The Fars news agency said Najafi was earlier declared an apostate in a fatva issued last week by Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, one of the half-dozen most senior religious figures in the regime establishment. The punishment for apostasy is death.
The anger at Najafi, 32, is prompted by his latest music video, “Naqi,” which can be viewed on YouTube. The lyrics contain references to the 10th Imam, which many Shias see as irreverent and insulting.
Najafi raps that Iranians are ready to sacrifice themselves with the Imam’s help to solve such problems as “shallow slogans” and “Chinese-made prayer rugs.”
The reward for killing Najafi was announced on shia-online.ir last Thursday. The website said the funds had been offered by a resident of an Arab country on the Persian Gulf.
Najafi’s song cites a number of social issues facing Iran and invites the 10th Imam to return to earth to resolve them. Shia Islam believes that the 12th and last Imam will eventually return to earth in the second coming. The invitation to the 10th Imam is thus seen as blasphemous and the satirical tone of the entire song as offensive to Islam.
In addition, the album cover has been viewed as pornographic. It depicts the dome of the Mashhad shrine of the 8th Imam, Imam Reza, as a female breast.
The German daily Rheinische Post reported Friday that police in Cologne are providing protecting for the rapper. Radio Zamaneh said Najafi has canceled scheduled concerts and public appearances. It quoted him as denying any insults to the Imam, saying, “I am just as critical of Islam as I am of Judaism and Christianity,” hardly likely to be seen as an exculpatory remark in the eyes of the Shia hierarchy.