Turkish authorities have arrested four staff members of a well-known satirical magazine following the publication of a cartoon that many believe portrays the Prophet Muhammad — a depiction strictly forbidden in Islam.
The country’s Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, described the cartoon released by LeMan magazine as “shameless,” confirming that the magazine’s editor-in-chief, cartoonist, graphic designer, and institutional director had been taken into custody.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Yerlikaya also released footage of their arrests and condemned the illustration as a “vile drawing.”
Responding to the outrage, LeMan firmly denied that the image was a caricature of the Prophet.
“The work does not refer to the Prophet Muhammed in any way,” the magazine wrote on X. It later issued an apology “to well-intentioned readers who feel hurt,” while maintaining that the cartoon was misinterpreted.
“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,” the statement read.
The magazine added, “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.”
Despite the denial, hundreds of people gathered outside the magazine’s Istanbul office on Monday in protest. Demonstrators were heard chanting “tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge.”
Riot police intervened as the protest escalated, and a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported the use of rubber bullets and tear gas by security forces to disperse the crowd.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc revealed that the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had opened an inquiry into the matter, accusing the magazine of “publicly insulting religious values.”
He stated, “The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace.”
He added that legal action against the staff of LeMan would proceed “without delay.”
Authorities have also issued arrest warrants for other senior figures at the magazine.Images of the cartoon, now widely circulated on social media, depict two winged characters floating over a war-torn city.
One character is quoted as saying, “Peace be upon you, I’m Muhammed,” to which the other replies, “Peace be upon you, I’m Musa.”In a comment to AFP, LeMan’s editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun, who is currently in Paris, argued that the drawing had been misunderstood.
He stressed that LeMan would “never take such a risk.” He also compared the backlash to the 2015 attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over its caricatures of the Prophet, describing the response to LeMan as “very intentional and very worrying.”
The Charlie Hebdo incident led to the deaths of 12 people and marked one of the darkest moments in recent French history.