Multan (Pakistan): Pakistani Islamic parties have denounced controversial US pastor Jerry Falwell and called for a nation-wide protest on October 11 to condemn his derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed, a spokesman said.

Falwell, who in a television interview equated Mohammed with a "terrorist", has hurt the sentiments of Muslims the world over, and the government should lodge a formal protest over his utterances, Kanwar Muhammad Siddique of the six-party alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) said.

He said that MMA leaders, including influential Sunni and Shiite sect leaders on October 8 expressed resentment over Falwell's "objectionable remarks" and demanded he be put on trial for his attempts to disrupt world peace by inciting the Muslim community.

In an interview broadcast on October 6 on the CBS television network's "60 Minutes" news programme, Falwell, a leader of the US Evangelical Christian right, called the Prophet "a terrorist".

"I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims, (to decide) that he was a violent man, a man of war," Falwell said.

"Falwell should be tried for acts of terrorism," Siddique quoted MMA leaders, including those of the main fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami, the Jamiat Ulema Islam, which supported the deposed Taleban regime in Afghanistan and the minority Shiite Community's Tehreek Jafria Pakistan as saying on October 8.

MMA appealed to prayer leaders and Muslim scholars to highlight the life of Prophet Mohammed in their sermons at Friday congregations, the Muslim prayer day.

"They should also adopt resolutions against Falwell, and stage rallies and protest demonstrations to express their anger against his sacrilegious act," Siddique said.