Catholic magazine in Prophet cartoon row

Catholic magazine in Prophet cartoon row
NICK PISA
IN ROME
THE controversy over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad was reignited yesterday after an Italian Catholic magazine printed one on its front cover.

Studi Cattolici carried a drawing of the Prophet in Hell, with the

Italian writer Dante Alighieri asking the poet Virgil: "That man divided in two from his head to his feet - isn't that Muhammad?" Virgil replies: "Yes, it is him and he is in two because he has divided society - while the man next to him with his arms down represents Italian politics towards Islam."

The cartoon is a play on Dante's Inferno - a similar scene is painted on the ceiling of the San Petronio Cathedral in Bologna, which had been the planned target of a Islamic terrorist cell until the plot was uncovered.

Yesterday, there was widespread condemnation of the decision to print the cartoon - earlier this year riots erupted across the Muslim world after similar cartoons were published in Denmark.

But Studi Cattolici, which has close ties with the Vatican and the secretive Opus Dei group, defended the decision to publish it.

Its editor, Cesare Cavallieri, said: "It is not a cartoon against Muhammad but rather a cartoon about the loss of identity in the West."

More @ http://tinyurl.com/qpkah Scotsman

You'll notice that the 'Scotsman' did not deem it worthwhile to post the cartoon. Since the 'Scotsman' seems to lack the guts of my distant ancestors its left to me to pick up the slack.