Some think that the best defense is a “killer” offense

Samir Khan is a devoted jihadist who blogs viciously against America out of his bedroom in his parents’ home in North Carolina.  Apparently being a devout Muslim, though, hasn’t insulated Samir from the sin of theft (a small sin, I agree, compared to arguing for the violent overthrow of your country).  Thus, Samir hotlinked multiple images from The Jawa Report.  That kind of bandwidth theft doesn’t go unnoticed, so The Jawa Report set up a sting. Sammy didn’t take the sting well, and responded with the usual:  death threats.  Yup, he’s set up a devout prayer to God (no doubt with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink to his readers to help out) to kill Dr. Rusty Shackleford, who is The Jawa Report’s proprietor:

Jazakullah Khair to everyone for informing us of what the enemy of Allah, Rusty Shackleford aka mypetjawa (qatalahumullaah), had done with some of the pictures. We initially had a bad feeling of what he might do if we were to link the pictures from his blog.

So now that this true enemy of Allah has shown his ugly face, we say to him: we pray that Allah does not guide you, makes your whole life miserable, and that you are eradicated from the earth by a Mujaahid. We cannot wait to see your expression on the Day of Judgment when reality hits you in the face and the Angels who don’t know the meaning of Mercy will tear you apart into pieces for eternity. We hope that Allah gives you a severe torment in both worlds for your evil deeds. We pray that you die the way Pharaoh died… at the last minute, when his soul was about to be taken by the Angels, he wanted to become Muslim when he saw the truth (i.e., death)… but Allah rejected it and the Angel threw mud in his mouth so that he couldn’t pronounce the testimony which would take him to Paradise.

So let them laugh now, but we will be the ones laughing in the afterlife.

O Allah kill Rusty Shackleford and terrorize his family.

O Allah kill Rusty Shackleford and terrorize his family.

O Allah kill Rusty Shackleford and terrorize his family.

May this Kaafir rot in this world and be tortured forever in the Hereafter.

Part of me wants to laugh at how ludicrous it is for a 21 year old computer nerd living in his childhood bedroom to make this kind of threat.  It’s so overblown and hysterical.  I especially enjoy his admission, in his first paragraph, that he had some worries when he stole the photographs.

Most of me, however, knows that Dr. Shackleford and his family are now at real risk and that, no matter how foolish the face behind the threats is, the threats are real and must be taken seriously.  I hope that Dr. Shackleford has notified the FBI that he and his family are now the targets of very specific death threats.  And I hope that he and his family stay safe and well.

We live in a strange world when we’re side by side with people who consider pictures appropriate triggers for murder and torture — something I hope most of us already figured out with the Danish cartoon riots.