Clashes erupted in İstanbul on Monday, with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas to break up an angry mob after allegations surfaced that a satirical magazine had published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
The incident occurred after İstanbul’s chief prosecutor ordered the detention of the editors at LeMan magazine on allegations that it had published a cartoon which “publicly insulted religious values.”
“The chief public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the publication of a cartoon in the June 26, 2025 issue of LeMan magazine that publicly insults religious values, and warrants have been issued for those involved,” the prosectors office said.
A copy of the black-and-white image posted on social media showed two characters hovering in the skies over a city under bombardment.
“Salam aleikum, I’m Muhammad,” says one, shaking hands with the other, who replies, “Aleikum salam, I’m Musa.”
But the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgün, told Agence France-Presse by phone from Paris that the image had been misinterpreted and was “not a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.”
“In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalized as Muhammad. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Muhammad,” he said, saying it had “nothing to do with the Prophet Muhammad.
“We would never take such a risk.”
As the news broke, several dozen angry protesters attacked a bar often frequented by LeMan staffers in downtown İstanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP correspondent said.
The scuffles quickly degenerated into clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent said.
Cartoonist, three others held
In several posts on X, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said police had detained the cartoonist responsible for “this vile drawing,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief, its graphic designer and company manager.
Police had also taken over the magazine’s offices on İstiklal Avenue and detention warrants had been issued for several other of the magazine’s executives, presidential press aide Fahrettin Altun wrote on X.
In a series of posts on X, LeMan defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately misinterpreted to cause a provocation.
“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,” it said.
Akgün said the legal attack on the magazine, a satirical bastion of opposition that was founded in 1991, was “incredibly shocking but not very surprising.”
“This is an act of annihilation. Ministers are involved in the whole business, a cartoon is distorted,” he said.
“Drawing similarities with Charlie Hebdo is very intentional and very worrying,” he said of the French satirical magazine whose offices were stormed by Islamist gunmen in 2015.
The attack, which killed 12 people, occurred after it published caricatures lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.
‘A very systematic provocation’
“There is a game here, as if we were repeating something similar. This is a very systematic provocation and attack,” Akgün said.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said an investigation had been opened on grounds of “publicly insulting religious values.”
“Disrespect towards our beliefs is never acceptable,” he wrote on X.
“No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of ugly humor. The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace.”
İstanbul Governor Davut Gül also lashed out at “this mentality that seeks to provoke society by attacking our sacred values.
“We will not remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation’s faith,” he warned.
© Agence France-Presse