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NASHVILLE A popular conservative blogger and former newspaper journalist has resigned from his job at Belmont University in response to a cartoon he drew depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad holding a bomb.

Bill Hobbs, who operated the Web log BillHobbs.com, announced his resignation from Belmont's marketing and communications department Friday on another blog, http://www.nashvillefiles.com/blog.

"I am resigning from Belmont University in an amicable and mutual parting of the ways, effective Monday," he wrote.

The announcement came two days after the cartoon was the subject of a story in the Nashville Scene, a local alternative weekly paper.

Hobbs, a former reporter at The Tennessean, posted an earlier message at the Nashville Files site apologizing for the cartoon, which represented Muhammad as a stick figure. He called his cartoon appalling, saying it was drawn in a "moment of personal weakness."

Belmont offices were closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday. Neither Hobbs nor Belmont's communications director, Greg Pillon, responded to calls or e-mails Friday seeking comment.

The drawing was posted to a Web site in late February after caricatures of Muhammad appearing in a Danish newspaper caused a worldwide furor among Muslims.

Hobbs' cartoon has since been taken off the Internet, according to his own Web posts.