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Four people have been arrested by the Turkish police after publishing a painting depicting the holiest place in Islam at the Bosphorus University in Istanbul, a work of art deemed offensive by the Turkish authorities.
The four arrested are charged with “openly smearing religious values adopted by the public,” the Istanbul governor’s office said. Police said they were looking for two more people and called the painting a “cruel attack” on Islam.
Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu said in a tweet yesterday that “four LGBT perverts” had been arrested, a comment that sparked outrage on social media.
The painting, which also featured a rainbow flag, the symbol of the LGBT community, according to the Istanbul government, was hung in front of the rector’s office at Boğaziçi University on Friday in a move that was immediately condemned by Turkish officials.
The “insult” to the Kaaba was “neither freedom of expression nor the right to protest,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said yesterday in a tweet. He promised that this “deviant behavior will be punished as required by law.”
The Kaaba is a 7th century building covered with a black cloth, in the center of the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca. It is the holiest place in Islam.
The Bosphorus University recently became the scene of student protests demanding the resignation of Rector Melik Bulu, who was chosen by Tayyip Erdogan to head the University.
The appointment of Bulu, who has nothing to do with the university and in 2015 had tried to be elected in the colors of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), sparked outrage.
The Turkish president called some of the protesters “terrorists”.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
