Turkish police arrest cartoonists over drawing ‘showing prophet Muhammad'
The cartoon, published a few days after the end of a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, appears to show Muhammad, Islam's chief prophet, and Moses, one of Judaism's most important prophets, shaking hands in the sky while missiles fly below in a wartime scene. Four cartoonists were arrested on Monday over the illustration.
It was criticised by religious conservatives and by Erdoğan's ruling party, which called it an 'Islamophobic hate crime,' even as the magazine that published it, LeMan, apologised to readers who felt offended and said the drawing had been misunderstood.
'We will not allow anyone to speak against our sacred values,' Erdoğan said in televised remarks, adding that the authorities would closely follow the legal process.
'Those who show disrespect to our prophet and other prophets will be held accountable before the law,' he said.
Erdoğan and his Islamic-rooted AK Party regularly criticise what they call Islamophobic acts in broadly secular Turkey and across Europe. Devout Muslims regard depictions of the prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.
In a statement on X, LeMan said: 'The work does not refer to the Prophet Muhammad in any way.'
The cartoonist, Dogan Pehlevan, had sought to highlight 'the suffering of a Muslim man killed in Israeli attacks', it said, adding there had been no intent to insult Islam or its prophet.
The magazine urged authorities to counter what it called a smear campaign, and to protect freedom of expression.
Several civil society groups condemned the detentions of the four cartoonists as a violation of freedom of thought and expression.
Turkey's freedom of expression ranking is low, due to restrictions on media and public discourse. Reporters Without Borders ranked it 158th out of 180 countries in its 2024 Press Freedom Index.
More than 200 people rallied against LeMan in central Istanbul on Tuesday, despite a ban on gatherings and a heavy police presence.
One protester, public servant Muhammed Emin Necipsoy, said the magazine's defence seemed insincere. 'There is a subtle emphasis there on both the prophet [Muhammad] and the prophet Moses,' he said.
Turkey's interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, shared a video on X showing police officers detaining Pehlevan, with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was dragged up a flight of stairs.
He also shared videos of three other men being removed from their homes and put into vans, one of them barefoot.
'The individual who drew this vile image, D.P., has been apprehended and taken into custody. These shameless people will be held accountable before the law,' Yerlikaya wrote.
The Turkish government said an inquiry had been launched under a law that criminalises incitement to hatred and enmity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
40 minutes ago
- Sky News
94 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, health authorities say – as UN expert calls situation ‘apocalyptic'
Airstrikes and shootings killed 94 people in Gaza overnight, including 45 who were trying to access humanitarian aid, the Hamas-run health ministry and hospitals said on Thursday. Reuters news agency said five people were killed outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American organisation operating with support from the US and Israeli governments. A further 40 were killed waiting for aid in other locations across the Gaza Strip, while 15 more people were killed in strikes that hit tents in the Muwasi zone in southern Gaza, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering. A separate strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City also killed 15 people. Israel's military has not commented on the strikes. The GHF has been primarily responsible for aid distribution in Gaza since Israel lifted its 11-week blockade on the region last month. It has four distribution centres, which are guarded by private security contractors and located near Israeli military positions. Palestinian officials and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at crowds of people near the sites. Sky News analysis this week showed deaths in Gaza rise significantly when the GHF distributes aid. 2:54 Situation in Gaza is 'apocalyptic', says UN expert A United Nations expert on Thursday called for countries to cut off trade with Israel and impose an arms embargo. In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, the organisation's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories said the situation there is "apocalyptic". Francesca Albanese told the council in Geneva: "Israel is responsible for one of the cruellest genocides in modern history." Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023. Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, was presenting her latest report, which names over 60 companies that she says are involved in supporting Israeli settlements and military actions in Gaza. "What I expose is not a list, it is a system, and that is to be addressed," she said. "We must reverse the tide." Ms Albanese called for states to suspend all trade agreements with Israel, impose full arms embargoes, and ensure companies face legal consequences for their involvement in violations of international law. Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva has said Ms Albanese's latest report is "legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of her office".
