One of Egypt’s most prominent singers received death threats after releasing a song mocking the Islamic State militant group and its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Shaaban Abdel-Rahim, one of the country’s most popular Shaabi singers, called Al-Baghdadi the “prince of criminals” and his followers “a bunch of lunatics” while condemnding the group’s practices.
“Religion does not say you should sell women and children,” he sings.
“Decapitation is not in Islam, let us know how much Qatar is paying you,” he says, in reference to rumours that wealthy Qatari individuals may be financing terrorist groups.
A slew of threats started appearing on jihadist-affiliated social media accounts shortly following the release of the song.
“You will not survive if this heretic [Abdel-Rahim] survives, who mocks the prince of the faithful and the caliphate,” read one post by a user with the handle ‘Abul-Ez’ on a Facebook page affiliated with the Islamic State.
Another user with the Twitter handle ‘Salil Al-Sawarim’ also called for the killing of Abdel-Rahim: “A message to the supporters of the dawla [Islamic State], there is an Egyptian singer by the name of Shaaban Abdel-Rahim who insults our caliph in a song and names him the ‘prince of criminals’, bring us his head.”
You can hear the song below:
