Just when you thought the Mohammed cartoon protests couldn't get any more ludicrous or hypocritical, the Associated Press reports that a Pakistani imam has offered $1 million to whoever murders the "cursed man" who drew the 12 cartoons:

Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi, prayer leader at the historic Mohabat Khan mosque in the conservative northwestern city of Peshawar, announced the mosque and the Jamia Ashrafia religious school he leads would give a $25,000 reward and a car for killing the cartoonist who drew the prophet caricatures - considered blasphemous by Muslims.

He also said a local jewelers' association would give $1 million but no representative of the association was available to confirm the offer.

"Whoever has done this despicable and shameful act, he has challenged the honor of Muslims. Whoever will kill this cursed man, he will get $1 million from the association of the jewelers bazaar, 1 million rupees ($16,700) from Masjid Mohabat Khan and 500,000 rupees ($8,350) and a car from Jamia Ashrafia as a reward," Qureshi told about 1,000 people outside the mosque after Friday prayers.

Of course, since the twelve Jyllands-Posten cartoons were drawn by twelve different cartoonists, the million-dollar prize may need to be split twelve ways. Or into even smaller shares, if we include the Muslims who passed around Mohammed pictures of their own to stir up protests when the initial twelve actually published in the Jyllands-Posten proved insufficiently inflammatory.

You'd think that all those moderate Muslims out there would be more insulted by a religious leader named Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi calling for murder, than by a few cartoons. But I haven't heard of any protests against Qureshi's outrageous offer.

FOLLOW-UP:
Well, at least a few moderate Muslims are dismayed by the shameful hijacking of their religion. Via LGF, the Brussels Journal reports:

Dozens of Danish Muslims are joining the network of moderate Muslims, the Demokratiske Muslimer (Democratic Muslims). About 700 Muslims have already become DM members and 2,500 Danes have expressed their will to support the network. The initiative has caused anger among the Danish imams and their leader, Ahmad Abu Laban, who have referred to the moderates as “rats.” The imams feel that they are beginning to lose their control over part of the Muslim population.

Moderates such as Kamran Tahmasebi say they have had enough of fanatic Islamism and its intimidation of the Muslim immigrants in Denmark. “It is an irony that I am today living in a European democratic state and have to fight the same religious fanatics that I fled from in Iran many years ago,” Mr Tahmasebi says.

I'm afraid people like Tahmasebi face an uphill battle, but I hope they succeed.