Rushdie Rage Update. “Reward for killing,” from Agence France-Presse:
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani traders on Thursday announced a reward of Rs 10 million for anyone who beheads Salman Rushdie, following Britain’s decision to award the novelist a
knighthood. The announcement came during a protest by 200 traders at Aabpara market,
Islamabad, an AFP photographer said. “We will give Rs 10 million to anyone who beheads
Rushdie,” the secretary general of the Islamabad traders association, Ajmal Baluch, told the cheering crowd. He also called on Islamic countries to boycott British products in protest at the honour to Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses.
10 million Pakistani rupees is currently about $165426 U.S. dollars, by the way. Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly speaker says he’d do it himself. “‘I’d kill blasphemer’,” from the Daily Times:
LAHORE: Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Afzal Sahi Thursday declared that
according to Islam a blasphemer should be killed and if any blasphemer would come in
front of him he would definitely kill him. He said the issue of awarding the title of “˜Sir” to blasphemer Salman Rushdie was a religious issue. Being a Muslim, he said, he was not ready to compromise on the issue. “I am not a religious scholar, but I want to make it clear that a blasphemer was liable to [be killed],” the speaker said. “First, I am a Muslim and later the Punjab Assembly speaker.”