BERLIN, Germany: New and unregistered users' ability to edit an entry on Muhammad has been disabled by Wikipedia while petitioners try to get the online encyclopedia to remove depictions of Islam's prophet (s).

The online encyclopedia includes an image from 1315, said to be the earliest artistic portrayal of the prophet. The entry explains that most Muslims object to visual depictions, although the practice was better tolerated in medieval times.

About 100,000 people have signed a petition asking Wikipedia "to respect the religion" and taking aim at the images with the Muhammad entry. But many signatures support the images.

During an interview Thursday, Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh said that the decision to "protect" edits from new and unregistered users -- and the decision to leave the images of Muhammad -- are made by editors and administrators. They make those decisions based on the values, principles, and policies of Wikipedia, which prides itself on not censoring people, he said.

"Non-censorship is an important tenet of the user community and the edit community," he said, adding that some images under anatomical entries can be considered offensive by some people.

Several pages of the online encyclopedia include depictions of the prophet (s).