Horror moment hundreds storm Turkish magazine wrongly believing it printed forbidden image of Prophet as staff arrested
accused of publishing a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad
.
LeMan is facing heated demonstrations over claims it published a forbidden picture of the sacred Islamic figure - as four employees at the satirical magazine are arrested.
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Angry protesters clash with riot police in Istanbul after accusing a magazine of publishing a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad
Credit: AFP
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Up to 300 people lined the streets outside the LeMan offices in protest
Credit: AFP
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Cops had to fire rubber bullets and use tear gas to break up the angry mob
Credit: AFP
Another four - including the editor-in-chief - were also hit by arrest warrants by Turkish prosecutors.
Turkey's interior minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed the warrants and condemned LeMan's drawing as "
shameless
".
LeMan have denied the cartoon was a caricature of Muhammad as they said on X: "The work does not refer to the Prophet Muhammad in any way."
But their social media defence did little to calm down up to 300 hundred raging Muslims who took to the streets of Istanbul to protest the magazine.
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read more in turkey
Fierce demonstrations kicked off outside the LeMan headquarters with riot police being deployed to stop the growing crowd.
Protesters could be heard chanting "tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge" at one point.
As the issues continued on into the evening, cops were forced to use rubber bullets and tear
gas
to disperse the crowds, witnesses claimed.
LeMan's editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun said the work had been misinterpreted and the magazine would "never take such a risk".
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Investigations were opened up against the magazine around the June 26, 2025 issue.
The controversial image showed a black-and-white image with two characters hovering in the skies over a city under bombardment from air
strikes
.
Brit tourists face holiday chaos with strikes confirmed for 180,000 hospitality staff throughout July on hotspot islands
The two men both said their names - Muhammad and Moses - in the cartoon via speech bubbles.
Both names are synonyms with religion with Muhammad being sacred among Muslims and Moses being the most important prophet in Judaism as well as being involved in Christianity and
Islam
.
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A post from LeMan justified the cartoon as they claimed: "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."
Istanbul governor Davut Gul lashed out the cartoonist's reasoning.
He said "this mentality seeks to provoke society by attacking our sacred values".
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Gul added: "We will not remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation's faith."
Founded in 1991, LeMan has long lived on the edge through many of their drawings.
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Turkish police secure the street in front of the headquarters of LeMan Magazine
Credit: EPA
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Protesters could be heard chanting 'tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge' at one point
Credit: AFP
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And Akgun now fears the level of backlash his magazine is experiencing draws worrying "similarities with Charlie Hebdo".
In 2015, a disturbing attack on a French satirical magazine left 12 people dead after gunmen stormed the publishers after they released a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
The heinous attack was carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists who caused three days of carnage in Paris after going on the run.
Many Muslims view any depiction of Muhammad as sacrilege including pictures, cartoons and artist's interpretations.
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They are prohibited due to believers fearing it may encourage the worship of idols.
Others also say any attempt to picture prophets - including Allah - can't be true and accurate depictions so will therefore be insulting.
There is no specific ban in the Koran on images of the Prophet however.
Two major events have sparked fury among religious believers in recent years - including the Charlie Hebdo attack.
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The second saw Swedish artist Lars Vilks
This act prompted years of death threats as Vilks was forced to go into police protection for over a decade following two assassination attempts.
In 2021, he was found dead after a mystery car crash.
The Charlie Hebdo terror attack
OVER a decade ago, al-Qaeda terrorists stormed the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and killed 12 people in an act of vengeance.
Brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, 32 and 34, brutally ambushed the paper's offices in retaliation for a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad being printed.
On January 7, 2015, the Kouachi brothers shot and killed the caretaker, Frederic Boisseau, before forcing cartoonist Corinne Rey to open the second-floor office where the editorial meeting was happening.
The terrorist brothers stormed the meeting room, killing police officer Franck Brinsolaro, editor Stephane Charbonnier, and cartoonists Jean Cabut, Georges Wolinski, Bernard Verlhac, and Philippe Honore.
Economist and writer Bernard Maris, psychiatrist Elsa Cayat, copy editor Mustapha Ourrad and visitor Michel Renaud were also killed in the heinous attack.
Five minutes after the attacks, the evil Kouachi brothers came onto the street and got into their car to flee the scene.
They attempted to drive north but got into a shootout with a police vehicle where one brave cop, Ahmed Merabet, got wounded before one of the brothers shot him in the head.
The two fled to a printworks in the capital before an eight-hour standoff with cops took place.
In the early evening, smoke was seen rising from the building as a result of explosions and gunfire.
The Kouachi brothers then emerged from the building, firing at police.
The terrorists were killed in the shoot out, while two cops were left injured.
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Gunmen flee the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015 after an attack on the cartoon
Credit: Reuters
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