Hundreds of Turkish Islamists have attacked a satirical magazine after claiming that it published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Protestors chanted ‘tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge’ outside the office of LeMan, which denied that the image was of Muhammad. Police quickly intervened, erecting barricades and firing pepper spray. But instead of cracking down further on the Islamists, the Turkish authorities appear to now be targeting the journalists. Four employees of the magazine have been arrested and the chief public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into claims that the cartoon ‘publicly insult(ed) religious values’.

Four employees of the magazine have been arrested

I was in the area when the attack unfolded yesterday in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district. Passers by, angered by ‘God is great’ chants and insults at Turkey’s sacred secularism, challenged the demonstrators, shouting, ‘This is the Turkish Republic, you can’t call for sharia!’ The protestors then turned on these people before the police........

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