Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“On June 30, Turkish police arrested four employees of satirical magazine LeMan on charges of ‘publicly demeaning religious values,’ with one cartoonist also charged with ‘insulting the president.’ They raided the magazine’s office as well and, two weeks later, arrested a LeMan editor at Istanbul’s airport upon his return from France. The arrests followed an attack on the LeMan office, with a mob breaking open windows and doors. The origin of the dispute? A June 26 LeMan edition with an anti-war cartoon depicting two winged men — one depicted as Muslim and introducing himself as Muhammad and the other as Jewish and calling himself Moses — shaking hands as they ascend over a burning city with bombs raining down. The Muhammad character, the magazine said, ‘is fictionalised as a Muslim killed in Israel’s bombardments’ and is named so because it’s the ‘most commonly given and populous name in the world.'” (07/23/25)