WASHINGTON, Feb 4: The US State Department, in its second response in less than 24 hours to sacrilegious caricatures published in a section of the European media, strongly condemned the sketches as “offensive” and urged both sides to show restraint.

“We find them offensive. And we certainly understand why Muslims would find these images offensive,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack while giving the official US reaction to the offensive cartoons. Earlier on Friday, another State Department spokesman, Kurtis Cooper, had said the US recognizes that “these cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims.”

But at a later briefing Mr McCormack, when asked if the US saw those cartoons only as offensive to Muslim beliefs or also saw them as such, said that the US government not only found them offensives but also “share(s) the offence that Muslims have taken at these images.”

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, applauded the US position. The State Department reaction was “a strong statement in support of Muslims around the world, ” he said.