Leading Pakistani Cleric Offers Reward For Anyone Who Kills Woman Who Insulted Islam

In Peshawar, Maulana Yousef Qureshi, the imam of a major mosque is not satisfied with the prosecution of Asia Bibi for blasphemy. He has offered a bounty to anyone who kills her for insulting Islam.

 

What is astonishing is that he was not been arrested for making a public offer to pay for a murder. Instead, he is warning the government not to back off blasphemy executions, “which provide protection to the sanctity of Holy Prophet Mohammad.”

He is offering $5,800 for the murder and has told Muslims that God will reward them for the killing as required under Islamic law.

The incident leading to the charge began when Bibi fetched water as a farmhand and offered it to other women. The Muslim women refused because it had been touched by a Christian (Bibi) and thus “polluted.” Later a mob tried to beat her to death and she was rescued by police, who then charged her with blasphemy after the same women accused her of saying bad things about the Prophet Mohammed.

Qureshi insists that blasphemy laws are essential to forcing compliance with Islamic principles for Muslims and Non-Muslims alike. I have written prior columns condemning the increase of blasphemy prosecutions in the West and the Obama Administration’s yielding to demands from Egypt and Pakistan to support such prosecutions.

Source: Reuters
Jonathan Turley