Iranian-British Singer Releases Pop Ballad ‘You Shine’ Praising Qasem Suleimani

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Qasem Suleimani, the senior Iranian military general killed in an American drone attack in Baghdad last January, was actively involved in terrorism on a global scale. Suleimani exported terrorism and fueled sectarian violence for decades, causing the deaths of thousands of people.

Since 1998, Soleimani had led Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in planning and executing terrorist attacks and arming the Iranian regime’s proxy fighters in a half dozen countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Soleimani personally directed and provided arms to Iranian-backed terrorists in Iraq for more than a decade. His most recent plans before he was eliminated were attacks on U.S. coalition forces in Iraq, including the December 31 attack on the US embassy, where written on the wall was “Soleimani is our leader.” With Soleimani’s support and lethal assistance, the IRGC-QF targeted and killed more than 600 Americans between 2003 and 2011.

President Trump tweeted after the elimination that Suleimani was planning to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Despite all this evidence, Suleimani was a popular figure among Iranians and many mourned his assassination in various ways. It is hard however to hear an expatriate British Iranian extolling Suleimani in English, and even claiming that he “tried to make the world a better place”. Yet this is the gist of a pop ballad released by Hassan Tavakoli who describes himself as an Iran-based “native British voice-over artist, narrator, singer, lyricist and photographer with a cause to speak and spread the truth through art”.

“Since you left, I must confess, the world has become a total mess,” Hassan Tavakoli croons on the track, adding in the chorus: “Oh, how you shine like a constellation in the sky! Oh, how you shine in the minds of nations that hold you high!”

Tavakoli adds that Suleimani extinguished “the flames of terror far and wide” and helped “countries to reclaim their land that was occupied”. Realizing that Suleimani was not viewed in a positive light by countries affected by his belligerent actions, Tavakoli adds that “People will remember you as a hero, though the powers that be will picture you as a foe.”

Critics were quick to respond to the controversial lyrics

“This is sickening. This man was a murdering savage,” said one Twitter user.

“The song is the “equivalent of Justin Bieber praising Osama bin Laden”, another user tweeted.

Iran has pledged to avenge Suleimani’s killing as it marks a year since the January 3rd 2020 assassination.