Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday condemned a serving cabinet minister who said a suicide attack against Salman Rushdie was justified after Britain awarded him a knighthood.
Pakistani religious minister Ijaz-ul Haq had said that the Rushdie honour merited such an attack by Muslims but later withdrew the comment insisting that he meant to say that the award to Rushdie would foster extremism.
Haq had done a "great disservice both to the image of Islam and the standing of Pakistan by calling for murder of foreign citizen," Benazir said in a statement issued by her Pakistan Peoples Party office in Islamabad.
She said although the Knighthood awarded to Rushdie had outraged the sentiments of Muslims, Islam did not permit murder and nor did the law allow suicide killings for those with divergent views. "No matter how abhorrent those views may be," she added.
Bhutto who lives in self-exile in London and Dubai said Islam preached tolerance through the teaching, "You shall have your religion and I shall have mine." She said Haq had appointed the cleric of Red Mosque in Islamabad who has publicly said his madrassa housed suicide bombers.
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