20091231
france24

Senegal's Muslim President Abdoulaye Wade has issued an apology to Christians after his claim on Monday that the country's Muslim majority did not view Jesus Christ as "God" triggered protests in the streets of Dakar.

AFP - Senegal's Muslim President Abdoulaye Wade has issued a apology to Christians following remarks that triggered street protests, the Senegal news agency APS reported.

Wade said Monday that Jesus Christ was not viewed as God by the country's majority Muslims.

Young Christians clashed with security forces in the capital on Wednesday after Cardinal Theodore Adrien Sarr, the archbishop of Dakar, accused the government of insulting Senegal's Christians.

The president's son, Karim Wade, who is also a government minister, issued the apology on behalf of the head of state.

"If the remarks of the president of the republic have offended Senegal's Christians, we present our apologies to them and to the international Christian community," Wade was quoted as saying by APS.

On Monday the president said Muslims viewed Christian churches as places to "pray to someone who is not God."

In his New Year message Wednesday, the archbishop said it was "scandalous and intolerable that the divinity of Jesus Christ, heart of our faith, is called into question and ridiculed by the highest authority of the state."

About 90 percent of Senegal's population are Muslim and have traditionally lived in harmony with minority faiths.