• Home
  • Politics
  • Health
  • World
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
What's Hot

Short and Funny Sayings for a Happy Summer with Friends

May 9, 2025

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Friday, May 9
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
  • Home
  • Politics

    Security video shows brazen sexual assault of California woman by homeless man

    October 24, 2023

    Woman makes disturbing discovery after her boyfriend chases away home intruder who stabbed him

    October 24, 2023

    Poll finds Americans overwhelmingly support Israel’s war on Hamas, but younger Americans defend Hamas

    October 24, 2023

    Off-duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after allegedly trying to shut off engines midflight on Alaska Airlines

    October 23, 2023

    Leaked audio of Shelia Jackson Lee abusively cursing staffer

    October 22, 2023
  • Health

    Disparities In Cataract Care Are A Sorry Sight

    October 16, 2023

    Vaccine Stocks—Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax—Slide Amid Plummeting Demand

    October 16, 2023

    Long-term steroid use should be a last resort

    October 16, 2023

    Rite Aid Files For Bankruptcy With More ‘Underperforming Stores’ To Close

    October 16, 2023

    Who’s Still Dying From Complications Related To Covid-19?

    October 16, 2023
  • World

    New York Democrat Dan Goldman Accuses ‘Conservatives in the South’ of Holding Rallies with ‘Swastikas’

    October 13, 2023

    IDF Ret. Major General Describes Rushing to Save Son, Granddaughter During Hamas Invasion

    October 13, 2023

    Black Lives Matter Group Deletes Tweet Showing Support for Hamas 

    October 13, 2023

    AOC Denounces NYC Rally Cheering Hamas Terrorism: ‘Unacceptable’

    October 13, 2023

    L.A. Prosecutors Call Out Soros-Backed Gascón for Silence on Israel

    October 13, 2023
  • Business

    Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

    May 8, 2025

    Electric Vehicle Sales Nosedive As GOP Takes Buzzsaw To Biden’s Mandate

    May 7, 2025

    Tyson Foods Announces It Will Bend The Knee To Trump Admin’s New Rules

    May 7, 2025

    Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rates Steady Despite Pressure From Trump

    May 7, 2025

    ‘Wait Them Out’: John Kennedy Tells Larry Kudlow One Lie He Suspects China’s Telling US

    May 7, 2025
  • Finance

    Ending China’s De Minimis Exception Brings 3 Benefits for Americans

    April 17, 2025

    The Trump Tariff Shock Should Push Indonesia to Reform Its Economy

    April 17, 2025

    Tariff Talks an Opportunity to Reinvigorate the Japan-US Alliance

    April 17, 2025

    How China’s Companies Are Responding to the US Trade War

    April 16, 2025

    The US Flip-flop Over H20 Chip Restrictions 

    April 16, 2025
  • Tech

    Cruz Confronts Zuckerberg on Pointless Warning for Child Porn Searches

    February 2, 2024

    FTX Abandons Plans to Relaunch Crypto Exchange, Commits to Full Repayment of Customers and Creditors

    February 2, 2024

    Elon Musk Proposes Tesla Reincorporates in Texas After Delaware Judge Voids Pay Package

    February 2, 2024

    Tesla’s Elon Musk Tops Disney’s Bob Iger as Most Overrated Chief Executive

    February 2, 2024

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth Grew $84 Billion in 2023 as Pedophiles Target Children on Facebook, Instagram

    February 2, 2024
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
Home»Entertainment»Court Issues Suspended Prison Sentence to Pop Star for Islamic School Joke
Entertainment

Court Issues Suspended Prison Sentence to Pop Star for Islamic School Joke

May 8, 2023No Comments5 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

A court in Turkey sentenced pop star Gülşen Bayraktar Çolakoğlu, widely known by her first name only, to ten months in prison on Wednesday for a joke mocking Islamist religious schools.

The court issued a “suspended” sentence, meaning Gülşen will likely not have the serve the term unless she is found guilty of “inciting hatred” again in a separate case within the next five years, according to the outlet Turkish Minute. The singer served four days in prison and two weeks of house arrest in August following a clip of her making the joke going viral.

Turkish pop singer given suspended sentence for insulting religious school graduates https://t.co/uyLuEynUOP

— Turkish Minute (@TurkishMinuteTM) May 3, 2023

In Turkey, “if the prison sentence is less than two years, the announcement of the verdict is delayed for five years and has no legal consequences. If the convict does not commit a crime within the supervision period, the decision is annulled,” the national newspaper Hurriyet explained Wednesday.

