Muslims claim Coca-Cola logo is blasphemous

Indian clerics claim the Coca-Cola logo contains a blasphemous anti-Islamic message.

Muslims claim the phrase 'there's no prophet and no Mecca' can be read if the red cans are held up to a mirror.

Cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad says the message is defamatory and sacrilegious, and is calling on Muslims to declare war on Coca-Cola if the offending logo is not changed.

He said: "I have read the mirror image and the reading is purely anti-Islamic.

"We are giving the company two months to carry out the necessary changes. If they fail to do so, I will ask Muslims to declare a war against Coca-Cola."

Younous Nagrami, head of the Arabic department of Lucknow University, said that if Jawad's claim is true, then the logo is unacceptable to the Muslim community.

He said he had not seen the logo himself, but added: "There is no reason to disbelieve Jawad."

Irfan Khan, Coca-Cola's vice-president in corporate affairs, said: "We know that there are some protests in Lucknow over the logo, but this is uncalled for.

"It is not true that the mirror image of Coca-Cola in Arabic means something which is blasphemous."