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Pakistan shuns US$100,000 bounty of head of filmmaker
Source: AFP |
September 24, 2012, Monday
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PAKISTAN distanced itself yesterday from a Cabinet minister's bounty for killing the maker of anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims," as protests against the movie continued in the Muslim world.
Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour invited members of the Taliban and Al-Qaida to take part in the "noble deed," and said given the chance he would kill the filmmaker with his own hands.
A spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf rejected the US$100,000 bounty promised by Bilour made on Saturday, a day after angry protests across Pakistan against the film left 21 people dead and more than 200 injured.
"This is not government policy. We completely dissociate (ourselves) from this," the spokesman said.
More than 50 people have died in protests and attacks around the world linked to the low-budget film, which mocks Islam and the prophet Mohammed, since the first demonstrations on September 11. The producer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is reported to be a 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster, based in Los Angeles and currently out on parole. US media reports say Nakoula wrote and produced the film, using the pseudonym Sam Bacile before being identified. Police questioned him before he went into hiding with his family.
Analyst and author Hasan Askari said Bilour, a member of the Awami National Party (ANP), was trying to keep ahead of public opinion in his northwestern home province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where anti-Western feelings run high.
"There is a common phenomenon of point scoring in Pakistan politics and Bilour wanted to show that 'we are not lagging behind any other group,' " he said.
Fresh rallies were held across Pakistan yesterday to condemn the movie, following protests on Friday that mobilized more than 45,000 people. Some 200 members of the minority Christian community led by the prime minister's advisor on minorities affairs, Paul Bhatti, staged a rally in Islamabad condemning the movie.
The marchers carried the placards "We denounce the blasphemous movie" and "We express complete solidarity with Muslims in Pakistan."
At one of the Pakistan rallies, a little known Muslim cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi said that a Karachi businessman had announced another cash award of 120 million rupees (US$1.27 million) to any one who kills the maker of the anti-Islam movie.
New protests yesterday also gripped Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Bangladesh.
Some 500 protesters in Istanbul burnt US and Israeli flags as they gathered around the Turkish city's iconic Taksim Square, unfurling banners with slogans such as "Death to America."
Germany's weekly Der Spiegel reported yesterday that a far-right group is planning to screen "Innocence of Muslims" in Berlin in November.
Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour invited members of the Taliban and Al-Qaida to take part in the "noble deed," and said given the chance he would kill the filmmaker with his own hands.
A spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf rejected the US$100,000 bounty promised by Bilour made on Saturday, a day after angry protests across Pakistan against the film left 21 people dead and more than 200 injured.
"This is not government policy. We completely dissociate (ourselves) from this," the spokesman said.
More than 50 people have died in protests and attacks around the world linked to the low-budget film, which mocks Islam and the prophet Mohammed, since the first demonstrations on September 11. The producer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is reported to be a 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster, based in Los Angeles and currently out on parole. US media reports say Nakoula wrote and produced the film, using the pseudonym Sam Bacile before being identified. Police questioned him before he went into hiding with his family.
Analyst and author Hasan Askari said Bilour, a member of the Awami National Party (ANP), was trying to keep ahead of public opinion in his northwestern home province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where anti-Western feelings run high.
"There is a common phenomenon of point scoring in Pakistan politics and Bilour wanted to show that 'we are not lagging behind any other group,' " he said.
Fresh rallies were held across Pakistan yesterday to condemn the movie, following protests on Friday that mobilized more than 45,000 people. Some 200 members of the minority Christian community led by the prime minister's advisor on minorities affairs, Paul Bhatti, staged a rally in Islamabad condemning the movie.
The marchers carried the placards "We denounce the blasphemous movie" and "We express complete solidarity with Muslims in Pakistan."
At one of the Pakistan rallies, a little known Muslim cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi said that a Karachi businessman had announced another cash award of 120 million rupees (US$1.27 million) to any one who kills the maker of the anti-Islam movie.
New protests yesterday also gripped Turkey, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Bangladesh.
Some 500 protesters in Istanbul burnt US and Israeli flags as they gathered around the Turkish city's iconic Taksim Square, unfurling banners with slogans such as "Death to America."
Germany's weekly Der Spiegel reported yesterday that a far-right group is planning to screen "Innocence of Muslims" in Berlin in November.
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