Indian Minister Announces Reward for Murder

I am not surprised. Indian Minister Offers Bounty reports the website Arab News.

NEW DELHI, 19 February 2006 — A minister in India’s Uttar Pradesh state government has offered a reward of $11.5 million to anyone who would kill any of the cartoonists who drew the images of the Prophet Muhammad …

Muhammad Yaqoob Qureshi, minister of state for Haj and Minorities Welfare in the Uttar Pradesh government, told a rally in Meerut, 65 km east of New Delhi, after Friday prayers that he would give “the avenger” 510 million rupees ($11.5 million) and his weight in gold.

India should really have a Minister of State for Haj and for the Calling for the Murder of Infidels for Insults to the Religion of Peace. And the same source for the bounty as for the Haj subsidy: the Indian infidel tax payers. The BJP missed its chance while in power to get this wonderful vote mechanism in place. May I suggest the “secular” Congress government to get this underway.

“Drawing a cartoon of the Prophet is blasphemous and Muslims will not tolerate this insult,” he said in a speech that was broadcast by Indian television stations. “The money will be paid by the people of Meerut,” said Yaqoob … “Muslim women of Uttar Pradesh have decided to give away their jewelry to weigh in gold any one who beheads the cartoonist, while I would collect 510 million rupees and donate it to him.

“Our protest is against none other than the United States which is solely responsible for masterminding a war against the Muslim world,” he said. “The Indian government should sever all diplomatic ties with the United States and recall its ambassador,” Qureshi said by telephone from Meerut.

Aw, come on, Mr Yaqoob. Aren’t you getting to be a bit of a softy in your old age? Should India not just go ahead and nuke the United States and vaporise a few million satanic Americans? After all, the Danish infidels have hurt the sentiments of billions of Indian muslims. This cannot be avenged by merely severing diplomatic ties with the ugly Americans. No wait, why stop at Amercians? After you are done with that, how about nuking a few million Hindus. There are more where they come from. Your compatriots in Pakistan will be happy to help on this venture.

Here’s an idea: why don’t you get the UP Muslims to cough up a little more and send it to your friendly compatriot Mr Osama Bin Laden and he will deliver the nukes to the Americans courtesy of the people of Uttar Pradesh. And with the leftovers, since Bin Laden has already called for war against Hindus, he can nuke the Hindus in India.

Qureshi also said he had made these comments as an individual and not as a minister.

The government of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state that has a large Muslim community, said the minister’s statements were “his personal wish” and did not violate government rules.

Thank you, thank you. Inciting murder of people is quite alright as long as one is not speaking in one’s official capacity? OK, that makes me feel better.

The state’s Principal Home Secretary Alok Sinha said: “Mere announcement of this kind does not amount to a crime.’”

Mr Sinha, calling for the murder of people, placing a huge bounty on them, is alright, eh? I announce a Rs 1 million reward for the lynching of Mr Sinha and his family for having insulted the Indian flag. This cannot be a crime because I am not speaking officially, only in my private capacity to advocate murder based on hurt feelings.

“Let me clarify that he did not make the announcement in his capacity as a minister.

“Secondly, the reference is being made to something that has happened outside the geographical boundaries of India. Lastly, he was simply expressing the common feeling of members of his community,” Sinha said.

Ah, so, according to right honorable Mr Sinha, the members of the community–Muslims–strongly advocate the killing of infidels who hurt the feelings of Muslims. Are you a moron Mr Sinha or are you merely playing one so that you can please your pay-masters? I think that Mr Sinha should be taken out and shot.

The following is unbelievable. Read and see how low dhimmitude can lay some people.

The home secretary also denied that such an announcement could cause sectarian tension.

“I am sure the minister has no intention of inciting communal passions and his statement is not intended to hurt the sentiments of any other community,” Sinha said. “But, of course, I am aware that the issue is a sensitive one. We are taking due precautions to ensure maintenance of law and order.”

Well, there you have it. The largest state of the largest “democracy,” and officers of the government calling for the murder of people and condoning the call for murder, eh? Read the rest of this report and weep for the beloved country.

In the state capital, Lucknow, most establishments owned by Muslims kept their shutters down as a mark of solidarity with the protesters in Meerut.

But the influential All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, an authoritative national body of Muslim scholars, slammed the announcement as “anti-Islamic and anti-humanity.”

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party demanded immediate arrest and dismissal of Qureshi from the state government. BJP leader N. Venkaiah Naidu said: “He should be dismissed forthwith and arrested. He should also be tried under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code.”

Describing Qureshi’s comments as cheap, vote-buying tactics, Naidu said told reporters in Madras that he hoped the Uttar Pradesh government, governor and the federal government would take immediate action against the minister.

On the cartoons, Naidu said: “I can understand sentiments of the community being hurt by such caricatures. The BJP strongly disapproves and condemn such acts.”

In Indian-administered Kashmir, some 1,000 people yesterday protested the publication of the offending drawings and demanded punishment for the cartoonists.

Carrying banners and shouting slogans, the protesters marched through the streets of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, before handing over a memorandum to United Nations officials posted in the state.

“We love our Prophet” and “Down with enemies of Islam” read some of the banners carried by the protesters, who were led by the mayor of Srinagar, Ghulam Mustafa.

The protesters demanded that the governments of the countries where the drawings were published “tender unqualified apologies for such drawings and deal with the editors and publishers with an iron hand,” Mustafa said. “We are peace loving and secular people. Such acts outrage us,” he said, before the protesters peacefully dispersed.

Author: Atanu Dey

Economist. View all posts by Atanu Dey