Mohsen Namjoo (also spelled: 'Namju') is a singer and composer who has been likened to Bob Dylan, wrote the news agency Reuters on 14 July 2009. Currently he is reported to be based in Vienna, Austria.

An unnamed Iranian Koran scholar had allegedly filed a complaint against Mohsen Namjoo for the way he had performed using verses from Islam's holy book on a private recording from 2005. Its recent online release brought it to the attention of authorities, and on 9 June 2009 the singer received a five-year prison sentence in a court in Iran on charges for disrespecting religious sanctities. The scholar accused Namjoo of “an insulting, sneering performance of Koranic verses with musical instruments.”

This was reported by the English-language Iranian television station Press TV and the reformist daily Etemad Melli, among others.

Apologized
Press TV quoted the singer’s brother and lawyer as dismissing the accusation, saying he “did not mean any disrespect.” Mohsen Namjoo had already apologised to the Iranian people for the song in September 2008, allegedly in a letter addressed to his mother, and that he maintains that he was the victim of an ‘unauthorised release’, wrote AFP, Agence-France Press.

Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted a judge as confirming that Mohsen Namjoo was found guilty “subsequent to an investigation of the complaint against him” but he did not give details on the sentence.

In a report posted on its website last week, the semi-official IQNA news agency (Iran's Quran News Agency) named the plaintiff as Abbas Salimi Namin, and quoted him as saying that Mohsen Namjoo was accused of “derisive rendering of Koran verses and disrespect toward” the holy book.

After the sentence, Abbas Salimi Namin was reportedly “very satisfied” and underlined the importance of “defending the sacredness of god's book”. “No one should be able to ridicule it,” he said.

World's worst jailer of media workers
Reporters Without
 Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported in July 2009 that with approximately 40 journalists now in prison, Iran has surpassed China as the world's worst jailer of media workers. At least 30 of the journalists have been arrested in Iran's election aftermath, along with thousands of protestors.

According to Human Rights Watch, Iranian authorities are using prolonged interrogations, beatings, sleep deprivation and threats of torture to force detainees to confess to false crimes, which are often in keeping with Iran's unsubstantiated view that post-election protests were backed by foreign powers.

Mohsen Namjoo was born in 1976 in a traditional Iranian family in Torbate-jam — a small city famous for its Dotar players — but he grew up in the city of Mashhad. His passion for music began in early childhood. At the age of 12, after the death of his father (which affected him enormously), his elder sister and mother decided to send him to singing classes organized by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in Mashhad. He began to study Iranian traditional singing and music reading and writing with Nassrolahe Nasseh-Pour.

At the same time, he was also selected to study in a special school for gifted and talented children, but he took music more seriously, contrary to the wishes of his family. Later on, music took over his life. He persisted with singing for over six years and completed learning the repertoire of Iranian traditional singing with Mr. Nasseh-Pour and became his best student during this period. At the age of 18, he decided to take the university entrance examination in the fields of art and music. For this entrance examination, he also needed to know how to play a musical instrument. He chose the setar, an old Iranian instrument.

In 1994, he was offered a place to study theatre at the University of Dramatic Arts in Tehran and a place for music at Tehran University. Mohsen took the place to study theatre first, as he was told the music course at Tehran University would begin a year later. Becoming familiar with drama and theatre affected him greatly, and later he incorporated what he had learned in that short period towards his musical performances.

In 1995, he eventually joined the undergraduate music course at Tehran University, where he was a student of Mr. Alireza Mashayekhi, Dr. Azin Movahed, and Dr. Khosro Molana. Mohsen also taught himself how to play the guitar and has learned much from listening to Western singers and musicians such as Jim Morrison and Mark Knopfler. In Khorassan, he took lessons from masters of Iranian folk music Haj Ghorbane Soleimani and Alme Joghi.

Mohsen started recording some of his compositions in 2003, in solo settings and with two different bands. He also writes poetry with a unique flair. In his songs, he sometimes uses his own satirical lyrics and blends them with the Classical poetry of Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi. His music and words are very emotional; in his works, he creates an exceptional fusion between various styles from traditional Iranian to blues and rock.

Mohsen has composed about 100 pieces of music, 45 of which have been recorded. These works have been put together in five different albums. Some of these solo works have been recorded as raw material with the idea of being recorded with a band or orchestra in the future.