Foreign Minister Taro Aso criticized some European publications Monday for printing contentious cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, calling such action "shallow."

"Even people like us who are not Muslims know the fact that idolatry is absolutely impossible (in Islam)," Aso told a Diet committee. "If someone familiar with that kind of thing did so, I say, from my personal feelings, it could have been shallow."

Aso made the remarks during a session of the House of Representatives committee on the reconstruction of Iraq, answering a question posed by lawmaker Takuya Tasso of the Democratic Party of Japan.

The cartoons, first printed in a Danish newspaper in September and since reprinted in other European publications, have sparked violent protests by Muslims worldwide that have resulted in injuries and deaths.