Was the bomb that almost exploded in busy, crowded New York's Times Square a fulfillment of the prophecy/threat by the followers of the Prophet Mohammed and his religion of peace that death would befall Cartman and his South Park creators if they portrayed and mocked the holy one? Britain's The Telegraph suggests  it might be.

The device, which failed to detonate, was left near the offices of Viacom, which owns the irreverent cartoon series.

(snip)

A posting on the website of a US-based group called Revolution Muslim warned Stone and Parker that they would "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh", the Dutch film-maker who was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim angered by his film about Muslim women.

Images of the Prophet are strictly forbidden in Islam, and Comedy Central, which broadcasts South Park, has banned Stone and Parker from depicting Mohammed in the past. In 2006 the network stopped them from featuring Mohammed in an episode which followed worldwide protests over a caricature of the Prophet by a Danish cartoonist.

Detectives are also understood to be investigating striking similarities between the New York bomb and two car bombs planted by Islamic terrorists outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London in 2007.

In both cases, the devices comprised cylinders of propane gas and cans full of petrol intended to be ignited by electronic detonators.

contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two five gallon gasoline containers, two clocks with batteries, electrical wires and a 4ft by 2ft metal box.