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Iranian media publishes footage of Israeli strike on Tehran last month
Security camera footage appears to have revealed the utter devastation wrought on a square in Tehran by an Israeli air strike amid the Israeli Air Force's assault on Iran last month. The clip, which emerged this week after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, purports to show the moment a pair of Israeli bombs struck Quds Square in the Tajrish neighbourhood of the Iranian capital on June 15. It was shared by Israeli and Iranian media and is yet to be verified by Iranian officials. MailOnline has geolocated the footage and contacted the IDF for comment. The first projectile scythed into a building on Bahodar Street opposite municipal offices, with the explosion spraying rubble across the road as a thick cloud of smoke and ash rose from the blast site. Seconds later, another projectile soared in and struck the middle of the road packed with traffic, mere feet away from the municipal building draped in the Islamic Republic's flag. The explosion was enormous. Cars were lifted off the ground and tossed aside by the sheer force of the blast. Huge chunks of tarmac and pieces of debris were ripped up and sent flying through the air. Moments later, they came raining back down, crushing cars and pelting helpless civilians reeling from the shockwave of the initial explosion. A second video shared on social media in the aftermath of the strikes showed horrified civilians gathered around the blast site. The entire road was flooded, with the missile having left a gigantic crater and destroyed water pipes and sewage systems. Iran's health ministry reported shortly afterwards that 12 people were killed in the punishing attacks, with a further 59 people injured. On June 12, the UN issued a resolution based on findings from its nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, that Iran was not complying with inspection regulations. That ruling came after IAEA inspectors claimed Tehran had some 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and could be weeks from having enough material to create several nuclear warheads. Israel began Operation Rising Lion less than 24 hours later, unleashing widespread attacks across Iran that it declared were necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons. Its warplanes relentlessly targeted Iran's nuclear sites, air defence systems and locations its intelligence found were housing high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists. Operatives from Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, had conducted a sabotage mission, knocking out some of Iran's air defence systems and missile launchers, opening the door for the air force to pound Tehran with impunity. In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel over the course of the almost fortnight-long war. Most were intercepted, but the sheer volume of projectiles - and the use of some hypersonic missiles - overwhelmed Israel's air defence systems. Some 28 people in Israel were killed by Tehran's missiles, but the death toll in Iran was much greater. This week, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency published updated casualty figures from its so-called 12-day war with Israel, declaring that 935 people were killed by Israeli bombs. It did not differentiate between civilian and military casualties. The conflict came to an end on June 25 after the United States Air Force (USAF) sent B-2 bombers armed with 30,000lb bunker-busting munitions and ship-launched Tomahawk missiles to batter Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, US President Donald Trump insisted Iran 's nuclear facilities had been 'totally obliterated' and the Islamic Republic's chances of building a bomb erased. This week, the Pentagon declared that the attacks had set back Iran's nuclear programme by 1-2 years. Washington is now pushing Iran to enter negotiations over the future of its nuclear programme. Both the US and Israel have declared that Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. But Iran's parliament has voted to suspend its co-operation with the UN's nuclear watchdog amid concerns it could withdraw altogether from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which obligates Tehran to cooperate with IAEA inspections . IAEA Rafael Grossi sent a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to propose a meeting and urge the Islamic Republic to cooperate. 'Resuming cooperation with the IAEA is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear activities,' Grossi said in a statement. 'I've written to Foreign Minister Araghchi stressing the importance of us working together and proposing to meet soon.' He said IAEA inspectors have remained in Iran and are ready to start working again. 'As I have repeatedly stated – before and during the conflict – nuclear facilities should never be attacked due to the very real risk of a serious radiological accident,' Grossi said. Israel is believed to have dozens of nuclear weapons, though it has never formally acknowledged their existence, and is not a signatory to the NPT.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Israeli jets bombed Gaza while returning from Iran mission
