Another six-figure bounty offered for killing anti-Islam filmmaker

PanARMENIAN.Net - For the second time in less than two weeks, a prominent Pakistani is offering a six-figure bounty to anyone who kills the man who produced "Innocence of Muslims," a film that has offended many Muslims throughout the world.

According to CNN, former Pakistani lawmaker Ikramullah Shahid told demonstrators protesting the movie in Peshawar on Monday that he'd pay $200,000 to anyone who kills the filmmaker, according to Siraj Ul Haq, a senior leader of the religious group that organized the rally.

Nine days ago, current Pakistani Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour personally offered a $100,000 reward to anyone who would kill the filmmaker. Bilour said he was speaking for himself and not as a government representative.

After he posed the initial bounty, Bilour was asked whether he was concerned about committing or condoning a crime as a government official.

"I am a Muslim first, then a government representative," Bilour said.

He said he invited the Taliban and al Qaeda to carry out the assassination.

Neither of the prominent Pakistanis offering bounties mentioned the filmmaker by name. U.S. officials say Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian, is behind the privately produced film.

Nakoula was arrested last week in California and accused of violating his probation on a bank fraud conviction. He was ordered held without bail Thursday.

Members of his family have left their California home and gone into hiding amid the at-times violent worldwide protests, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has said.