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Turkey arrests cartoonist, journalists accused of depicting Prophet Muhammad, Moses amid outrage
There is a growing call to boycott Turkey in India after it backed Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. File photp/AFP
Four journalists from LeMan, a long-running Turkish satirical magazine, were detained by police on Monday (30 June) after a cartoon sparked outrage for allegedly depicting the Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses.
One of those detained has been identified as cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan. The others are a graphic designer, the magazine's editor-in-chief, and its institutional director.
The cartoon drew strong condemnation from Turkish government officials and religious conservatives, who accused the artists of insulting religious values, sparking widespread outrage and protests.
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Peygamber Efendimizin (S.A.V) karikatürünü yaparak nifak tohumları ekmeye çalışanları bir kez daha lanetliyorum.
Bu alçak çizimi yapan D.P. adlı şahıs yakalanarak gözaltına alınmıştır.
Bir kez daha yineliyorum:
Bu hayasızlar hukuk önünde hesap verecektir. pic.twitter.com/7xYe94B65d — Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) June 30, 2025
Police also detained Pehlevan over the cartoon, which led to demonstrations outside LeMan's Istanbul office. In multiple posts on X (formerly Twitter), Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed the arrests and shared videos showing the four journalists being taken away.
'I once again curse those who try to sow discord by drawing caricatures of our Prophet Muhammad,' Yerlikaya posted. 'The person named DP who made this vile drawing has been caught and taken into custody… These shameless individuals will be held accountable before the law.'
Three other videos shared by the minister showed police forcefully arresting the other men—one of them barefoot—as they were taken from their homes and placed into police vans. Authorities said a total of six people are facing detention orders in connection with the cartoon, according to Reuters.
Earlier, Turkey's justice minister announced an investigation into the magazine for possibly 'publicly insulting religious values.'
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A group of young people, reportedly linked to an Islamist group, threw stones at LeMan's headquarters after the magazine published a cartoon showing Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses exchanging greetings in mid-air while missiles fell from the sky.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç said such drawings harmed religious feelings and social harmony.
'No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of humour in an ugly way,' he said.
The incident has revived memories of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, when two gunmen stormed the French satirical magazine's office after it published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, killing 12 people, including prominent cartoonists.
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