In the evening of Monday, June 30, hundreds of people attacked a bar in Istanbul frequented by members of the satirical newspaper LeMan, over allegations that they published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Police intervened to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets and tear gas.
LeMan has been at the heart of a national controversy since last week, when they published a cartoon on June 26 showing two characters hovering over a city under bombardment. One greets the other: “Salam aleykum, I am Muhammad”, “Aleykum Salam, I am Musa”, he replies.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgün, who was visiting Paris when the news broke, dismissed accusations it was depicting Islam’s holiest prophet: “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.”
Nonetheless, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of several contributors to the newspaper, and Turkey’s Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, proudly announced the arrest of the author of the cartoon, as well as the magazine’s graphic designer.
Founded in 1991, LeMan has remained one of the few independent media outlets in Erdogan’s Turkey, and has long been a target for conservatives and Islamists. “This is an act of annihilation. Ministers are involved in the whole business, a cartoon is distorted,” said Tuncay Akgün. “Drawing similarities with *Charlie Hebdo* is very intentional and very worrying.”
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In the evening of Monday, June 30, hundreds of people attacked a bar in Istanbul frequented by members of the satirical newspaper LeMan, over allegations that they published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Police intervened to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets and tear gas.
LeMan has been at the heart of a national controversy since last week, when they published a cartoon on June 26 showing two characters hovering over a city under bombardment. One greets the other: “Salam aleykum, I am Muhammad”, “Aleykum Salam, I am Musa”, he replies.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgün, who was visiting Paris when the news broke, dismissed accusations it was depicting Islam’s holiest prophet: “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.”
Nonetheless, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of several contributors to the newspaper, and Turkey’s Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, proudly announced the arrest of the author of the cartoon, as well as the magazine’s graphic designer.
Founded in 1991, LeMan has remained one of the few independent media outlets in Erdogan’s Turkey, and has long been a target for conservatives and Islamists. “This is an act of annihilation. Ministers are involved in the whole business, a cartoon is distorted,” said Tuncay Akgün. “Drawing similarities with *Charlie Hebdo* is very intentional and very worrying.”