STOCKHOLM, Aug 27: Iran summoned a Swedish diplomat to its foreign ministry on Monday to protest against a blasphemous cartoon in a Swedish newspaper, Sweden's foreign ministry said.

“Gunilla von Bahr, Sweden's charge d'affaires, was summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry on Monday where she received a protest from the Iranian government,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Anna Bjoerkander said.

The Iranian government told Von Bahr the cartoon was ‘offensive’ to Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). The cartoon was drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, whose series of drawings of the Prophet have sparked a controversy in Sweden. Several art galleries refused to display the sketches amid fears of angry reactions from Muslims.

The Oerebro local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of the drawings on Aug 18 to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of religion. “The editorial was critical of the fact that so many had turned down Vilks's drawings for fear of the reactions they would provoke,” Nerikes Allehanda's chief editor Ulf Johansson said.

On Saturday, a week after the publication, a group of about 60 Muslims held a demonstration outside the newspaper's office to protest against the publication of the sketch.—AFP