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Cartoon an insult, says Iran
28/08/2007 13:43 - (SA)
Stockholm - Iran has protested against the publication of a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, a Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Sweden's charge d'affaires Gunilla von Bahr was summoned on Monday to the Iranian foreign ministry where the authorities expressed their view that it was "an insult to the Prophet Muhammad", spokesperson Sofia Karlberg said, adding that the Swedish government had no further comment.
The caricature, published on August 19 in the regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, shows the prophet's head on a dog's body.
The cartoon by artist Lars Vilks has earlier triggered protests by Muslim groups and others in Sweden and was withdrawn from an art exhibition.
The editor of Nerikes Allehanda Ulf Johansson defended his decision to publish the cartoon along with an article on freedom of speech and self-censorship.
The September 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper triggered angry protests in many Muslim countries in January and February 2006. - Sapa-dpa
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