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Najafi, 32, who is a German citizen and has lived in Cologne, is astar in his homeland, where he has 200,000 fans on his Facebookpage. He fled to Germany in 2005 after being sentenced to a hundredlashes and three years in jail. But his new song brought theultimate sentence because it is considered an insult to aninth-century Shiite imam, Ali al Hadi al-Naqi, also known as ImamNaghi. Shiites venerate al-Naqi, a direct descendant of the ProphetMuhammad. An Iranian website, Shia Online, has offered $100,000 toanyone who kills Najafi. View video of "Ay Naghi" here. The death threat has roiled Germany's 100,000-strong Iraniancommunity and forced Najafi to cancel all his scheduledappearances. Najafi s fans argue that Iran s mullahs havedeprived Najafi of freedom of speech, a right enshrined in theGerman Constitution, and many have criticized German officials forfailing to denounce Iran over the issue. We asked the foreign minister to make a statement of support forShahin Najafi and for democratic Iranians who live here and tocondemn the fatwa, said Ulrike Becker, founder of Stop the Bomb,a European coalition that opposes Iran s development of nuclearweapons. She referred to the fatwa as a declaration of waragainst our values our democracy. Najafi s song calls on the revered Shia figure to come back andhelp the Iranians with problems like hollow slogans and Chinese-made prayer rugs. The song, which is laced with profanity, includes the lyric: "Iswear to you on bland and hollow slogans; Naghi, I swear on thisshifting flocks of people; They say Long Live in the morningand Death to at night; On the heroes of fictional stories. Najafi was surprised by the harsh reaction. The song was not written to provoke anyone, he told the Berlinnewspaper Die Tageszeitung. I have nothing against Islam. I amnot fighting a religion, but I am fighting this regime. No one hasharmed Islam more than this regime. Najafi claims the regime wants to silence him because he deals withsubjects that are taboo in puritanical Iran, such as sexuality,gays and drug addiction. He knows his career outlook is bleak. I can t continue my work because a singer must appear inpublic," he told the paper. "I can t do that anymore. I wasadvised to leave Cologne, but where should I go and how? Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a senior fellow at the European Foundation forDemocracy and one of Germany s leading authorities on Iran, saidfatwas can inhibit free speech far outside Iran's borders. This strategy is menacing the world, said Wahdat-Hagh. Fatwasare declaring war on the principles of free speech in the freeworld. But Najafi's young fans cannot be silenced, Saba Farzan, aGerman-Iranian journalist living in Berlin, told FoxNews.com. They may be able to arrest many of us for supporting Najafi, she said in a telephone interview. But they can t arrestmillions of us. They see his work as showing how devastating thesituation in Iran is. Wallraff said he knew his life was also in danger while he hidNajafi, but he refused to give in to intimidation. I ignore the threat," Wallraff told FoxNews.com. "Fear is alwaysthe worst counselor. I am an expert from titaniumsheetplate.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Zirconium Pipe , China Zirconium Titanium, Titanium Rod,and more.
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