French Mohammed cartoons 'fuel on the fire': Vatican daily

VATICAN CITY, CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

A man reads on September 19, 2012 in Paris, the back cover of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo which features on the front cover of its September 19 issue a satirical drawing titled "Intouchables 2". AFP Photo

The Vatican's official daily Osservatore Romano today condemned a French weekly's publication of cartoons of a naked Prophet Mohammed as "fuel on the fire".

"The debatable initiative by the French magazine threatens... to add more fuel to the fire after the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi," the newspaper said.

Al-Azhar slams French Mohammed cartoons

Sunni Islam's highest authority today condemned a French weekly's publication of cartoons of a naked Prophet Mohammed, with the region still reeling from an anti-Islam film that sparked deadly protests.
 
Al-Azhar expressed "its and all Muslims' utmost rejection of the insistence of a French publication in printing caricatures offensive to Islam and its Prophet, the prophet of humanity," Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb said in a statement.

He said that such acts "that fuel hatred in the name of freedom are completely rejected... Freedom should stop (where it affects) other people's freedoms," in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.

The new controversy triggered by the pictures in satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo comes as tempers are already running high over an anti-Islam film made in California and posted on the Internet, with at least 30 people killed in unrest.