ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 17 -- Protests sparked by newspaper cartoons of the prophet Muhammad continued across the country Friday, as a cleric announced a $1 million bounty for the killing of any of the Danish cartoonists responsible for the caricatures and Denmark temporarily closed its embassy.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital, Islamabad, after midday prayers. Rallying at a downtown intersection, some chanted, "Bush is a dog!" and others carried banners reading, "Death sentence for the cartoonists." Police in riot gear watched from the sidelines. Similar demonstrations were reported in other cities across the country.
For the most part, the demonstrations remained peaceful and did not match the scale or intensity of protests earlier in the week that left five people dead and scores of businesses, many of them Western franchises, in ruins.
Everything is relative.
The demonstrations in Pakistan may be peaceful compared to the death and destruction from earlier in the week, but I can't consider protesters chanting "Bush is a dog!" and "Death sentence for the cartoonists" to be a peaceful demonstration.
On Friday, the cartoon protesters in Libya set fire to the Italian consulate and left at least ten people dead.
These rioters are not a peaceful bunch.
Political leaders from moderate as well as hard-line religious parties have vowed to continue the demonstrations, which have expanded beyond the cartoon controversy into a broader attack on Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, and his Western backers, especially the United States.
Religious parties have announced plans for a large rally in the capital on Sunday as part of a series of demonstrations intended to peak when President Bush arrives on a visit in early March.
Will Cindy Sheehan and her buddy Hugo Chavez be in attendance? What's a large anti-Bush, anti-American rally without Sheehan?
"They are pursuing a larger agenda against this regime under the cover of the cartoons," said Hasan Rizvi, a political analyst and author. "They want a confrontation now."
It's obvious that they do not want peace. They want to be at war with the West. They declared war on the West well over a decade ago.
...In the conservative northwestern city of Peshawar, Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi announced after Friday prayers at the historic Mohabat Khan mosque that the mosque and an affiliated religious school would give $25,000 and a car to anyone who killed one of the artists responsible for the cartoons, news agencies reported from the city.
The cleric also said a local jewelers' association had offered a $1 million bounty.
"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden" and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, "we can also announce a reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet," Qureshi told the Reuters news agency.
How can Qureshi equate Osama bin Laden with a cartoonist?
Bin Laden is responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocents. That is not morally equivalent to someone drawing a cartoon, no matter how offensive some may consider the image to be.
The Associated Press offers more specifics on Qureshi's offer.
Prayer leader Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi announced the bounty for killing a cartoonist to about 1,000 people outside the historic Mohabat Khan mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
What sort of "prayer leader," a man of God, puts a bounty on a human being?
These protests aren't about the clash between the West and Islam. So-called "prayer leaders" want to frame it that way. The incompetent lib media willingly play along with their charade.
The fact is Qureshi isn't a religious leader. He's a violent militant.
As Iranian author Amir Taheri wrote, this fight is "between democracy and a global fascist movement masquerading as religion."
He said the mosque and the Jamia Ashrafia religious school he leads would give a $25,000 reward and a car for killing the cartoonist who drew the prophet caricatures _ considered blasphemous by Muslims. He said a local jewelers' association would also give $1 million, but no representative of the association was available to confirm the offer.
"Whoever has done this despicable and shameful act, he has challenged the honor of Muslims. Whoever will kill this cursed man, he will get $1 million dollars from the association of the jewelers bazaar, one million rupees ($16,700) from Masjid Mohabat Khan and 500,000 rupees ($8,350) and a car from Jamia Ashrafia as a reward," Qureshi said.
"This is a unanimous decision of by all imams of Islam that whoever insults the prophets deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize," he said.
Qureshi did not name any cartoonist in his announcement and he did not appear aware that 12 different people had drawn the pictures.
The people violently protesting the cartoons and calling for the creators to be put to death are absolutely deranged. No civilized person can come to any other conclusion.
It disgusts me that cowardly American media outlets kowtow to these radicals. They reward the savagery of the imams of Islam with politically correct sensitivity. The majority of news organizations still refuse to show the cartoons out of respect for Islam. They don't want to offend.
Meanwhile, they are splashing more Abu Ghraib photos. They aren't holding those out of respect for the overwhelming majority of our troops that are serving with bravery and honor.
Think of what the lib media did this past week to Vice President Cheney, vilifying him as a would-be assassin. Where was their sensitivity?
Rather than giving our troops or our President and Vice President a modicum of respect, they prefer to show respect to those at war with freedom.
It's a disgraceful situation.
I think of all those Leftists that consider Bush to be in the same league as the suicide bombers and the beheaders. Many on the Left, Dems and other libs, don't hesitate to openly refer to the President and the Vice President as terrorists.
These same Leftists whine about how their rights have been stripped away by the Bush Administration. They dramatically moan about being unable to freely criticize the government.
That's ludicrous.
Have Bush and Cheney put a bounty on Bill Maher's head? How about David Gregory? Arthur Sulzberger? Ted Kennedy? Howard Dean? Michael Moore?
The $1 million bounty announced by Qureshi should wake these Leftists up.
We are at war. Our freedom is under attack.
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS NOT THE ENEMY.
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