Outcry in South Africa over prophet cartoon with World Cup around corner
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A South African newspaper on Friday published a Mohamed cartoon which has upset South African Muslims with the World Cup being just around the corner.
The cartoon in the weekly Mail & Guardian shows Mohamed on a psychiatrist's couch complaining "Other prophets have followers with a sense of humor."
On Thursday night South African Muslim advocacy groups failed in a court bid to prevent the Mail & Guardian printing the cartoon.
The issue provoked a flood of responses on South African radio talk shows and internet sites.
Ihsaan Hendricks, president of South Africa's Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), said the cartoon "seems to be provocative in many ways on the very eve of the World Cup in South Africa, when we need peaceful co-existence and co-operation amongst religious communities in South Africa."
He said the newspaper should understand that offending the South African Muslim community is offending the international Muslim community.
On Friday morning the Mail & Guardian said on its website that its editor-in-chief Nic Dawes and other staff were fielding a flood of angry callers, and even death threats hit the newspaper's office.
"You've got to watch your back" and "This will cost him his life" were some of the remarks made.
Dawes recounted how he received a call from an attorney from the council at about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday night, after the distribution process of the Friday paper had begun. "He asked for an undertaking that we would stop distribution of the paper and remove the cartoon."
Dawes pointed out that this was impossible, and that in any event the M&G would not do so.
The Mail & Guardian said that during Thursday's application the Muslim Judicial Council repeatedly raised the specter of a violent backlash, saying that the timing of the cartoon was bad because of a possible threat to the FIFA World Cup.
It added that while it wouldn't advocate violence, it couldn't necessarily guarantee that there wouldn't be any.
"We very much saw that as a threat, and our counsel vigorously objected," said Dawes. The judge upheld the objection.
On Tuesday Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani told journalists in Iraq that he had discussed with friends an idea to attack the Danish and Dutch World Cup teams.
In 2006 a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons of the prophet, sparking international outrage among Muslims.
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