 | Sure is a lot of money being offered for those poor guys. If the root cause of all this is poverty, where's the money come from? |
| Remember the tsumani relief fund? ... |
A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers have offered rewards amounting to over US$1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide. The cleric offered the bounty during Friday prayers as Muslim anger against the cartoons flared anew in parts of Asia. Weeks of global protests over the cartoons have gained momentum and fears of a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam have led to calls on all sides for calm.
| We're calm. How many mosques have been burned down? How many Danes have rioted against these morons? |
On Friday, thousands rallied in Pakistan, police in Bangladesh blocked demonstrators heading for the Danish embassy in Dhaka and in the Indian city of Hyderabad, police fired teargas shells and batons to beat back hundreds of protesters, who had stoned shops and disrupted traffic. The Danish foreign ministry issued a travel warning for Pakistan, urging any Danes to leave as soon as possible. In the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, cleric Maulana Yousef Qureshi said he had personally offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees to anyone who killed a Danish cartoonist, and two of his congregation put up additional rewards of $1 million and one million rupees plus a car.
Okay. I think I get it now. This is the same goober we reported on a day or two ago. I'm making a tentative guess that the Hindustan Times got the story and decided the guy was Haji Yakoob, the MP, rather than Imam Yusuf, the fly-blown holy man from Peshawar. Whether the remarks attributed to Haji Yakoub are true or not, we have no way of knowing. But it's entirely likely he decided to climb on board the Islam train and offer his own reward, funded by the rubes people of Meerut. |
"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden and Zawahri we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy Prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring to the al Qaeda leader and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri. The cleric leads the congregation at the historic Moonbat Mohabat mosque, on street known for goldsmith shops in the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province -- a stronghold of Pakistan's nutcakes Islamist opposition parties.
 Protests in Pakistan have been large and violent and many have taken on a distinctly anti-US tone. Demonstrators, in addition to burning Danish flags, have attacked US fast-food outlets and burned US President George W. Bush in effigy. Islamist parties have called for a nationwide strike on March 3, around the time President George W. Bush is expected to visit Pakistan, despite the unrest.
Western leaders have been calling for calm. Former US President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac both said on Friday that it was a mistake to publish the cartoons. Clinton, on a private visit to Pakistan, said he saw nothing wrong with Muslims around the world demonstrating in a peaceful way, but he feared a great opportunity to improve understanding had been squandered. "This is not a time to burn bridges; this is a time to build them," he said, adding, "...I can tell you that most people are horrified that this much misunderstanding has occurred."
 Chirac was more blunt. "I am appalled by what happened as a result of the publications of these cartoons," Chirac told India Today news magazine which published an interview with him on Friday. "I am, of course, in favor of the freedom of the press, which is a pillar of democracy. But I am equally for respecting everyone's sensibilities... So I deplore the situation," said Chirac, who visits India next week.
| Bill and Jock are a good fit, aren't they? They both want to have it both ways, but if push comes to shove they'll settle for having it the enemy's way. Bill's especially cute, wanting to build a bridge to the 7th century. |
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Denmark and Norway on Monday condemned as incitement to murder a Pakistani clerics offer of a reward for anyone who kills any of the 12 Danish cartoonists who lampooned the Prophet Mohammad. 
A Pakistani Muslim cleric and his followers offered rewards amounting to more than $1 million for anyone who killed Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that have enraged Muslims worldwide.