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Cleric says suicide bombers poised to kill cartoonists

PESHAWAR: A local cleric who offered $1 million and a car for the death of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cartoonists said on Wednesday that suicide bombers had volunteered to “kill the blasphemers”. Yousaf Qureshi, the imam, or prayer leader, at the 300-year-old Mohabat Khan mosque in Peshawar, announced the reward on Friday. “The Prophet Muhammad’s blasphemers will not live and there are mujahideen who visited me to assure that such people will not be allowed to live for their unpardonable act,” the cleric told a news conference. “Mujahedin suicide bombers have contacted us and they are ready for this mission. They are college and university students.” Qureshi is considered close to the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is at the forefront of the ongoing campaign against the cartoons in Pakistan. The imam also hit back at criticism from both Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu that rewards for murder were forbidden by the Quran. “The OIC secretary-general is ignorant of Islamic teachings,” he said. “There are instances when the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) ordered the killing of persons who were degrading or insulting him. So the Quran has not forbidden murder of someone who is involved in blasphemous acts against the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh),” he said. He said the Danish foreign minister “lost sense” after he realised the strength of the Muslim world’s reaction to the cartoons. The only solution to the crisis was the trial of the blasphemers under Islamic laws, Qureshi said. “Nothing else is acceptable other than capital punishment under Islamic laws to the cartoonists,” he said. staff report

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