Top Turkish Cleric: Islamic State and Prophet Mohammed Cartoons Cause Equal Damage

The Islamic State has executed more than 10,000 people in Syria and Iraq, and contributed to the displacement of millions more. The extremists have killed hundreds more in terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, and onboard a Russian passenger jet, and have systematically raped and enslaved Yazidi women.

But according to Mehmet Gormez, a top Turkish cleric who heads the Diyanet, the official Turkish directorate for religious affairs, the deadly terrorist group has caused about as much damage as cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

“Today, the damage caused [by] the networks, distant from any belief, reason, and wisdom, who engrave the name [of God] on their so-called flags is no less than the [damage caused by] cartoons — intolerable by any means — by the pioneers of Islamophobia,” he said Monday in remarks made to honor the anniversary of Mohammed’s birth.

Many Muslims oppose any depiction of the prophet, even if it is not accompanied by snarky captions or other demeaning details as in some Western cartoons. In traditional Islamic art, if he is portrayed at all, it is often without revealing his face.

Gormez likely meant that the damage caused by the cartoons, which he claims were drawn by Islamophobes, tarnished the image of Mohammed himself. But angry responses to the often inflammatory cartoons have also caused their fair share of violent uproar in recent years.

In 2005 and 2006, for example, cartoons depicting Mohammed as a terrorist with a bomb were printed and reprinted in Danish and Norwegian newspapers, sparking protests across the Middle East. After newspapers in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain followed suit, Norwegian and Danish embassies were attacked. For years, those cartoons were the subject of threats against countries in the European Union, and the artist, Kurt Westergaard, even avoided murder attempts.

In late 2011, one day after French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo printed a cartoon of the prophet and named him the paper’s editor in chief, its offices were firebombed. Roughly three years later, Muslim extremists attacked and killed 12 people at its Paris office.

Still, according to the Hurriyet Daily News, Gormez said that Muslims are now facing one of the most difficult periods in history — a time in which the prophet’s reputation has been tarnished by terrorists and Islamophobes.

“I regret to say that the biggest problem of Muslims today is that they have lost the status of being an example and cannot deservedly represent of our prophet’s message of grace and mercy,” he said.

Photo credit: Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images