Clashes
and arrests in Turkey over magazine cartoon allegedly depicting prophet
Muhammad
Turkey
police face demonstrators after prosecutor orders arrests at LeMan magazine,
whose editor-in-chief denies allegation and says image has been deliberately
misinterpreted
Agence
France-Presse in Istanbul
Tue 1 Jul
2025 03.54 BST
Clashes
erupted in Istanbul with police firing rubber bullets and teargas to disperse a
mob on Monday after allegations that a satirical magazine had published a
cartoon of the prophet Muhammad.
The clashes
occurred after Istanbul’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the editors at
LeMan magazine on grounds it had published a cartoon that “publicly insulted
religious values”.
The
magazine’s editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgun, said the image had been
misinterpreted.
“This
cartoon is not a caricature of prophet Muhammad in any way,” he told Agence
France-Presse. “In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the
bombardments of Israel is fictionalised as Muhammad. More than 200 million
people in the Islamic world are named Muhammad.
“[It] has
nothing to do with prophet Muhammad. We would never take such a risk.”
As the news
broke, several dozen angry protesters attacked a bar often frequented by LeMan
staffers in downtown Istanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP
correspondent said.
The scuffles
quickly became clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent
said.
Founded in
1991, LeMan is famed for its political satire and has long been the bane of
conservatives, especially following its support for France’s Charlie Hebdo
after its Paris offices were attacked in 2015 by Islamist gunmen who killed 12
following the magazine’s publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
The interior
minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said on that X police had arrested the cartoonist
responsible for the image as well as LeMan’s graphic designer.
“The person
named DP who made this vile drawing has been caught and taken into custody,” he
wrote, adding: “These shameless individuals will be held accountable before the
law.”
Others named
in the arrest warrant were LeMan’s editor-in-chief and its managing editor,
media reports said.
In a string
of posts on X, LeMan defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately
misinterpreted to cause a provocation.
“The
cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people
by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, he never intended to belittle religious
values,” it said. “We do not accept the stigma imposed on us because there is
no depiction of our prophet. It takes a very malicious person to interpret the
cartoon in this way."
“We
apologise to our well-intentioned readers who we think were subjected to
provocations.”
The justice
minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said an investigation had been opened on grounds of
“publicly insulting religious values”.
“Disrespect
towards our beliefs is never acceptable,” he wrote on X. “No freedom grants the
right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of ugly humour. The
caricature or any form of visual representation of our prophet not only harms
our religious values but also damages societal peace.”
Istanbul’s
governor, Davut Gul, also lashed out at “this mentality that seeks to provoke
society by attacking our sacred values”.
“We will not
remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation’s faith,” he
said.
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