Iranian Rapper Facing Death Threats
Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 2:16PM
If there was an official list of Jobs Without a Much a Future in Iran, I'm sure we'd find "socially conscious rapper" right to "Israeli fundraiser" and "nuclear scientist who likes to walk unescorted in public."
This is where we meet Shanin Najafi, a German-based Iranian who has gone into hiding after one of his songs was deemed insulting to a Shi'a imam named Naqi.
The song--which is also called "Naqi"--has spurred the creation of a Facebook page featuring people willing to volunteer to fatwa his ass. (Facebook took it down; when they did, it had 600 "likes.")
From The Daily Beast:
Since the song came out May 7 and drew death threats against Najafi, the German government has provided a safe house for the artist, who worries the security is insufficient. “I’m living in a secret place now and I don’t have any bodyguards. My daily life and work have been derailed,” he said in an interview. “Naturally, I continue my own way, but this didn’t make me happy. I have nothing against people’s beliefs. I do my own artistic work.”
In the song, which is “apparently tongue-in-cheek,” the lyrics appeal to the imam to react to a series of controversial events and scenarios, often involving Iranians, says Drewery Dyke, Iran researcher at Amnesty International in London. “None of the lyrics incite to violence or make any direct comment on the personage referred to, Imam ‘Alī an-Naqī, or ‘Alī ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Alī, as he is ‘called on,’ metaphorically, to take action.”
Reader Comments (1)
Since the song came out May 7 and drew death threats against Najafi, the German government has provided a safe house for the artist, who worries the security is insufficient.