ISTANBUL (AP) – Two students have been arrested in Turkey on charges of inciting hatred and insulting religious values for a poster depicting Islam’s holiest site with LGBT flags.
Their arrest took place late Saturday after Turkish top officials slammed the poster, which was displayed during an exhibition at the most prestigious Bogazici University in Turkey. Students and faculties have been protesting for weeks that the Turkish president has appointed a new rector who has ties to his ruling party and that clashes with police have erupted.
Home Secretary Suleyman Soylu tweeted that “LGBT perverts” had been detained for “disrespecting the Great Kaaba.” Top government officials of Turkey’s conservative Islamic ruling party have condemned the poster. The spokesman for the strongly secular, main opposition party also slammed the artwork as a provocation and called it an attack on sacred values.
Their statements come after the university’s Islamic research club slammed the poster on social media and asked people to use Twitter with hashtags exposing the poster, LGBT people and the university. The country’s director of religious affairs, who earlier caused a stir by saying homosexuality brings diseases and was defended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he came under criticism, said he would take legal action.
The Kaaba in Mecca is the holiest place in Islam with believers around the world praying in its direction.
On the poster, a mythical creature of half a woman and half a snake is placed in Middle Eastern folklore on the grounds of the worship service, along with the flags of LGBT, lesbian, trans and asexual people. In the text below, it is said that the artwork was a critique of traditional gender roles.
The governor’s office in Istanbul said five people were initially detained and police are looking for two more suspects. One person was released, two under house arrest and two were sent to jail until they were tried.
Police searched the fine arts and LGBTI + student clubs at the university. According to the statement, police found books about a banned Kurdish group and rainbow flags.
Melih Bulu, the rector under protest, tweeted that an attack on Islamic values is unacceptable and has no place in the university’s values.
The student group Bogazici Solidarity said the exhibition of more than 300 works of art was partly to protest the new rector and acknowledged that Muslim students had problems with the poster.
‘All artworks are open to criticism. “Executing art is merely a restriction on freedom of expression,” they said in a statement. The group stressed the value of pluralism in the university and said hate speech based on sexual orientation and gender identity was unacceptable.
The university’s LGBTI + group tweeted that they stood with their friends, saying they rejected the new rector “who targeted his own students.”