Wary of offending the Religion of Peace, British author Kes Gray has renamed a character in one of his children’s books.

LONDON: First there was Mohammed the Mole and Dipak the Dalmatian. Now there is Morgan the Mole and Dipak the Dalmatian. A British children’s author who named his fictitious mole Mohammed and the dog Dipak in an attempt to promote multi-culturalism, has backed away from the first for fear of offending Muslims.

Author Kes Gray said he changed the mole’s name after reading about the fate of British school teacher Gillian Gibbons who is in prison in Sudan for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Gray told The Sunday Times , London that he “had no idea at all of the sensitivities of the name Mohammed until seeing this case in Sudan” and he added that the Hindu and Muslim names for his animals characters had merely been a way to “embrace other cultures…I had no idea it would backfire like this. I was in Egypt this year and everyone was called Mohammed. I just thought it was a popular name”.

(Hat tip: LGF readers.)