Officials in Hamburg were reportedly unhappy at having a character with the same name as Sacha Baron Cohen’s Nazi-praising Austrian journalist Bruno.

They also wanted something that would not offend the Muslim community, and so chose the Turkish name Aydan.

They have also demanded that more Muslim characters be put in and that women have equal character status as men in the stories and said that disabled people must also feature in the book.

The book, The Adventures of Aydan, is described as “an attempt to bring dull topics such as politics and democracy closer to kids”.

Hello,

I am a British artist and writer living in the mountains of Granada, Southern Spain.

I have just found on the internet the the news item above and I am concerned because I have recently written and illustrated two children’s books which have just been published in the USA. They are innocent little tales and it was never my intention that they should cause offence to anyone.

However, like the German book, the hero in one of them, The Wise Old Boar, is called Bruno. When I named him, I had never heard of Sacha Baron Cohen’s character. Also, it never occurred to me that the fact that Bruno is a boar might offend the Muslim community. In the mountains where I live they are very common animals.

Does this mean my book will be banned?

Will a fatwah be issued against me?

To support my innocence I can email you the pdf file of the book.

Help!

Margaret Merry