New bounty offer for cartoonists' death: Indian provincial official offers $11 million

As long as liberals are going to keep demanding that Americans refer to Islam as a "religion of peace," it would be a big help if Muslims would stop killing people. Ann Coulter, November 28, 2002.

Well they're at it again. Yesterday a Pakistani cleric offered a reward for killing the Danish cartoonist who drew those pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi apparently was unaware that 12 artists created the much reviled portraits when he made his announcement.

To the east in India, the eerily similarly named Muhammad Yaqoob Qureshi, minister of state for Haj and Minorities Welfare in the Uttar Pradesh of India upped the ante, offering 11.5 million for the death of the 12 cartoonists.

From the Arab News:

The minister’s remarks sparked a nationwide furor and demands for his immediate arrest and resignation. When contacted by Indo Asian News Service yesterday (Saturday), Qureshi repeated his declaration and said: “Muslim women of Uttar Pradesh have decided to give away their jewelry to weigh in gold any one who beheads the cartoonist, while I would collect 510 million rupees and donate it to him.

“Our protest is against none other than the United States which is solely responsible for masterminding a war against the Muslim world,” he said. “The Indian government should sever all diplomatic ties with the United States and recall its ambassador,” Qureshi said by telephone from Meerut.

(The article is inconsistent on the matter of whether the Indian Qureshi is aware that more than one person drew the cartoons.)

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