As Long as the Secular System Exists, Attacks on Our Values Will Not Cease!

News:

Leman weekly magazine published an offensive cartoon in its 26 June 2025 issue. The cartoon depicted Prophet Muhammad saying, “Peace be upon you, I am Muhammad,” and Prophet Moses responding, “Aleyhem shalom, I am Moses,” against a backdrop of conflict. Public outrage led the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to launch an investigation and order the issue’s confiscation. (Agencies – 30.06.2025)

Comment:

Leman Magazine has greatly overstepped by portraying Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)—whom Muslims never mention without blessings—and Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) in an ugly caricature.

As the matter trended on social media, Muslims flocked to İstiklal Avenue in Taksim to protest angrily. The Interior Ministry intervened, arresting those involved in the cartoon. Images of these Islamophobes, handcuffed and dragged to the police station barefoot, offered Muslims some relief.

President Erdoğan and other politicians shared messages expressing love for the Prophet. The government calmed public anger with reassuring statements. Those responsible were arrested and jailed. But nothing more happened, because the current legal system, which has expelled the Prophet’s teachings from public life, permits no further action.

In this system, laws protect Mustafa Kemal and the President from insults, but there is no special law protecting Muhammad (peace be upon him), who is the highest value and guide for Muslims. This is unsurprising, since laws reflect a state’s chosen ideology. In secular systems that make opposition to God and His Messenger official ideology, religion becomes only a private matter of conscience, barred from influencing public life. Calling for religious influence, or forming a political party for it, is a crime under Turkish law.

Therefore, government statements defending the Prophet (saw) are merely emotional gestures, lacking real substance.

[أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يَزْعُمُونَ أَنَّهُمْ آمَنُواْ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ يُرِيدُونَ أَن يَتَحَاكَمُواْ إِلَى الطَّاغُوتِ وَقَدْ أُمِرُواْ أَن يَكْفُرُواْ بِهِ وَيُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَن يُضِلَّهُمْ ضَلاَلاً بَعِيدًا]

“Have you not seen those who claim to believe in what was revealed to you and what was revealed before you? They wish to resort to Taghut (false authorities), though they were commanded to reject it. But Satan wishes to lead them far astray.” [An-Nisa: 60].

Such political statements often aim to exploit Muslim sentiments. A striking example was Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s participation in the funeral in Paris after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, a scene etched in Muslim memory as a mark of shame.

Thus, claims by so-called conservative democratic leaders that they love and defend the Prophet and Islam are nothing but self-consolation. Their real loyalty lies with their positions, their Western allies, and the Western-origin secular system. Many painful events, betrayals, and the corrupting influence of democracy prove this reality.

Expelling the Prophet’s religion from life, abandoning al-Aqsa, Gaza, and the entire sacred land of Isra and Mi‘raj to Crusader-Zionist occupation and massacre is among the gravest insults to the Prophet and our values.

As for secularists, Kemalists, communists, atheists, and other Islamophobic ideologies defending such cartoons, they are destined for defeat and Hell. For Allah sent Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a mercy and elevated his honor, while humiliating his attackers in this world and the Hereafter. This divine law never changes.

Every Muslim who loves Allah, His Messenger, and believers must work to establish an Islamic Caliphate State, which would protect, implement, and spread Islam as guidance. Otherwise, as long as the secular system remains tied to global disbelief, attacks on our values will continue.

«لَا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى أَكُونَ أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ وَالِدِهِ وَوَلَدِهِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ»

“None of you truly believes until I am dearer to him than his father, his child, and all mankind.” (Bukhari, Sahih, Iman, 2/8 [I:9])

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammed Emin Yıldırım