OSLO (Reuters) - The editor of a Norwegian newspaper which reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad said on Friday he regretted publication, after dozens of death threats and a growing international furore.
Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as blasphemous, and the drawings, first published in Denmark in September, have whipped up fury around the Arab world.
"It's escalating all the time and I am worried," Vebjoen Selbekk, editor of the Oslo-based Christian Magazinet newspaper, told Reuters.
He said he had published the cartoons as an expression of free speech but after receiving 25 death threats, mostly by e-mail, and thousands of hate mails, he had changed his mind.
"If I had dreamt something like this happening I would not have done it. It's out of control," he said.
"It's a terrible day when an editor has to back down from freedom of expression but this is too much."
Magazinet sells around 5,000 copies a week and published the 12 cartoons on Jan. 10, alongside an interview with two Norwegian cartoonists who said they would not draw Mohammad out of fear for their lives.
Norway's left-of-centre government has expressed regret over any offence caused to Muslims by the publication but has said that it cannot muzzle press freedoms.
Two other larger Norwegian daily newspapers have published smaller copies of the cartoons in their Internet editions.
Norway has pulled diplomats and aid workers out of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after receiving death threats and on Friday around 200 white-clad protesters rampaged through a Jakarta hotel which houses Denmark's embassy.
