Some may recall the Danish Muhammed cartoon riots by Islamofascists nearly 2 decades ago (artist Kurt Westergaard recently passed away), and also the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, whose illustrators were tragically murdered a decade ago. Now, in this recent BBC report, it looks like Turkey has also had a similar case come up, where a cartoonist was arrested by authorities for insulting the Religion of Peace’s “prophet”:

Four employees of a satirical magazine in Turkey have been arrested for publishing a cartoon that appears to show the Prophet Muhammad – a sacred religious figure whose depiction is a deeply contentious issue in Islam.

Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya condemned LeMan magazine’s drawing as “shameless”, announcing that its editor-in-chief, graphic designer, institutional director and cartoonist had been detained.

[…] Arrest warrants have also been issued for other members of the magazine’s senior management.

The biggest oxymoron in this affair is that the cartoonist and his publication wanted to attack Israel:

One of the characters is pictured saying “Peace be upon you, I’m Muhammed”, and the other replying, “Peace be upon you, I’m Musa”. Musa is the Turkish for Moses.

LeMan apologised to “well-intentioned readers who feel hurt” but defended its work and rejected allegations that the cartoon was a depiction of Muhammad.

“The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, and he never intended to insult religious values,” it said in a statement on X. […]

He added that the backlash draws “similarities with Charlie Hebdo” which is “very intentional and very worrying”, referencing the 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine after it published a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Charlie Hebdo’s offices were stormed by gunmen who killed 12 people and was one of the worst security crises in France’s history.

What’s interesting is how, despite the anti-Israel positions of its cartoonist and paper staff, they got arrested anyway, and some could wonder if, in this case, we should feel sorry for them. Though obviously, the concerns about censorship are still entirely valid. That said, the anti-Israeli positions of the Turkish paper’s staff are still heinous, and only make clear nothing’s changed since October 7, 2023. So to see their stunt backfire on them is almost like poetic justice.

Originally published here