Charles Johnson at LGF got an email saying, “I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut….” Nothing much unusual in that, but the more he investigates the sender, the more it points to…Inayat Bunglawala, a leading British moderate Muslim (although one who has already been established to be a slightly immoderate moderate). Of course, maybe the unhinged hired help is using Bunglawala’s personal computer after hours. Here is Charles’ account of the unfolding tale. “We Got Mail from Reuters (Bumped)“:
Early this morning at about 3:00 am on the West Coast, someone in Sweden Britain connected to the Internet and browsed over to this article at the Guardian by Inayat Bunglawala, media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain: This code could open doors.
Bunglawala’s piece (about the Da Vinci Code) is in the section of the Guardian site where readers can comment, and someone posted a link to LGF as a rebuttal to Bunglawala. Our Swedish British visitor clicked that link, leading him/her/it to this post: Swedish Muslims Demand Shari”a.
At 3:23 am, this creature used our contact form to send the following email with the obviously phony Hotmail address “˜zionistpig@hotmail.com” and the subject line, “You bunch of wankers.”
I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut….
Well, isn’t that tolerant.
But this particular death threat is a bit different from the run of the mill hate mail we get around here, because an IP lookup on the sender reveals that he/she/it was using an account at none other than Reuters News: RIPE Whois Database: 192.165.213.18. (Please note: the name and address below are those of Reuters” technical contact, not the name of the freak responsible for our hate mail. Please do not send him email.)
[…]
UPDATE at 5/25/06 5:16:44 pm:
NOTE: things just got much more interesting with this post from Inayat Bunglawala himself, shortly after the post containing the link to LGF: Comment is free: This code could open doors.
Nick223: No, neither applied nor implemented. I am a little worried about your reference to the LGF website though. Many on that site seem to be to be clearly anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. As for “˜jetting to and forth between London and Stockholm” – no, it is an illusion created by the way the CiF site tracks the posters. When I post from work it comes up as Sweden for some reason, when I do so from home, it correctly lists London. I have never been to Sweden unfortunately.
UPDATE at 5/25/06 5:41:06 pm:
Note Bunglawala’s comment above: the Guardian’s comment system thinks he’s posting from Sweden, but he’s actually in London.
The IP address of our hate mailer traces to a Reuters (news service) account hosted in Sweden. Chances are, that’s how the Guardian’s comment system decides where someone is posting from.
But this “˜where is” lookup at Geobytes shows the physical location of our emailer as … London.
Did I mention this is a Reuters account?
UPDATE at 5/25/06 5:50:50 pm:
Inayat Bunglawala was selected as one of seven “conveners” for a Home Office task force with responsibilities for tackling extremism among young Muslims””despite a history of extremist statements.
UPDATE at 5/25/06 6:09:49 pm:
The Guardian, of course, has a history of hiring extremists: The Guardian’s Pet Islamofascist.
UPDATE at 5/25/06 7:07:05 pm:
Do I need to point out that it would be extremely unlikely for a person who does not work for a news agency (say, the Guardian) to have access to a Reuters account?
UPDATE 6:22AM Friday: Inayat Bunglawala has denied involvement in this in a colorful way over at Comment Is Free: “Hey, that was not me! Let the police deal with it. Methinks some Zionists are up to mischief.”