and exchanged messengers (app). A few hours later, I sent a text to one of them, saying that I wanted to meet her. She gave me her house address and allowed me to come…Because I was too drunk and in a bad condition, she wanted to take care of me. After we talked a bit more, I fell asleep at the sofa and then I blacked out. After I woke up, I remembered somebody screamed and shouted at me. They told me they will report me to the police. I completely panicked so I hurried out of the place.

—Daud Kim

In the 6-minute-long video, he went into detail about the incident, claiming that despite not knowing what had happened, when he heard the victim’s account, he felt guilty and apologized. “She wanted me to apologize. So we met face-to-face on 5th July 2019. I apologized sincerely, and she accepted. There was a document about this, an agreement document,” he recalled. He admitted that he deleted his apology post from Instagram, fearing the backlash.

The woman responded to his claims by posting a series of TikToks, debunking his story, and calling out the South Korean authorities for inaction. She also claimed that Daud was not a faithful Muslim and that he was using the faith as just a way to get more clout on the internet.

Netizens at that time were divided on their opinion regarding the issue, with many suggesting he deserved to be forgiven and others arguing that he needed to be held accountable.

At the time of writing this article, the apology video has been deleted from his YouTube channel, where Kim continues to enjoy a following of 3.65 million.

However, this was far from being the sole scandal of his career as a Muslim YouTuber whose content is based mostly on his faith. There was already skepticism around the real reason for his conversion, many believing that he was taking part in “performative piety,” to use religion as bait for personal gains. These suspicions got further amplified after he was spotted clubbing and drinking in 2021. In the teachings of Islam, these actions are strictly prohibited, and many Muslim viewers felt that his commitment to the religion was not genuine.

He also got embroiled in domestic abuse allegations recently. His wife Mia shared pictures of her bruises from the alleged abuse on social media and claimed that he ran away to Turkey in order to delay the divorce filing process. A TikTok user going by the username @cha_chakju posted videos of him clubbing in Turkey while getting intimate with other women.

Pictures of the bruises posted by Mia online

Recent allegations from multiple social media accounts also claim that Daud Kim entered Mecca, the most sacred place in the faith of Islam, by forging his entry documents. Additionally, there are accusations that the Korean Muslim Association never recognized him as a Muslim.

Despite multiple controversies, Kim’s career has not staggered. He continues to make videos about living his life as a “Muslim” man, traveling through different countries, with each of his videos racking up hundreds of thousands of views. Though many netizens have expressed their disapproval of him, his core following seems to be only growing.

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