ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Clashes erupted in Istanbul Monday with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas to break up an angry mob after allegations that a satirical magazine had published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said.
The incident occurred after Istanbul’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the editors at LeMan magazine on grounds 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 26 June 2025 issue of LeMan magazine that publicly insults religious values, and arrest warrants have been issued for those involved,” the prosecutor’s 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 Mohammed,” says one shaking hands with the other who replies, “Aleikum salam, I’m Musa.”
But the magazine’s editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun told AFP by phone from Paris that the image had been misinterpreted and was “not a caricature of Prophet Mohammed.”
“In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalized as Mohammed. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Mohammed,” he said, saying it had “nothing to do with Prophet Mohammed.
“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 Istanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP correspondent said.
The scuffles quickly degenerated into clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent said.