An Iranian rapper receives death threats, while $100,000 is offered for his head for a song that allegedly insults an Islamic Shiite imam, CNN reports.

Shahin Najafi, who sings in Farsi and lives in Germany, told the German website Qantara that the song "Naghi" is not about a religious figure but about the state of society in Iran.

“I criticize Iranian society in the song. It seems as though people are just concentrating on the word 'imam'," CNN quotes Najafi.

Howevefr, religious figures in Iran accept it otherwise.

"Following the affront by rap singer Shahin Najafi against Imam Hadi (7th Imam of Shias) in a song called 'Naghi', his apostasy sentence has been issued by Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani," Iranian Fars News Agency reports.

Being an apostate or someone, who forsakes Islam, is punishable by death according to Iranian law.

A post on the blog Entegham says Najafi should be sentenced to death, while the Iranian website Shia-Online.ir is offering $100,000 to anyone who kills Najafi. The money is offered by "a philanthropist" in Iran.