ROME, 17 April 2006 — An Italian Catholic magazine has published a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cut in half and burning in hell, triggering protests from the country’s Muslim leaders, daily La Repubblica reported yesterday.
The chief editor of Studi Cattolici, Cesare Cavalleri, says the cartoon is inspired by 13th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who places Prophet Muhammad in hell for bringing divisions to the world in his famous book, the Divine Comedy.
But Muslim leaders say the cartoon is blasphemous, unfunny and dangerous.
In remarks published by La Repubblica, Mario Scialoja of the Italian chapter of the World Muslim League criticized the cartoon’s “extreme bad taste” while another Muslim leader called it “a provocation.”
“If you are looking for trouble and you want to help extremists, this is the way to do it,” said Hamza Piccardo of the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy.
Cavalleri, a member of the influential Catholic movement Opus Dei, says the cartoon was not meant to offend Muslims. In another cartoon published in the same March edition of Studi Cattolici, Italy is also mocked over its alleged failure to properly tackle the “Muslim problem.”
Asked if he was concerned that the cartoons might trigger a terrorist attack in Italy, Cavalleri said: “If the drawings were to produce an attack, it would only confirm the idiotic positions” of Islamic extremists.
Pope Benedict XVI has strongly criticized the publication of anti-Muslim cartoons by Danish newspapers while the Italian Interior Ministry recently said it had foiled a planned terrorist attack against a church in Bologna that host frescoes of Prophet Muhammad in hell inspired by Dante.
