Did you think Turkey was a secular state? The crime of “insulting religious values” is in the Turkish penal code.
“Turkey: Comedian convicted for ‘insulting’ Erdogan in show,” by Mark Hallam, DW, September 28, 2026:
A Turkish comedian was convicted in Istanbul on Monday on charges of “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and “insulting religious values” during a stand-up performance in June.
The judge provisionally sentenced Deniz Goktas to 19 months in prison, but ordered his release pending the judicial review and appeal process that would finalize the verdict.
It was not immediately clear how long this process might take.
NATO member and EU aspirant Turkey routinely tries people on speech-related offenses, particularly and famously when it comes to supposed “insults” of its longserving leader Erdogan.
Deniz Goktas, 32, was arrested on July 3, a week after releasing a YouTube video of his show that was watched nearly 9 million times and a few days after shorter clips he posted on X enjoyed similar rapid success….
The judge nevertheless convicted Gotkas of insulting Erdogan, and downgraded the charge he faced of “inciting hatred and hostility” with jokes about Islam, instead convicting him of the lesser supposed crime of “insulting religious values.”…
Meanwhile the MLSA said that Goktas’ jokes alleged to have the potential to “publicly incite hatred and hostility” took aim at fundamentalist Islam, including a reference to women in full-coverage swimsuits being “divers” and joking about “suicide bombers who fast.”…
Tony says
The Government Law, Islamic Law, is supremely powerful to conquer adversaries like Non-Muslims. Islam is the daily practice of Islamic Law, Sharia, which is created from the Qur’an, the Sira, the Hadith, the Tafsir, the Tarikh, past Islamic Legal Rulings, etc., a collective demonic system, to solidify power and control. Furthermore, Muslim Islamization includes Muslim Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Organizations using Governments, Bureaucracies, Mosques, Muslim Homes, Muslim Schools, Halal Organizations, Islamic Centers, Sharia Courts, Muslim Non-Profits, etc. to fund, to educate, and to support Islamic Law and Muslim Propaganda against all Non-Muslims(Qur’an 1:5; 3:51, 101, 118; 5:3, 48; 8:60, 45:18; 48:29, etc.).
Public Funding is a privilege that should NOT BE granted to organizations that are against the US Constitution or Western Constitutions. Totalitarian Islam and its Muslim Organizations including Muslim Schools and Mosques are against the US Constitution due to Muslim funding, teaching, and promoting discrimination, segregation, hatred, rape, violence, totalitarianism, and terrorism against Non-Muslims WITH NO EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW to make Islamic Law supreme. Islam’s Muslims are murderous, Totalitarian Terrorists of Allah operating as a Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise under Islamic Law to ultimately conquer the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, with Islamic Law DBA Islam(Qur’an 8:60; 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.). Genocidal Allah in Qur’an 8:39 commands, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” Ultimately, Allah desires to fill hell with Non-Muslims(Qur’an 7:18; 11:119; 32:13; 98:6, etc.).
GE says
This man got off easier than Hrant Dink did for a “perceived” slur against Turkish identity.
And one must consider all the Turks with European ancestry due to enslavement of different nationalities.
Or Turks who are actually Armenians. descendants of those forced into Islam during the genocides.