By Phumza Macanda
JOHANNESBURG | Fri May 21, 2010 4:42pm IST
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African weekly on Friday published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad complaining that his followers lack a sense of humour, angering Muslims and raising fear of reprisal attacks during next month's World Cup.
South Africa will host the month-long soccer tournament from June 11 and police have pledged to protect the 300,000 expected foreign visitors and the teams taking part.
The Mail & Guardian newspaper published a sketch by renowned South African cartoonist Zapiro after a court rejected an overnight bid by Muslim advocacy groups for an injunction to prevent the newspaper from printing the cartoon.
In 2005, a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Mohammad which were subsequently republished elsewhere, sparking violent protests that killed several dozen people.
South Africa's Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) said it would meet to discuss the cartoon, which it deemed highly offensive to the religious sensibilities of Muslims.
"It 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," said MJC President Ihsaan Hendricks.
"The M&G (Mail & Guardian) needed to understand that offending the South African Muslim community is offending the international Muslim community," he added.
About 80 percent of South Africa's 50 million population is Christian and 1.5 percent Muslim. An alleged al Qaeda militant who was arrested in Iraq on Monday said he had suggested an attack on the Danish and Dutch teams at the World Cup to avenge insults against the Prophet Mohammad.
(Additional Reporting by Xola Potelwa; Editing by Marius Bosch and Mark Heinrich)
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