The owner of a Tunisian television station has apologized for showing parts of the animated film "Persepolis" considered blasphemous by some ultra-conservative Muslims.
Nabil Karoui of Nessma TV said in a radio interview Tuesday that he never meant to attack the "sacred values of Tunisians."
Hundreds of religious hardliners, known as Salafists, tried to attack the station Sunday and were beaten back by police.
"Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi's adaptation of her graphic novels about growing up during Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, contains a scene showing a character representing God. Depictions of God are considered sacrilege in Islam.
The incident raised fears of the influence of Islamists in Tunisia after the uprising that ousted its dictator.