After the resolution was passed Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq, made an address to the parliament which was carried by local television stations. Haq said that "insults to Islam were at the root of terrorism", and that "if someone committed a suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, his act was justified." He called on all Muslim governments to break ties with Britain and warned that "This is an occasion for the 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision. If Muslims do not unite, the situation will get worse and Salman Rushdie may get a seat in the British parliament." When asked about his comments about suicide bombing later Haq stated that he "did not mean such attacks would be justified but was merely saying militants could use the knighthood as a justification." Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto condemned the minister's comments, seeing them as a call to assassinate Rushdie, she said "The minister... son of a previous military dictator (Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq) who had patronised [Islamic extremist groups, had done a great disservice both to the image of Islam and the standing of Pakistan by calling for the murder of foreign citizens." The speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly expunged Haq's speech from the official record, citing the national interest. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who ran the hardline Red Mosque in Islamabad, responded to Haq's initial comments saying "Salman Rushdie deserves to be killed and anyone who has the power must kill him."