Berlin: The Iranian embassy in Germany has protested to a German newspaper for publishing a "disgusting and abhorrent" cartoon portraying Iranian footballers as suicide bombers.
Under the headline "Why the German army absolutely must be deployed for the World Cup", the cartoon published last Thursday shows four Iranian footballers with bombs strapped around their stomachs alongside four German soldiers.
The letter to the center-left Tagesspiegel newspaper said the cartoon "had provoked disgust and abhorrence among sportsmen, the Iranian people, sports fans in the entire world as well as Iranians living in Germany".
The embassy said the media bore the responsibility for portraying the World Cup in a positive light and said it reserved the right to take legal action.
Iran is among the qualifiers for the 32-nation World Cup which kicks off in Germany on June 9 with the final on July 9.
The cartoonist, Klaus Stuttmann, said he had received three e-mailed death threats over the cartoon.
He insisted he had not intended to offend Iran but was trying to make an ironic point.
"I am against soldiers being deployed for the World Cup and tried to make my point of view clear that I find the suggestion absurd," he said in an interview to be published in Tagesspiegel on Tuesday.
"I do not see the Iranians as suicide bombers, and they are not. On the contrary, they are sportsmen like other sportsmen. So that is why we do not need the army."
Patricia Wolf, the duty editor of Tagesspiegel, said the newspaper had received no complaints on the day of publication, but a flood of 66 furious emails arrived in the early hours of Saturday.
"Misunderstandings are always regrettable. But whoever wages a campaign against a country, a newspaper or even against individuals, is behaving irresponsibly," Wolf said.
Comments
0 comment