Israeli warplanes involved in missions against Iran dropped unused bombs and missiles on Gaza before landing, The Telegraph can reveal. Military sources have confirmed that, from the early hours of the campaign, pilots on their way home to Israel offered to use leftover munitions against Hamas. IDF ground commanders accepted the offer, finding targets for the jets, and the initiative was subsequently rolled out more widely across the 12-day campaign against Iran. It meant Israel was able, to a large extent, to sustain the intensity of its air strikes in Gaza, despite the main focus of the IDF having shifted to Iran. The military insisted that, despite the initial spontaneity of the scheme, all such strikes were properly planned and conducted against legitimate targets. The details emerged as optimism rose in Israel and the Palestinian territories that a ceasefire and hostage-release deal could be announced within days. Hamas was reported to be broadly receptive to an initial 60-day framework, while Israeli sources indicated for the first time that the government was considering a comprehensive deal to end the war for good. The period June 14 to 24 – when Operation Rising Lion took place and international eyes were focused on Iran – was an intensely bloody time for Gazan civilians, mainly due to multiple shootings near aid-delivery points. It is not clear how many were killed due to air strikes specifically, but overall the civilian death toll, including from aid-related shootings, was in the hundreds. It is understood that Maj Gen Tomer Bar, commander of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), ordered the leftover munitions initiative to be applied widely once he heard about its use. The IAF surpassed all expectations during the Iran campaign, quickly establishing aerial supremacy over a majority of the country, which allowed them to hunt for targets relating to the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme. Politicians and military officials boasted of a 'highway' to Tehran. As the campaign proceeded, Israeli warplanes were increasingly utilised to take out Iranian ballistic missile launch sites, to reduce the barrages hitting civilian areas in Israel. Donald Trump has been keen to use the momentum garnered from the apparent success of the joint US-Israeli campaign against Iran to force a resolution to the war in Gaza. Repeated efforts to renew the ceasefire have failed since before it broke down in mid-March. Hamas has continued to insist that any hostage-release deal be accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a commitment to end the war. The militant group has continued to reject proposals that include vague commitments from Israel to discuss ending the conflict. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has continued to pledge Hamas's total eradication in the Strip. Although the details are unclear, it is possible that the White House has pressured Israel into offering a more solid commitment to discuss ending the war this time around. Mr Netanyahu has recently suggested that getting the hostages back was more important than defeating Hamas, having previously presented the war aims as a package. He has also made bellicose comments about the terror group's destruction over recent days. However, the prime minister and Israel Katz, his hawkish defence minister, are reported to have expressed support for the outline framework, raising hopes among the families of the hostages. Between 20 and 22 hostages are thought to still be alive. The remains of at least 28 are also held by Hamas. Ron Dermer, Mr Netanyahu's key fixer, has been meeting with Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump's Middle East envoy, and dignitaries from Qatar – one of the key mediators – in recent days. The Israeli prime minister arrives in Washington this weekend, leading to speculation an in-principle announcement could be made during the visit. If that transpires, formal technical negotiations, likely to be chaired by either Qatar or Egypt, could take at least a week. Israel has reportedly asked the US to pressure Qatar into threatening to expel Hamas's representatives if no progress on a deal is made. The kingdom has already ordered the group to surrender its personal weapons. Although considered an insult among Islamists, the move has been taken as a promising symbolic sign that Qatar, which has been heavily criticised for being too close to some terror groups, including Hamas, is willing to exert pressure. Some in Israel's government hope that Mr Trump's original threat, announced in February, to clear the entire population from Gaza and redevelop it into a 'Middle East Riviera' could prey on the mind of Hamas leaders unwilling to accept a deal. Late on Wednesday, it was reported that Hamas would refrain from holding handover ceremonies in any potential deal. During the previous ceasefire in January and February, Hamas made a big show of returning some of the hostages, during which they forced their Israeli captives, in some cases emaciated, to thank their captors in front of television cameras and to receive release certificates. It provoked fury in Israel and prompted international criticism. During a news conference in Estonia, Gideon Sa'ar, Israel's foreign minister, regarding the negotiations, said: 'There are some positive signs.' There is strong support for an end to the war among the Israeli public. Although significantly degraded from the force that committed the Oct 7 atrocity, Hamas remains and is still fighting the IDF amid the rubble of Gaza's main cities.
