The European Union...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
deplored Monday the call by a Pak minister for a $100,000 bounty to be put on the head of the maker of an anti-Islam film which has sparked deadly protests around the world.
"We deplore the call for a bounty," Michael Mann, front man for EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton, told a press briefing.
"We are particularly concerned that this call should come from a member of the government even if the prime minister... has dissociated himself" from the remarks, Mann added.
Earlier on Sunday, the United States had also condemned Pak Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour's offer of the bounty to kill the filmmaker.
Bilour on Saturday had offered a $100,000 "prize" for killing the filmmaker of "Innocence of Mohammedans" -- an amateurish film made in the United States -- and invited the Taliban and al Qaeda to take part in the "noble deed."
The State Department weighed in Sunday, with an official recalling that US President Barack Obama
Ready to Rule from Day One...
and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as
For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillaryand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another William H. Seward...
"have both said the video at the core of this is offensive, disgusting, and reprehensible.
The official added: "But that is no justification for violence and it is important for responsible leaders to stand up and speak out against violence." Therefore we find Mr. Bilour's announcement is inflammatory and inappropriate," the official said in a statement.
A front man for Pak Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Sunday rejected the bounty promised by the railways minister as a "prize" for killing the filmmaker.
"This is not government policy. We completely dissociate (ourselves) from this," a front man for the prime minister's office told AFP.