The publication of a cartoon allegedly depicting the prophet Muhammad has caused a strong reaction in Turkey. An angry crowd gathered outside the offices of Leman magazine in Istanbul, and late last night it was announced that the creator of the cartoon, the editorial director and the editorial director had been arrested, while warrants were pending against three other people. The same magazine denies that the cartoon is about the prophet Muhammad.

The June 26 issue of the satirical magazine features a cartoon in which Muhammad and Moses are shown exchanging greetings over a Middle Eastern city being bombed.

Although the issue of the magazine was released on 26 June, the issue went viral yesterday, Monday 30 June, on social media sites.

Hundreds of people gathered in the evening outside Leman’s offices in the Pera area, where they prayed, shouted slogans and some attacked the magazine’s premises.

The Turkish authorities, in addition to arresting the six people responsible for the magazine, ordered the withdrawal of the issue and initiated procedures to ban internet access to the offending cartoon.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced that a prosecutor’s investigation has been ordered into the magazine on charges of “insulting religious values.”

His statement: “The Istanbul prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation into the offense of ‘public insult of religious values’ under Article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code, regarding the publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in a satirical magazine. No freedom gives the right to satirise the sanctities of a religion. Ridiculing our prophet or any attempt to visually represent him harms not only our religious values, but also social peace. Necessary legal action will be taken without delay against this provocative act that flouts the beliefs of millions of Muslims.”

For his part, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said: “I strongly condemn the obscene caricature of our prophet. What happened is not freedom of the press. What happened is not freedom of expression. Such actions that offend our religious values and inflict deep wounds in the conscience of Muslims are provocative in nature and those who dare to commit them will be held accountable before the judiciary.”

The magazine itself denies publishing a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad and in a statement noted: “The most widespread name in the world and the name with the largest population is Muhammad, Mehmet, Mamadu (all these names are given by Muslims to keep the name of our prophet alive). Today, 200 million people have the name Muhammad. The creator of the cartoon wanted to emphasize the rights of the oppressed Muslim people, referring to a Muslim killed by Israel, and had no intention of belittling religious values. We do not accept the stigma attached to us, as there is no depiction of our prophet. To interpret the cartoon in this way, one must have very bad intentions. There are so many Mehmet and Muhammad that you know.”

The statement also said that Leman magazine has repeatedly brought the issue of Palestine into the news with five special issues and hundreds of covers. “We declare that you do not have the right to question our conscience and beliefs in a wrong and distorted way,” the statement said.