Artist Enver Aysever detained in Turkey for his drawing calling for scientific approach to coronavirus pandemic

Following the intolerance incidents that is regularly seen in the Islam world, Turkey has started an investigation against a caricaturist for defending scientific way to fight the virus.

Last week a caricature showing the ignorance of the Islamic leaders and their resistance against science during the coronavirus pandemic went viral. In the face of religious leaders’ resistance against closing the mosques and other gathering places, a social outcry started to spread.

The Islamic government of AKP in Turkey used the coronavirus as an excuse to shut down bars and restaurants that sell alcohol immediately. The government had been trying to achieve this for a long time with only a limited success. The mosques where people gather and congregate in small quarters were not touched at first.

For a long time, the ruling AKP has been spreading the propaganda that back in the 1940’s when its major opponent, the secular CHP party, was in power, the mosques were shut down. This scores several points in the uneducated Muslim support base that AKP enjoys. After all these years of attacking “mosque closures”, it wasn’t easy for the Turkish government to close the mosques to prevent the spread of the disease.

After the number of coronavirus cases exploded while the government tried to suppress the numbers, it had no choice but to close all gathering events, including the mosques. But that came a day late and a dollar short. The cases spread everywhere. So did the social media and social criticism of inaction and unpreparedness of the Islamic AKP government.

One reason the Turkish government was slow to react to the pandemic was the hope that it would just simply go away. Muslim thought believes diseases, as other things, come from Allah and is cured by Allah. All you can do is pray for it to go away without much damage.

The other reason was to prevent the news of the disease’s existence in the hopes that it would not deter tourists to visit Turkey. Tourism is one of the last few sources of income left for the country. Without tourism income, Turkey is as good as dead. There is no longer much production anymore. Agriculture has been decimated by the AKP. The entire state owned assets have been sold off to foreigners with nothing much to sell, except for forests, mines and touristic beaches. The entire Turkish economy is dependent on foreign powers. It is obvious that the pandemic would disrupt tourism and therefore its news had to be suppressed.

To show the unscientific and opportunistic ignorance and openly criminal neglect of the Turkish government and its supporters social media has been buzzing. However, in a country like Turkey, the government tries to control all aspects of life, especially the media. The caricaturist that drew the viral drawing soon learned how serious the AKP government was in hiding the truth, the real news, and the dangerous critical thinking linked to these.

The button to start a social media storm was clicked and the official Turkish government trolls sprang into action, calling for lynching of the artist. And the government followed up after the “criticism” of the drawing grew to the critical point.

The artist, Enver Aysever, was charged by the government for “insulting the beliefs of all or some parts of the population.” In the drawing, a hazmat dressed person is disinfecting the inside of a Muslim bigot’s head. Many blame the ignorance and unscientific teachings of the Muslim clergy as a big factor in the dangerous spread of the virus in Turkey.

Many cases of Muslims ignoring the public health threat and jeopardizing others and contributing to the spread of the virus has been published in the media. 21,000 pilgrims were allowed by the government to go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage after the news of the pandemic spread. When these returned, some from a very small number who were tested proved positive to the virus. However, the pilgrims refused to be quarantined on their return and clashed with the police when they were forced into college student dormitories. Some pilgrims, during the clashes, spat on the police shouting, “If we are sick, then you too shall get sick now.”

Even if we are to assume that at least those pilgrims that were forced to quarantine are under control, a huge number simply escaped all tests or checks and disappeared inside the population at large. Other Muslims completely ignored the latest warnings, even from the Department of Religious Affairs, and were forcing the gates of mosques to pray together as if nothing changed. When they could not get in, they prayed together in the yard. Scientific explanations of how viral diseases work and its prevention has no meaning in a believer’s mind.

While Enver Aysever, the artist who drew the caricature was first being publicly lynched, then called to give his defense and testimony to the police, hundreds of people were being trailed by the police, as the Interior Ministry reported, due to their social media posts that differed from the official news of the coronavirus pandemic. As of March 17th, there were 21 detentions and 137 investigations of those who shared information or thoughts on the pandemic in Turkey that contradicted the official version of reality.

Sendika.org News (M.B.)