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Authorities in the Russian town of Volgograd have closed the publisher of a newspaper that depicted Mohammed and other religious figures, the local government said Thursday.
"The decision to close Volgograd-Info, the publisher of newspaper Gorodski Vesti, was made after the publication on February 9 of an article entitled 'There is no room for racists in power,' and accompanied by caricatures that provoked a negative reaction from religious groups," said a Volgograd official quoted by news agency Itar-Tass.
The drawing depicted Christ, Moses, Buddha and Mohammed seated in front of a television set that showed two groups of men about to start a fight.
"We never taught them that!" the caption read.
Authorities in the town formerly known as Stalingrad said that by closing the publishing house they hoped to halt the incitement to religious hatred and abuse of freedom of expression by the media.
On Monday another regional newspaper, Nach Reguion, published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. The next day, the newspaper apologized for what it called a "mistake," reported news agency Interfax.
Nach Reguion's editor invited those who were offended by the cartoons to write to the newspaper.
Russian Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov called on the Russian media Wednesday to abstain from publishing items that risked offending religious sensibilities.
Muslims have held numerous violent demonstrations across the Arab world to protest the recent publications in European newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
ml/eb/shn
Europe-Islam-media-Russia
AFP 161518 GMT 02 06
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