Turkey protests: Why Prophet Muhammad cartoons are hurtful to Muslims

Turkey’s Istanbul once again witnessed violent clashes on Monday (June 30) with the police firing rubber bullets and teargas at an angry mob, which had come out on the streets to protest a satirical magazine’s decision to publish images of Prophet Muhammad.

Following the clashes, four employees — the editor-in-chief, the graphic designer, institutional director and cartoonist — of LeMan magazine have been arrested with Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya calling the drawing “shameless”, while Yilmaz Tunc, the justice minister said “No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief a subject of humour in an ugly way.”

The incident evokes memories of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo incident in France when two armed gunmen stormed the offices of the French satirical magazine and killed 12 people for its depiction of Prophet Muhammad.

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But why is it that drawing images — whether in jest — of Prophet Muhammad is an issue that often causes offense and results in protests and violence? We examine this.

Turkey on edge over Prophet Muhammad cartoon

On Monday (June 30), an angry mob gathered outside the office of LeMan magazine in Istanbul, pelting stones and chanting slogans, angered over a cartoon depicting Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses exchanging greetings in mid-air as missiles rain down from the sky.

The image showed the two characters under bombardment, saying, “Salam aleikum, I’m Mohammed,” says one shaking hands with the other who replies, “Aleikum salam, I’m Musa.”

Following the protests, four of the employees of the magazine were arrested 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 June 26, 2025 issue of LeMan magazine that publicly insults religious values, and arrest warrants have been issued for those involved,” the prosecutor’s office said.

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The country’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, also condemned the magazine editors for the cartoon, calling it a provocation and said those “who dare to do this will be held accountable before the law.” He added that said the cartoon was not protected by freedom of expression or freedom of speech.

Fahrettin Altun, the head communications for the Turkish Presidency, also told CNN that the cartoon was a “vile attack on our beliefs and values.”

However, LeMan, which is a weekly political satire magazine, has defended its cartoon, saying it was not a depiction of the Islamic prophet. Its editor, Tuncay Akgun, told AFP that the image had been misinterpreted and was “not a caricature of Prophet Muhammad.”

“In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalised as Mohammed. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Mohammed,” he said, saying it had “nothing to do with Prophet Muhammad”.

“We would never take such a risk.”

Moreover, the magazine defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately misinterpreted to cause a provocation. “The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, he never intended to belittle religious values,” it said.

Bu konuda yayın yapanlara uyarı : BU KARİATÜR bir HZ. MUHAMMED (SAV) KARİKATÜRÜ DEĞİLDİR. Eserde İsrail’in bombardımanlarında katledilen bir müslümanın adı Muhammed olarak kurgulanmıştır. İslam dünyasında 200 milyondan fazla kişinin adı Muhammed’tir. Eserde Hz Muhammed’e hiçbir

— LeMan (@lemandergisi) June 30, 2025

When Prophet Muhammad cartoons have caused an uproar

But the Turkey incident isn’t a lone incident when a depiction or caricature of Prophet Muhammad has resulted in protests or violence. The most unfortunate incident would be that of brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, barging into the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in France on January 7, 2015 and killing 12 people for their depiction of Prophet Muhammad.

Incidentally, Charlie Hebdo’s offices had been burned in an apparent arson attack in November 2011 after it published its issue with the Prophet Muhammad as “editor-in-chief”. He was depicted on the front page saying: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter”.

There’s also the September 2005 instance when Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of cartoons, some depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist with a bomb.

A cartoon on Prophet Muhammad also made big news in 2007 when a Swedish artist sketched the Islamic prophet’s head on a dog’s body. The caricature offended many Muslims. So much so, that the artist became the subject of death threats and the Al-Qaeda offered a $100,000 reward for his murder.

And in October 2020, Samuel Paty, a teacher in Paris, was beheaded after using cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson about freedom of speech.

What Islam says on Prophet Muhammad cartoons

But what exactly is the reason why Muslims are triggered by caricatures of the Islamic prophet? Many Muslims believe that the depiction of Prophet Muhammad is offensive and results to blasphemy.

What does the Quran say about it? The Islamic holy book does not specifically prohibit images of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. However, chapter 42, verse 11 of the Quran says: “[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth… [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him.”

Muslims interpret this as Allah cannot be captured in an image by human hand, such is his beauty and grandeur. To attempt such a thing is seen as an insult to Allah.

Similarly, chapter 21, verses 52-54 of the Quran reads: “[Abraham] said to his father and his people: ‘What are these images to whose worship you cleave?’ They said: ‘We found our fathers worshipping them.’ He said: ‘Certainly you have been, you and your fathers, in manifest error’.”

From this arises the Muslim belief that images can give rise to idolatry, which is prohibited in Islam.

Many Islam experts also note that Prophet Muhammad is a revered figure and such cartoons or depictions can be seen as an attack on the religion itself. Dalia Mogahed, the Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, told Vox that Muhammad is a beloved figure to Muslims, and “it is a human impulse to want to protect what’s sacred to you”.

The researcher also equated the depiction of Prophet Muhammad to burning the US flag, saying that most Americans would see that act as an attack on their identity and on the country itself.

Author and scholar Reza Aslan agrees with this analysis, adding that just as Americans view their national identity as sacred so do Muslims about their religious identity.

Even Hayrettin Karaman, a retired professor of Islamic law, also concurs that Muslims take Prophet Muhammad to be a sensitive issue. In an AA report, he is quoted as saying, “For Muslims, to depict the Prophet Muhammad is a kind of forgery or deceit. Because no portrait can represent the real one.”

Experts also point to intent; they note that often the caricature of Prophet Muhammad is created to provoke. Reza Aslan in the Vox report said that media outlets that print such cartoons often do so to provoke an extreme response.

“I’ve had extensive conversations, for instance, with the editor of Jyllands Posten, who published the famous Muhammad cartoons,” Aslan recounted. “And he says, without apology, that those cartoons were a deliberate attempt to poke a stick in the eye of Denmark’s Muslim community. To rouse them, to essentially prove that ‘unless you can put up with this, you don’t belong in Denmark’.”

But cartoonists, editors and other activists argue that it’s not about hurting religious sentiments but about free speech. Which side of the debate are you on?

With inputs from agencies