And this ain’t no Robbie Coltrane movie. Hunt him down and kill him, says Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin. “Somali cleric calls for pope’s death,” from AFP, with thanks to News4U:
A HARDLINE cleric linked to Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to “hunt down” and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam.
Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin urged Muslims to find the pontiff and punish him for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and Allah in a speech that he said was as offensive as author Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.
“We urge you Muslims wherever you are to hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements as you have pursued Salman Rushdie, the enemy of Allah who offended our religion,” he said in Friday evening prayers.
“Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim,” Malin, a prominent cleric in the Somali capital, told worshippers at a mosque in southern Mogadishu.
“We call on all Islamic Communities across the world to take revenge on the baseless critic called the pope,” he said.
Expect Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin to be burned in effigy by Muslims worldwide, for daring to suggest anything other than the proposition that “Muslims have no violent character.” (Actually, of course, all too many self-proclaimed Muslim moderates are much more likely to criticize those who report on the Sheikh’s words than they are to criticize the Sheikh himself. Hmmm. Now why is that?)