Islamists go after Polish DJ....

Now, here's a very threatening character....

Islamic fundamentalists posted death threats against a Polish disk jockey soon after he published a song that he says was supposed to be a tribute to the Muslim culture.

It started on Christmas Eve.

Jakub Rene Kosik, a 27-year-old DJ from Poland excused himself from the dinner table and checked his Facebook. Word of his newest composition, Mekka, was out. And it was ill-received.

“You messed with Islam,” the first message read. “We’ll never forgive what you did to our religion,” read another. “You played with us, now we’ll play with you.” “We’re everywhere. Forget your international career.” By morning he had more than 300 such messages.

Fundamentalists reacted to the piece, placed on an internet music store website, because it included backing music of an Islamic prayer.

“I smiled stupidly and told my girlfriend “I think they want to kill me for this composition”. In the first instant, she didn’t react. Afterwards she was hysteric,” Kosik said.

“I had mixed feelings. My first thought was, “great, publicity”. Later I started thinking if I didn’t in fact really hurt these people. But my composition was supposed to be a tribute to their culture.

“I’m atheist. But I was raised with respect to different religions and philosophical opinions."

The threats and negative comments, including one from an 8-year-old French boy – “Jakub Rene Kosik – die dog” – resulted in sleepless nights for the artist. He replied to the threats, each one individually, apologized and explained it was never his intention to offend anyone’s religious sentiment. But it wasn’t until he removed the piece from the sites that the taunts subsided.