Turkish pop star Gülşen has been arrested on suspicion of "inciting hatred and enmity" after she made a joke about non secular faculties.
The 46-year-old singer-songwriter was taken away for questioning from her residence in Istanbul and was formally arrested late on Thursday earlier than being taken to jail pending her trial.
The fees relate to feedback she made throughout a live performance in Istanbul in April when she quipped that considered one of her musicians’ “perversion” was as a result of he went to an Imam Hatip non secular faculty.
A video of the singer making the feedback started circulating on social media not too long ago, with a hashtag calling for her arrest.
However different on-line customers have expressed anger at her arrest. Critics say the transfer is a part of the federal government's efforts to consolidate non secular and conservative help forward of subsequent yr's elections.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the chief of Turkey’s fundamental opposition occasion, referred to as on Turkey’s judges and prosecutors to "launch the artist now".
Gülşen -- whose full identify is Gülşen Çolakoğlu -- has already been the goal of Islamic circles for her stage outfits and help for the LGBTQ neighborhood.
She has issued an apology on social media for the offence precipitated however mentioned her feedback had been seized on by individuals who need to polarise Turkey.
Throughout her questioning, Gülşen rejected accusations that she incited hatred and enmity, telling courtroom authorities that she had “limitless respect for the values and sensitivities of my nation,” in accordance with the state-run Anadolu Company.
However a spokesperson for the ruling AK occasion said on Twitter that "inciting hatred isn't an artwork type" and advised that Gülşen's actions had been "a hate crime and a shame to humanity".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and lots of of his occasion members attended Imam Hatip non secular faculties in Turkey, and the federal government has pledged to extend their quantity to lift a "pious technology".
The colleges had been initially supposed to arrange kids to change into Muslim preachers.
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