The West has already started restoring blasphemy laws in order to stop people from drawing Muhammad. This is submission to Sharia, as it is in this incident in Turkey, and cannot end with the continued existence of free society, which includes the freedom to offend others. If speech can be prohibited on the grounds that it gives offense, a tyrant can label his opposition offensive and silence it accordingly.
“Turkey detains cartoonists over satirical drawing allegedly depicting prophets,” Reuters, July 1, 2025:
ISTANBUL, June 30 (Reuters) – Turkish authorities on Monday detained three cartoonists over a satirical drawing published by weekly magazine Leman that seemed to depict Prophets Moses and Muhammad shaking hands in the sky, while missiles flew below in a scene resembling war.
The cartoon, widely seen as a commentary on religious harmony in contrast to conflict on Earth, drew strong condemnation from government officials and religious conservatives.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya shared a video on X showing police officers detaining cartoonist Dogan Pehlevan and dragging him up the stairs of a building with his hands cuffed behind his back.
“I once again curse those who try to sow discord by drawing caricatures of our Prophet Muhammad,” Yerlikaya wrote.
“The individual who drew this vile image, D.P., has been apprehended and taken into custody. These shameless people will be held accountable before the law.”
Yerlikaya later posted two other videos, showing two other men being laid on the ground and forcibly taken from their homes, as policemen dragged them into vans – one of them walking barefoot….
In its statement on X, the Leman magazine apologised to readers who felt offended and said the cartoon had been misunderstood.
It said Pehlevan had sought to highlight “the suffering of a Muslim man killed in Israeli attacks”, and that there was no intent to insult Islam or its prophet.
“The name Muhammad is among the most widely used in the world by Muslims honoring the Prophet. The cartoon does not depict the Prophet and was not drawn to mock religious values,” the magazine said, calling some interpretations “deliberately malicious.”…
Earlier in the evening, video footage on social media showed a group of protesters marching to Leman’s office building in central Istanbul, chanting slogans and kicking its entrance doors….
Paul Burns says
After Ataturk dragged Turkey kicking and screaming into the 20th century, Erdogan seems to have succeeded in dragging the Turks back to the 7th century. Meanwhile, Turkey is able to bomb Kurdish villages with impunity, illegally occupy Cyprus without anyone caring UN Resolutions and continues to deny the genocide of Greeks and Armenians.
JS says
You forgot the Assyrians. It was a simultaneous 3 peoples genocide.
Paul Burns says
Thank you. I actually didn’t know that Assyrians were genocided too. It shows how much they have gotten away with.
gravenimage says
Also Levantines. Really, *all* Christians, but Armenians were the largest number of victims.
somehistory says
Moses would have nothing to do with the mass-murdering raper of children, sex-slave trader, lying sack of maggot debris, son of satan the devil. He assaulted a slave-driving Egyptian for mistreating the Jews.
It’s funny; the windows of the buildings in the lower part of the drawing, look like eyes of the dead. )That was the way used in former times in comic strips)
Were they meant to represent crosses?
Adherents of islime don’t have enough work to keep them busy, so they have all of the time in the world to look for ways for being offended for no real reason.
truth says
+1 👏🏻👏🏻
somehistory says
Thank you, Truth.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Question is did the cartoon represent the original Moses of the Jews, or the Musa of the muslims – the uncle of Isa?
If it’s the former, you’re absolutely right. Also, Jews are not the ones who have problems w/ the muslims, contrary to what the cartoon depicts
David WS says
Islam solves the problem of past great prophets in Judaism and Christianity by making them Muslim, this also disarms the causal observer… It’s sleight of hand…. Islam is a parasite.
“Muslims believe Moses (known as Musa in Islam) was a prophet of God and an important figure in Islam. Muslims revere Moses as one of the most important prophets, alongside Noah, Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad. They believe he received divine revelation and was entrusted with delivering God’s message. “
gravenimage says
It’s funny; the windows of the buildings in the lower part of the drawing, look like eyes of the dead. )That was the way used in former times in comic strips)
Were they meant to represent crosses?
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Actually, Sonehistory, that was just a visual shorthand for the wooden slats between paned windows. You see all sorts of designs, but the most common paned windows have four panes, so the slats look like crosses.
I Hale says
I am pretty sure Muhammad is burning in a special hell for FAKE PROPHETS; liars and other sordid CRIMES and sins: LIKE MURDER, PEDO. etc.
and also NOT AGAIN.
Did you hear supposedly IRANIANS are hacking Truth social? in theory
Wellington says
I Hale: Well, to add to your point, Dante, easily one of the greatest writers in the Western literary corpus, has Mohammed placed in Hell all right, way down there in that infernal region—and specifically the 8th Circle of Hell.
Of course, were Dante still around today he’d be excoriated, called an Islamophobe and all that rubbish. Which would tend to prove that this man who died in 1321 would be unacceptable to so many, including most of the powers that be in the UK and also most definitely to all the highly confused people in America who continue to call themselves Democrats and which group of people are on the verge of endorsing a Muslim who is also a Communist for the next mayor of America’s largest city—but I somewhat digress which is my wont.
Anyway, instructive, highly, that a man of the 14th century knew more about the true worth of Islam than do elites aplenty in the UK and America—and in so many other Western nations.
Telling, Damning. Highly informative. Quite depressing too. But, in any case, go Dante—you had it figured out centuries ago and yet so many in our so-called modern age are still moral idiots where assessing the true worth of Islam is concerned and ditto for another major error in man’s history, i.e. Marxism. Time for a beer.
gravenimage says
Yes, Wellington–Dante placed the “Prophet” Muhammed was in the eigth circle of Hell largely for sowing discord and heresy. Islam certainly presents an ugly view of religion.
Alkflaeda says
Surely Ben Muhammed and Ben de Musa would be the sons of Muhammed and Moses respectively. Maybe it would have helped if the cartoonist had said “bin” rather than “ben”. I fail to see the offence in the overall message, which seems to me to be saying that if there is thought to be any connection between Moses and Muhammed, then their descendants should not be killing each other. But maybe that’s the offence, because it would undercut jihad.
John Pepple says
Yes, I noticed that it was about the sons, too. What’s their problem?
gravenimage says
I think you’ve got it, Alkflaeda.
JS says
Islam wasn’t even invented at the time of Moses OR Jesus. They should just stop peddling their lies. But they can’t stop lying. Always, always lyiing.
Hudson says
Mohamhead was a demon possessed Pedo, everybody knows that.
Hudders. says
Remember Batley, Yorkshire and many others when you pray. The noose is tightening around the British throats.
Mockery after mockery.
Sharia and blasphemy laws are real in Britain today.
gravenimage says
Turkey: Cartoonists detained, Muslims enraged over cartoon of Muhammad
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I hope these poor cartoonists survive–but in today’s horrifying Islamic Turkey that is hardly a sure thing.