Washington: A cartoonist who offended the Sikh community in the US by associating them with Osama bin Laden in her caricatures, has apologised for her action, saying her "insensitivity to the Sikh situation was idiotic and unfortunate", but clarified that she meant no harm.

Carol Lay's cartoon depicting a Sikh as "Randy bin Laden, Osama's no-good cousin," sparked an uproar in the Sikh community in Washington with a legal team of the United Sikhs Organisation accumulating more than 2,500 signatures on a petition demanding a public apology from her.

Lay did remove the cartoon from her Website after this backlash, but later tried to make light of the controversy and put up another cartoon on the site titled 'Field Guide to Turbans,' in which she illustrated the different kinds of turbans worn.

"Lay's attempts to make a connection between a Sikh man and the world's biggest fugitive, especially by using remarks such as 'a shady character' and 'Osama's no-good cousin Randy bin Laden', amounts to stereotyping, and is likely to trigger more misdirected behaviour and hate crimes against Sikh Americans," the legal team said.

The Sikh community is suffering a backlash since the September 11 attacks, and a US court recently handed down a death sentence to a man who shot down a Sikh after mistaking him for an Arab a day after 9/11.

"I wouldn't go as far as to call it an apology. We're happy that she took down the cartoons and we're happy that she recognises that they were distasteful. We would like a better apology, but we're happy with what we got," Harneet Singh, the United Sikhs' legal advisor told 'India West' newspaper.

PTI