US$1 million and a Toyota for killing cartoonists

That's right. Finally after all the protests - which is becoming increasingly violent - a cleric in Pakistan has put an offer on the heads of all the cartoonists who drew the offensive Prophet Muhammad's cartoons.

Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi, a Peshawar-based cleric is offering US$1 million to anyone who can kill the Danish cartoonists.

He said:

"This is a unanimous decision by all imams that whoever insults the prophet deserves to be killed, and whoever will take this insulting man to his end will get this prize.This killing will enhance respect for Islam and for the Muslims. Next time nobody will dare to commit blasphemy against our prophet."

Another Pakistani cleric Qari Saeed Ullah had this to say:

"Oh God, please punish those who dared to publish these sacrilegious cartoons
... give enough power to the Muslim countries and enable them to take revenge."

The Guardian today reports that the reward also includes a Toyota car.

This is a worrying trend. We are now seeing the involvement of clerics on this matter. And even more serious is that they are now narrowing their anger towards the cartoonists after weeks of targetting the Danish newspaper and government, and other European media and governments.

As I mentioned earlier, even the global protests are getting dangerous. Not only are the protesters shouting threatenting slogans, they are also now burning all things they identify with the west. Thus, the burning down of few KFC outlets in Pakistan.

And in Libya, a mob set fire to the Italian consulate. A follow-up clash with the local police resulted in nine protesters being killed.

The protesters, about 1,000 of them, set upon the mission, setting cars alight and breaking windows, apparently angered by a minister in Silvio Berlusconi's government who has said he intends to wear T-shirts bearing some of the cartoons.

It looks like more blood will be shed and more protesters killed and more anger boiling over. What we don't need is a group of Muslim clerics getting together to issue a fatwa against the cartoonists.

Even with this bounty, I dread to think what some radical followers might do. The last thing we need now is for a group of people tracking down the cartoonists and trying to kill them.

Isn't it time to let this matter rest?

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