Turkey’s ‘Mohammed-Moses’ Incident: Cartoonist Jailed, Magazine Assaulted by Islamists
13th July 2025
On June 26th, the Turkish satirical magazine LeMan published a cartoon that featured a city that appears to be Gaza. Islamists interpreted the figure of Mohammed in the cartoon to be Islam’s prophet Mohammed. In response, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s regime and the country’s Islamists have started a witch hunt by arresting four employees of the magazine, including its editor-in-chief and the cartoonist, with a seizure order of the issue in which the cartoon was featured.
Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a judicial investigation into the magazine on the grounds that it “denigrated religious values.” An investigation was also launched into the magazine’s managers’ finances.
The cartoon in question depicts two people in the sky, identifying themselves as Mohammad and Moses while missiles rain down on buildings. One of the characters, Mohammad, says in Arabic, “Salaam alaikum (Peace be upon you), I am Mohammad,” to which Moses replies with the same phrase in Hebrew, “Shalom aleichem, I am Moses.”
Turkish government officials condemned the magazine in unison.
Once upon a time, Christians were as tender about their faith as Muslims are all the time. But that was then; this is now.