Islamist Declares Jihad Against David Letterman, Thinks He is Jewish

First he was the victim of stalking, then his son was part of kidnaping plot for $5 million ransom, and now, a jihad has been put on him. The life and times of acerbic Late Show host David Letterman keep getting stranger and stranger, and, perhaps more dangerous.

According to Entertainment Weekly a jihadist-hopeful who believes Letterman is Jewish has called for the Late host's tongue to be cut out and, ultimately, for him to be murdered. The threat came after Letterman boasted about the death of Osama bin Laden's one-eyed Pakistani commander Ilyas Kashmiri. The radical apparently didn't take too kindly to having one of his martyrs be the butt of Letterman's joke.

In a vicious rant on the Shumukh al-Islam Web forum -- a forum frequently utilized to spread al-Qaeda dispatches -- a radical named Umar al-Basrawi called to "cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever." The joke may be on al-Basrawi, however, as Letterman was allegedly raised Presbyterian.

The jihadist then went on to explain the reason for the threat against Letterman, stating, "he showed his evil nature and deep hatred for Islam and Muslims, and said that Ilyas Kashmiri was killed and he joined bin Laden." al-Basrawi continued, "we ask Allah to paralyze his tongue and grant the sincere monotheists his neck."

EW reports that the threat was translated by the SITE Institute:

SITE analyst Adam Raisman tells EW the threat was made on Shumukh-al-Islam, a site where messages from Al Qaeda frequently first appear online in the United States. “It’s a clearing house for Al-Qaeda material. It gets the most Al-Qaeda supporters,” he says.

Apparently a "Late Show" viewer until the offense, the apoplectic jihadist recalls Letterman's celebrating the recent death of terror kingpin Ilyas Kashmiri by gleefully dragging a finger across his neck.

"I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, one of the lowlifes of the Jews, and one of their pigs, mocking one of the leaders of the mujahedeen," writes the author, who calls himself Umar al-Basrawi.

The obsessive anti-Semite provides would-be assassins a dated photo of Letterman bearing his trademark gap-toothed grin and wire-rim glasses, describing him as "a sick Jew with defined features."

And even though Letterman's show is currently on summer hiatus, a production company spokesman would reportedly not comment on the threat.

Still, SITE points out that Letterman isn't the first media figure to be targeted for attack by radical Islamists. Back in 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was even murdered for producing a film exposing the status of women in Islam, while "South Park" creators Trey Stone and Matt Parker also received death threats for mocking Muslims. EW adds that Raisman ranked the threat as more egregious than the “warning” posted against South Park creators as the threat against Letterman "was direct and to the point.”

The New York Daily News adds:

Don Borrelli, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI-NYPD joint terrorism task force, and senior vice president with security firm the Soufan Group, said the rhetoric is no joke.

"In general, you can not write any of these off as a non-viable threat. These Internet threats have been a rallying cry to 'have the guy's head,'" Borelli said. "If I am the guy targeted in one of those things, I would be taking it seriously and hunker down."

So will Letterman use his recent threat as fodder for his next monologue? Or will the fright instilled by such an incident perhaps cause Letterman to take a step back and refrain from making jokes about radical Islamists in the future?

Bold emphasis in quotations added by The Blaze.