Four employees of a satirical magazine in Turkey have been arrested for publishing a cartoon that appears to show the Prophet Muhammad – a sacred religious figure whose depiction is forbidden in Islam.
Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya condemned LeMan magazine’s drawing as “shameless”, announcing that its editor-in-chief, graphic designer, institutional director and cartoonist had been detained.
LeMan denied its cartoon was a caricature of Muhammad, writing on X that “the work does not refer to the Prophet Muhammed in any way”.
Riot police were deployed in Istanbul on Monday as hundreds of people protested against the publication.
Protesters gathered outside LeMan’s offices chanting slogans such as “tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge”.
A correspondent for the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported seeing rubber bullets and tear gas being fired to disperse the crowd.
Turkey’s justice minister said an investigation had been initiated by the chief public prosecutor’s office for “publicly insulting religious values”.
“The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace,” Yilmaz Tunc wrote on X.
“Necessary legal steps will be taken without delay” against LeMan’s journalists, he added.
Yerlikaya also shared videos of the four employees being arrested over the “vile drawing”.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for other members of the magazine’s senior management.
Images of the cartoon have appeared on social media, which show two characters with wings floating in the sky over a city under siege.
One of the characters is pictured saying “Peace be upon you, I’m Muhammed”, and the other replying, “Peace be upon you, I’m Musa”. Musa is the Turkish for Moses.
LeMan apologised to “well-intentioned readers who feel hurt” but defended its work and rejected allegations that the cartoon was a depiction of Muhammad.
“The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, and he never intended to insult religious values,” it said in a statement on X.
“We do not accept the stain that is cast on us because there is no depiction of our Prophet. You have to be very malicious to interpret the cartoon in this way.”
LeMan’s editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun, who is currently in Paris, told AFP the work had been misinterpreted and the magazine would “never take such a risk”.
He added that the backlash draws “similarities with Charlie Hebdo” which is “very intentional and very worrying”, referencing the 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine after it published a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
Charlie Hebdo’s offices were stormed by gunmen who killed 12 people and was one of the worst security crises in France’s history.