PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A Pakistani minister offered $100,000 yesterday to anyone who kills the maker of an online video which insults Islam, as sporadic protests rumbled on across parts of the Muslim world.
“I announce today that this blasphemer, this sinner who has spoken nonsense about the holy Prophet, anyone who murders him, I will reward him with $100,000,” Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour told a news conference, to applause.
“I invite the Taliban brothers and the al Qaeda brothers to join me in this blessed mission.”
A spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister said the government disassociated itself from the minister’s statement.
While many Muslim countries saw mostly peaceful protests on Friday, fifteen people were killed in Pakistan during demonstrations over the video.
People involved in the film, an amateurish 13-minute clip of which was posted on YouTube, have said it was made by a 55-year-old California man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.
Nakoula has not returned to his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos since leaving voluntarily to be interviewed by federal authorities. His family has since gone into hiding.
In the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka yesterday, thousands of Islamist activists clashed with police who used batons and teargas to clear an unauthorised protest. In Kano, northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Shi’ite Muslims burned American flags, but their protest passed off peacefully.
The demonstrations were less widespread than on Friday, but showed anger still simmered around the world against the film and other insults against Islam in the West, including cartoons published by a French satirical magazine.
