The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ayatollah Golpayegani has issued a death fatwa against 31 year old rap artist Shahin Najafi for apostasy. Shahin’s rap entitled Naqi is deemed to be ‘offensive’ to a Shia imam. The Fars press agency (which is a government mouthpiece) has announced the ‘establishment of a campaign to execute Shahin Najafi’ who lives in Germany.
What utter nerve.
The German government and EU should issue a warrant for Golpayegani’s arrest. Rather than promulgating arrest warrants for dissidents and free thinkers like Hamza Kashgari, INTERPOL can then promulgate the arrest of a real criminal.
Is that really too much to ask?
As the late Mansoor Hekmat has said:
…No one took Mr. Khomeini to court for issuing a death fatwa against Salman Rushdie; notwithstanding that inciting to murder is a crime in all countries of the world. And this is only a small corner of a network of murder, mutilation, intimidation, abduction, torture, and child abuse. I think that the Medellin drug cartels (Escobars), the Chinese triads, and Italian (and American) mafia are nothing in comparison to organised religion.
Here’s Shahin’s rap:
Go on Shahin Najafi’s Facebook page and click ‘like’ to support him.
Now another “moderate” country is showing its dark green underclothes.
Turkish Atheist pianist faces charges for Twitter comments
The list is growing. The fascist courts are getting busy.
Support Fazil Say.
I have a question that has been bugging me for a while now. This man was in Germany when they called for the death penalty? Did he actually live there? Even if he didn’t live there, the fact that he wasn’t in Iran should mean that the death penalty should only be valid if he returns or the German government force him to return, right?
So what about the US with the freedom of speech? If I chose to write a very religiously offensive blog and translated it to arabic and posted it somewhere that someone in Iran could see it, could they charge me with the death penalty even though I am in the US under the protection of freedom of speech?
Now don’t get me wrong, I would in no way actually do this. This would be an analogy for any artist or writer or pretty much anyone with an opinion that could be offensive in another country.
Shahin is a refugee in Germany so they are issuing a death fatwa from Iran against him there. There are many such cases but Salman Rushdie is the most prominent. Khomieni issued a fatwa against him who was a British citizen.
So is there any way that Iran or any other country could charge someone who is not a citizen of that country? Especially for a crime like offending a religion?
Sabrina,
A fatwa is not like a criminal charge issued by a government. In a criminal charge for someone overseas who is not a citizen of your country, charges will be filed, their extradition to the country where your charge is issued will be requested, they will be flown in, charged, tried in court, and either indicted and sentenced or vindicated. All of this depends on whether the country the charged person is in agrees to extradite them. A fatwa, on the other hand, is not issued by the courts, such that they could arrest or try you. It’s a religious edict given by a religious figure. The “sentence” in this case would not be enacted by the court, but by anybody who chooses to follow the fatwa. In other words, it’s murder, plain and simple.
We shouldn’t wait for governments to do something. The best thing we could do is to organize a large demonstration and show that we are disgusted by fatwas (death sentences) issued by Mullahs. We need to show them that for each death sentence they issue, there will be consequences. They must not feel free to do whatever they like. We must get out of the internet and go to the streets and show them that we exist and they should feel threatened.
Mina Ahadi is organising something in Germany and I will be sure to post translations on blog. We do need to do something. Definitely. I think it’s good to put pressure on German government to protect Shahin but also to issue an arrest warrant for the mullah who made the threat. That would be a good start.
I absolutely agree!! These criminal religious bullies should be brought before a legitimate court and answer the charges brought against them, and face real jail time, as do war crime perpetrators (unless they are named Dick Cheney, but that is another matter entirely).
Our MIA friend reminds me very much of Neo-Nazis: they can’t justify the holocaust, so they deny it.
I know you’re having a field-day with this news. You may have even called it God-sent 😉 but I am sorry to inform you that the news is hoax, just like the Egypt so-called “necrophilia law”. So I am sorry that you can’t once again denigrate 1 billion human beings but to be sure crazies will send you (their “secular” counterpart) more material soon…
That is a lie. The death fatwa is real. And your claim that she is denigrating “1 billion people” is also a libelous lie. In case you didn’t know, Najafi is one of the one billion.
Now can you please take your mendacious trolling elsewhere?
I’d suggest you be more honest in your defence of Islamism. Rather than denying facts, why not defend the apostasy fatwa? It is interesting that you see the regime of Iran as a representative of 1 billion people – many of those people will disagree. Now there must be some SWP meeting you have to rush off to?