Huffington Magazine Issue 17 | Page 24

Voices TAUFIQ RAHIM HUFFINGTON 10.07.12 A Tale of Two Islams “I WILL PAY WHOEVER kills the makers of this video $100,000. If someone else makes other blasphemous material in the future, I will also pay his killers $100,000.” These words were uttered not by a firebrand cleric but by a cabinet minister in Pakistan, ILLUSTRATION BY FRANCESCO BONGIORNI Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, pushing the reaction to a provocative film (vacuously) satirical of the Prophet Muhammad to even more absurd levels. We witnessed something different altogether in Libya, after the initial violence. On September 11 of this year, anti-film protests in Benghazi, combined with what is now regarded as a coordi- Taufiq Rahim is a Dubaibased political analyst who blogs regularly on TheGeopolitico.com.