No need for private body guards, tax payers footing the bill for Raufs' security

The wife of Ground Zero mosque developer, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, says she and her husband are receiving death threats, the AP reported today:

"For the record, my life is under threat," Daisy Khan said Sunday during a town hall debate on Islam broadcast on ABC's "This Week" news program.

Khan said her husband's life also is under threat but, "We do not walk around with bodyguards because we love this country."

It goes without saying that any U.S. citizen who issues death threats to another individual deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law. However, there are a few points that need to be addressed, even if Daisy Khan's allegations are true.

Firstly, Ms. Khan stated, rather deceivingly, that although she and her husband have been receiving death threats, "We do not walk around with bodyguards because we love this country."

But in truth, the real reason the Raufs do not 'walk around with body guards' has very little to do with love of country and more to do with the fact that the NYPD is providing police protection for them - hence there's is no need for them or their supporters to foot the bill for security - since American tax dollars are being used for this very purpose.

The Boston Herald reported over a week and half ago that the Raufs have been receiving [NYPD] police protection. A "law enforcement source who didn’t want to be identified" confirmed this report.

Apparently, the law enforcement official felt the need to protect himself and thus chose to remain anonymous. Heh.

But more importantly - aside from Ms. Khan's blatant prevarication - is the following point[s].

There are various individuals and groups, other than the Imam and his wife, who've been receiving death threats as of late. Hence, the question arises: Are these individuals [and groups] being afforded the same police protection as the Raufs? Or, are the Raufs the only U.S. citizens entitled to special police protection as a result of [alleged] death threats? Are they the only U.S. citizens who've been exonerated from spending their own money on their own security needs, and/or soliciting funds for this purpose, thus enabling them to allocate these funds for other pressing needs, such as building a 15 story Islamic center on Ground zero? [Or, to cover the cost of legal fees pertaining to building codes that the Imam is accused of violating in some of the dilapidated apartment buildings he owns?]

Now, let's compare the Raufs' situation to other individuals [and groups] who've received similar death threats:

One of Washington's principal supporters of the Tea Party movement, former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, has been receiving death threats and profanity-laced phone calls as it gets involved in the fall elections...

"FreedomWorks and Dick Armey receive dozens of threatening and harassing calls and E-mails each day. Many imply violence and use of weapons," spokesman Adam Brandon tells Whispers. "As we get closer to the election we expect the harassment to increase."

He says that FreedomWorks will hire additional security, meaning less money for its election-eve, get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, campaign. "Unfortunately, we may have to use resources for security guards that we would rather use for GOTV," he said...

FreedomWorks provided some of the recordings of the threatening calls to Whispers and they include physical threats and profanity aimed at the group, Tea Party spokesmen and even conservative talkers. "You guys better watch it," says one caller. "Now, we are going to destroy and obliterate Rush [Limbaugh] and Sean Hannity," said another. "Those two guys are dead."

Are Freedom Works and its members receiving police protection?

And what about Sabri Husibi, a former Muslim who's received death threats after publishing an article which was critical of Islam. According to Tulsa World, Mr. Husibi has been receiving calls from people who were cursing him, calling him a traitor and threatening him. Most were foreign-born, Tulsa-area Muslims whom he knows, he said. One caller told Husibi that if he spoke at an upcoming meeting and said anything against Shariah (Islamic law), he would be killed.

"Someone from Tulsa called my 76-year-old mother in Syria and said, 'You're not going to see your son anymore,' " he said.

Is Mr. Husibi receiving free, tax-payer funded police protection?

And then there is Molly Norris, the Seattle cartoonist who was forced to go into hiding as a result of the "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" contest she created.

The Seattle Weekly reported that : "On the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, 'going ghost': moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity... She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program--except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab."

Feisal Abdul Rauf - unlike the aforementioned individuals - has accused the U.S. of engaging in acts of terrorism, and yet, despite this inflammatory rhetoric, the Imam [unlike the others] is receiving police protection, compliments of NYC and the tax payers who are picking up the tab. Apparently, the U.S., who, according to Rauf, is guilty of state terrorism, is deeply concerned for the Imam's safety.

If only the simple folk among us could receive the same royal treatment as Rauf.

Ah, how sweet it is to be Imam Rauf; perks, fringe benefits and all.....