SEATTLE – A Seattle cartoonist who became the target of a death threat with a satirical piece called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” has gone into hiding on the advice of the FBI.

Mark D. Fefer, editor-in-chief of the Seattle Weekly, announced in Wednesday’s issue that Molly Norris’ comic would no longer appear in the paper.

Fefer wrote that the FBI advised Norris to move, change her name and wipe away her identity because of a religious edict issued this summer that threatened her life.

“She is, in effect, being put in a witness-protection program — except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab,” Fefer wrote. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had nothing further to say because it’s a sensitive situation.

The FBI also declined to comment Thursday. David Gomez, the FBI’s special agent in charge of counterterrorism in Seattle, told the New York Daily News in July that the agency was doing everything it could to protect individuals on a fatwa list issued by Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Awlaki said in the June issue of the English-language Muslim youth magazine Inspire that Norris is a “prime target” who should reside in “hellfire.”

Norris’ cartoon inspired a Facebook page that caught the attention of authorities in Pakistan, who banned the social networking site in response.

Most Muslims regard any depiction of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.

The Facebook page encouraged people to post images of Mohammed to protest threats against the creators of the TV series “South Park” for depicting the prophet in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.

Although the Facebook page was taken down by its creator, references to the page and to Norris’ cartoon remain online.