The DVLA has withdrawn a vehicle registration plate which looked like it spelled the word “jihad” after complaints from members of the public.
The Ford Fiesta with the plate “JH11 HAD” was seen driving in Newport and reported to authorities.
The DVLA claimed it “slipped through the net” and had subsequently withdrawn it, sending a replacement plate to the owner.
The word “Jihad” means to struggle Arabic, but in recent years the normative Islamic concept has been demonised and made synonymous with terrorism.
The DVLA said the private registration plate was purchased last October, and was not detected by the system designed to prevent “offensive” registrations being released.
A DVLA spokesman said: “We try to identify all combinations that may cause offence and on the rare occasion where potentially offensive numbers slip through the net, steps are taken to withdraw the number.
“As soon as we became aware of this last week we withdrew it and would have then sent a replacement plate.”
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Registration plates resembling the word jihad, specifically those starting with JE and ending HAD, are unavailable.
