Pakistan minister offers bounty for anti-Islam film-maker

Islamabad, Pakistan – Muslim demonstrators in Islamic countries and elsewhere held new protests Saturday against an Internet video that mocks the Prophet Muhammad.

In Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, at least 10 people were injured in clashes between police and protesters.

Security forces fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing protesters who were part of an alliance of about a dozen Islamic groups. Witnesses say the protesters burned vehicles, including a police van. Some demonstrators were arrested.

Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said he would pay the reward for the “sacred duty” out of his own pocket.

A government spokesman condemned the remarks and said it was considering taking action against Bilour.

The comments came a day after at least 20 people died in clashes between anti-film protesters and Pakistani police.
Friday’s violence occurred in cities throughout Pakistan, with Karachi and Peshawar among the worst hit.

“I will pay whoever kills the makers of this video $100,000,” the minister said. “If someone else makes other similar blasphemous material in the future, I will also pay his killers $100,000.

In Germany, more than 1,000 people against the film marched peacefully in the western city of Dortmund.

Funerals were held in Pakistan for victims of the protests in cities across the country Friday. More than 20 people died in clashes between security forces and demonstrators.

Thousands of Muslims also demonstrated Friday in other countries, including Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Lebanon and Indonesia. Some protesters burned American flags and effigies of U.S. President Barack Obama.

The low-budget Internet video was produced by an anti-Muslim filmmaker in California. It first sparked recent protests in Cairo, and an attack followed on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his staff. The Obama administration originally said that attack was a spontaneous response to the Internet video, but U.S. officials have since called it a terrorist attack.

Since the release of the video, anti-U.S. protests have spread as far as Indonesia. Protesters have also voiced anger about images of the Prophet Muhammad, including some of him naked, published in a French magazine.

France’s government closed embassies, consulates, cultural centers and schools on Friday in 20 countries as a precautionary measure. French authorities also banned two anti-U.S. protests planned for Saturday.
 
Hundreds of burqa-clad young girls in Srinagar city of India’s northern Jammu and Kashmir state lambasted the film, shouting slogans against the US and the film’s maker.
 
The protest was held inside a primary school, where girls wearing black, white or green burqas held placards and banners, shouted slogans in praise of the Prophet Mohammad and against the US.
 
“This movie that has been made is outrageous and intolerable,” said Firdousa, one of the protesters.
Anger has also been stoked by the publication in a French magazine of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
 
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday published cartoons portraying Muhammad naked, further fuelling earlier protests.
 
About 500 Palestinians on Saturday staged what banners proclaimed a “Festival of the followers of Muhammad” in east Jerusalem in protest against the French cartoons and the anti-Islam film.
 
Police did not intervene in the rally, which included a marching band, according to an AFP journalist.
 
Source: TOE and agencies