A Turkish cartoonist was detained and his satirical magazine targeted by protesters after publishing a controversial cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad, a move that has reignited a fierce debate over free speech and religious sensitivity in the country.
Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed the arrest on Monday, posting a video on X showing the cartoonist, identified only as DP, being handcuffed and escorted by officers down a stairwell. He said the artist was taken into custody for questioning.
The cartoon, published by the Istanbul-based Leman magazine , showed the Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses exchanging greetings mid-air while missiles rained down around them. The image quickly triggered outrage, including an attack on the magazine’s headquarters, where a group of young men reportedly associated with an Islamist organisation hurled stones at the building.
Justice minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation had been opened into the magazine, citing potential charges of “publicly insulting religious values.”
“Cartoons or drawings depicting the Prophet harmed religious sensitivities and social harmony,” Tunc said.
“No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief a subject of humour in an ugly way,” he added.
The episode drew comparisons to the 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where gunmen killed 12 people after the outlet published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad -- a tragedy that underscored the risks faced by artists and journalists tackling religious taboos.
Two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi carried out the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, storming Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris, spraying gunfire on January 7, 2015, nearly a decade after the weekly published cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
A third attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a police woman and then four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb. Like the Kouachis, Coulibaly was killed in a shootout with police.
Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed the arrest on Monday, posting a video on X showing the cartoonist, identified only as DP, being handcuffed and escorted by officers down a stairwell. He said the artist was taken into custody for questioning.
The cartoon, published by the Istanbul-based Leman magazine , showed the Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses exchanging greetings mid-air while missiles rained down around them. The image quickly triggered outrage, including an attack on the magazine’s headquarters, where a group of young men reportedly associated with an Islamist organisation hurled stones at the building.
Justice minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation had been opened into the magazine, citing potential charges of “publicly insulting religious values.”
“Cartoons or drawings depicting the Prophet harmed religious sensitivities and social harmony,” Tunc said.
“No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief a subject of humour in an ugly way,” he added.
The episode drew comparisons to the 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where gunmen killed 12 people after the outlet published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad -- a tragedy that underscored the risks faced by artists and journalists tackling religious taboos.
Two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi carried out the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, storming Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris, spraying gunfire on January 7, 2015, nearly a decade after the weekly published cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
A third attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a police woman and then four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb. Like the Kouachis, Coulibaly was killed in a shootout with police.
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