ROME - The editor of an Italian monthly has apologized for any offense to Muslims over a humorous caption for a drawing showing the Prophet Muhammad in hell, Italian news reports said Sunday.
Italian news agencies on Sunday quoted the journals editor, Cesare Cavalleri, as "apologizing, as a Christian," for any offense.
Milan daily Corriere della Sera said that the journal had run a humorous caption next to the drawing, which was inspired by Dantes depiction of Muhammad in hell in his "Divine Comedy."
Cavalleri was quoted as saying the vignette "was interpreted as being anti-Islam when, if anything, it was a denunciation of a cultural identity crisis in the West," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Cavalleri as saying. "In any case, if, contrary to my and the authors intentions, someone felt offended in his religious feelings, I willingly apologize as a Christian."
News reports said Cavalleri is a member of Opus Dei, a conservative religious organization that had the favor of the late Pope John Paul II.
Muslims make up a small percentage of people in predominantly Roman Catholic Italy.
