Intense reactions have been prompted by Turkey to publish a sketch that allegedly depicted the prophet Mohammed.

Outraged crowd gathered outside the magazine’s offices LEMAN In Constantinople, while late at night it became known that the creator of the sketch, the director of the publication and the editor -in -chief were arrested, while warrants are pending against three other people. The same magazine denies that the sketch concerns the Prophet Mohammed.

The issue of the satirical magazine released on June 26 hosts a cartoon showing Mohammed and Moses to exchange greeting over a Middle East city.

Although the issue of the magazine was released on June 26, the issue was dimensioned yesterday Monday, June 30th on social networking sites. Hundreds of people gathered at night outside the offices of Leman in the area of ​​Pera, where they prayed, shouted slogans and some attacked the magazine’s premises.

Turkish authorities, in addition to arrest of the magazine’s six officialsordered the withdrawal of the issue and launched procedures for banning online access to the sketch.

LEMAN

The Minister of Justice of Turkey Yilmaz He announced that a prosecutor’s prosecution was ordered for the magazine on the charge of “infringement of religious values”.

His statement: “The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Constantinople has launched a judicial investigation into the offense of ‘public infringement of religious values’ in accordance with Article 216 of the Turkish Criminal Code, on the publication of the sketch of Prophet Mohammed in a satirical magazine. No freedom gives the right to be satirized by the sanctuaries of a religion. The ridicule of our prophet or any attempt to visualize his representation harms not only our religious values ​​but also social peace. The necessary legal measures will be taken without delay against this provocative action that despises the beliefs of millions of Muslims. “

For his part, the Minister of the Interior Ali Gerlikaya 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 cause deep wounds to the consciousness of Muslims are provocative and those who dare to commit them will be held accountable before justice. “

The magazine itself refuses to have published a sketch of Prophet Mohammed and notes in a statement: “The most widespread name in the world and the name with the largest number of population is Mohammed, Mehmet, Mamadou (all these names are given by Muslims to keep our Prophet’s name alive). Today, there are 200 million people named Mohammed. The creator of cartoon wanted to emphasize the law of the oppressed Muslim people, referring to a Muslim killed by Israel, and had no intention of underestimating religious values. We do not accept the mark that is attributed to us, as there is no depiction of our prophet. In order to interpret the sketch in this way, it has to have very bad intentions. There are so many Mehmet and Mohammed you know. “

The announcement also states that LEMAN Magazine has repeatedly brought the issue of Palestine to the news with five special issues and hundreds of covers. “We declare that you do not have the right to question our consciousness and beliefs in a wrong and distorted way,” noted in the statement.