Welsh Archbishop Apologises for Prophet Cartoon

|TOP|The Anglican Archbishop of Wales, the Rt Rev Barry Morgan, has made a public apology to Welsh officers of the Muslim Council of Britain after a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed was published in Y Llan, the Church in Wales’ regular magazine.

Ekklesia reports the apology was accepted by a Welsh MCB spokesperson, who also said he recognised that no offence had been intended in the publication of the cartoon.

The cartoon was itself a commentary on the recent Danish controversy, depicting the Prophet alongside representative figures from other world religions – who are shown as saying that they too have been caricatured, the leading theological thinktank reported.

The commentary was featured in a February 2006 article on the shared roots of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

|AD|In a bid to maintain the strong relations that have been built up between the Church in Wales and the Welsh Muslim community, Dr Morgan personally contacted Dr Saleem Kidwai of the Muslim Council of Wales.

The Anglican Church in Wales announced Tuesday it had recalled around 400 copies of Y Llan after appearing the cartoon that earlier appeared in French newspaper France Soir.

"The Church in Wales is thoroughly investigating how this cartoon came to be reproduced in Y Llan," it said in a statement previously.

"Despite the publication's small circulation, we are concerned about the possibility of causing any offence to the Muslim community in Wales -- with whom the Church in Wales has an excellent relationship -- as a result of the reproduction of this cartoon."

The investigation into how the cartoon came to be appear in the magazine will be conducted by the Bishop of St Davids, Carl Cooper.

A Cardiff University student union newspaper was withdrawn last month after it printed one of the Danish cartoons.