Court Acquits Cartoonist Accused of Defaming Religion

A court in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak yesterday decided to acquit Ayhan Kiraz of the charge of defaming religion in relation to a cartoon he had drawn in response to a spat between the Education and Science Workers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) and the religious establishment in the district of Çaycuma.

"Circles who have no business with issues of rights and justice keep picking on Eğitim-Sen's Çaycuma [branch,]" was the title of Kiraz's cartoon which was published in Çaycuma Sanat, a local arts, culture and news website.

Kiraz told bianet that he had not intended to insult religion but merely to criticize the campaigns undertaken by religious institutions in Zonguldak's Çaycuma district, while Çaycuma Sanat editor Mevlüt Kırnapçı also criticized the trial of the website in connection with the publishing of a cartoon and said people ought to be able to handle artistic criticism.

Accusations of irreligiousity

Imams, female preachers and Qur'an teachers paid a visit to kindergartens and primary schools in Çaycuma last April to lecture on religion during the "Holy Birth Week." They also distributed baloons with religious writings on them to the students and Qur'ans to the teachers.

Eğitim-Sen consequently criticized this move through a press release. Schools are not branches of the Religious Affairs Directorate or müftis' offices, they said, adding that the act was also in violation of existing laws and regulations.

The Çaycuma branch of the Turkish Religious Affairs and Foundation Employees Union (Diva-Sen) then targeted Eğitim-Sen's Çaycuma representative İsmet Akyol through verbal statements, and Akyol responded by filing a criminal complaint against them, but no formal charges were levelled.

Kiraz then published his cartoon in response to the row, only to find himself standing trial in a suit filed by Recep Karagöz, the deputy chair of the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity for the Oppressed (Mazlum-Der) on the charge of defaming religion.

"Most associations that targeted Eğitim-Sen have nothing to do with education. [These] institutions attacked them by accusing them of irreligiousity after Eğitim-Sen highlighted an problem pertaining to its own field [of expertise.] I am no partisan of Eğitim-Sen. However, I drew a bearded man wearing a [traditional religious] cap with a snake coming out of his mouth and wrapped around his neck, after these institutions began using religion to attack Eğitim-Sen over a matter that is outside of their fields of expertise. They immediately filed a criminal complaint on the grounds that I had defamed religion, and the prosecutor turned me over to court in June," Kiraz explained.

Kiraz said he had been drawing mainly political cartoons in Zonguldak for 32 years, adding that his intention was solely to make criticism and not to assume an attitude against religion.

"We have turned into a country where everyone accuses everyone else of irreligiousity," he said.

Eğitim-Sen's Çaycuma representative İsmet Akyol also added that activities that were intended to rupture the democratic and intellectual fabric in their district had been taking place in schools for the past four to five years.

The Religious Affairs Directorate's announcement concerning the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca first appeared in schools across Çaycuma last January, Akyol noted.

"The Religious Affairs Directorate and müftis' offices have begun to view schools as their own branches. We intervened in this matter in January, and some clerics also lent their support to our statement," he also said.

Eğitim-Sen then warned the Education Ministry about the visits paid by imams and preachers to schools in Çaycuma, as these visits had not been authorized by the Education Directorate, Akyol added.

"The Holy Birth Week is significant for a religion, but some associations spearheaded by Mazlum-Der accused us of irreligiousity because we said schools were not the place for this," he said. (EKN)