Turkey's Erdogan denounces alleged cartoon of Prophet Mohammed as 'vile crime'

Four staff of satirical magazine that published drawing arrested amid calls for its closure

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned a satirical magazine accused of depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a cartoon, calling it a "vile provocation”.

The cartoon published in the Turkish satirical weekly LeMan showed a man introducing himself as Mohammed to another figure described as Musa – Moses in Arabic and Turkish – as they float above a scene of missiles landing on buildings surrounded by flames.

“It is a clear provocation disguised as humour, a vile provocation,” Mr Erdogan said at a meeting of his AK Party's provincial officials.

The cartoon led to clashes in central Istanbul on Monday night as riot police confronted protesters attempting to storm LeMan's offices, near the busy Istiklal Avenue.

Turkish television channels showed a crowd shouting “long live hell for those savages” as they confronted security troops near the magazine’s offices. Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd, AFP reported.

A small crowd of protesters gathered again on Tuesday outside a mosque near central Istanbul's Taksim Square, amid a heavy police presence.

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  Demonstrators protesting against a cartoon published in the Turkish satirical magazine LeMan, allegedly depicting the Prophet Mohammed, in Istanbul. Reuters

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  Police officers assemble to deal with the protest in Istanbul. AP

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  People protesting in central Istanbul. Reuters

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  Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned LeMan, saying it was behind a 'vile provocation'. EPA

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  Demonstrators chanting outside Taksim Mosque in Istanbul. AP

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  Authorities ordered copies of the LeMan issue in question to be confiscated and took steps to block access to the magazine's social media accounts, state news agency Anadolu reported. AP

Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor opened an investigation over “publicly insulting religious values” and four staff from LeMan, including the cartoonist responsible for the illustration, were arrested, police said.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya published footage of the arrests, which appeared to show LeMan's editor-in-chief, cartoonist, graphic designer and manager being handcuffed in police raids on their homes.

“The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc wrote on X.

“We want that magazine shut down,” Razi, 20, a Syrian-Turkish law student at Tuesday's protest, told The National. “We came today to carry out our duty, to show our position that we won’t accept this.”

Some of the protesters carried signs that said: “This is not freedom, it is an attack on faith.”

Protestors hold a sign that reads, "This is not freedom; this is an attack on faith" in Istanbul. Lizzie Porter / The National.

Security troops were posted in large numbers in the area on Tuesday, as authorities tried to calm tension.

The National passed through four checkpoints to walk along half of Istiklal Avenue. Police told people attempting to enter the shopping thoroughfare that it was “closed today”, and some shops closed their shutters.

Authorities ordered copies of the LeMan issue containing the image to be confiscated and took steps to block access to the magazine's social media accounts, state news agency Anadolu reported. LeMan's website was not accessible from Turkey on Tuesday morning.

Muslims widely consider any depiction of God and the Prophet Mohammed to be offensive and therefore forbidden.

LeMan, founded in 1991, said the cartoon was not a depiction of the Prophet and was intended to portray Israeli attacks on Muslim-majority populations.

“In the work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel was fictionalised as Mohammed,” the magazine said in a statement published on X. “More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Mohammed. There is no reference to the Prophet Mohammed in the work.”

Turkish police guard a barricade outside the offices of LeMan magazine in Istanbul on Tuesday. EPA

It apologised to readers who had been offended and asked “well-meaning brothers and sisters who are protesting to understand us correctly”.

Razi, the law student, said he did not accept the magazine's explanation. “They did this deliberately,” he said.

Istanbul Governor Davut Gul said “the rule of law” was working against “this mentality that is trying to provoke society by attacking our sacred values”. He also called on protesters to disperse and said some were engaged in “provocative actions”.

“No one has the right or freedom to commit a crime, regardless of the reason,” Mr Gul said.