Turkish law criminalizes “inciting hatred” against religious groups through speech. Turks enjoy very limited free speech rights, as the penal code forbids actions such as “insulting the president” or criticizing the founder of the Turkish Republic and architect of the Armenian genocide, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Gülşen reportedly made the offending comments during practice on stage alongside her band in April 2022, joking that one of its members had gone to an “imam-hatip” school.

Famous singer convicted on ‘inciting hatred’https://t.co/iTumQbCp2p pic.twitter.com/KKiRqKlDuF

— Hürriyet Daily News (@HDNER) May 3, 2023

“He studied at an Imam Hatip previously. That’s where his perversion comes from,” the singer can be heard saying in the viral video.

See also  16-year-old LeBron James goes full Megatron as wide receiver in high school football game

Imam-hatip schools are Islamic religious schools whose operation had been widely discouraged under secularist governments but now, under Islamist current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have become increasingly popular, Erdogan himself attended such a school. Video of her joke surfaced on social media in August 2022 and resulted in her arrest and brief imprisonment.

Erdogan, at a political rally in August, appeared to confirm that Gülşen would face legal repercussions for her joke. Without naming her, the president asserted, “those who insult the sacred values ​​of our nation will not be able to get away from being held accountable both in common conscience and before the law.”

“In recent days, we have seen that the provocations against our brotherhood have reached a very serious level, targeting our places of worship and Imam Hatip schools,” he warned. “As a nation, we will not be provoked and intimidated again.”

In her defense, Gülşen insisted that the remarks were joking in nature and made privately, not an attempt at broadcasting political or religious speech or inciting the public to oppose the schools.

“This was not a speech I made to participants of the concert or the media,” Hurriyet quoted her as saying.

Singer Gülşen jailed over religious school remarkshttps://t.co/4z6Q4tY81C pic.twitter.com/eFi281UIbq

— Hürriyet Daily News (@HDNER) August 26, 2022

Speaking to the secularist newspaper Cumhuriyet on Wednesday, Gülşen’s attorney, Emre Emek, criticized the court for apparently charging the pop star under one law, but sentencing her under another.

“Ms. Gülşen was tried under [one law], but the ruling was made according to [another law]. If another criminal element arises next to the one specified in the indictment, under normal circumstances, additional defense rights are granted, which were not [in this case],” the newspaper quoted Emek as saying. “I am very surprised as a lawyer, I have not come across anything like this before.”

See also  Netflix Reality Show Slammed for 'Psychological Torture' Over Use of Deepfakes Cheating on Real-life Partners

Emek confirmed his client would appeal on the grounds of such an irregularity and on the fact that, given Gülşen’s lack of a criminal record, the court should have erred on the side of a lower prison sentence.

Prior to the imam-hatip scandal, Gülşen had long developed a reputation for opposing the Erdogan regime’s interpretation of Islamic values, often appearing scantily clad in videos and championing the cause of gay rights in Turkey. Her latest video before the scandal, published in March 2022, shows the singer in handcuffs and a prison cell.

The singer has posed with rainbow flags and produced a video in communist Cuba, a left-wing regime that, ironically, Erdogan has maintained friendly ties with through their mutual ally, socialist Venezuela.

At the time of her initial arrest, Gülşen received enthusiastic support from Turkey’s entertainment industry, which is largely based in secularist Istanbul and does not form part of Erdogan’s core voter base.

“Our legal system – which turns a blind eye to corruption, thieves, those who break the law and massacre nature, those who kill animals and those who use religion to polarize society through their bigoted ideas – has arrested Gülşen in one whack,” Tarkan, one of Turkey’s most prominent male singers, lamented last year.

“I deeply regret the arrest of the artist Gülşen. She was targeted for boldly advocating for women’s rights, LGBT+ rights, secularism, democracy, and pluralism. This is a lynching campaign. It is neither lawful nor conscientious. Free at once,” British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak said on Twitter.

Turkey is in the final stages of a heated presidential election. Erdogan, polls show, is facing the stiffest competition of his presidential career against challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP). Surveys published this weekend show Kılıçdaroğlu leading Erdogan by a narrow two points, likely setting up a rematch in a runoff election on May 28. The initial round of voting occurs on May 14; to win the presidency outright, a candidate must receive upwards of 50 percent of the vote.

See also  U.S. Supreme Court torn over challenge to internet firms' legal shield

Last year, Kılıçdaroğlu condemned Gülşen’s arrest, accusing Erdogan of attempting to “set our youth against each other” by inspiring outrage towards the singer’s joke.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Court Islamic issues joke Pop prison School Sentence Star Suspended
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

110 Short Graduation Quotes for High School Seniors and University Graduates in 2025

May 5, 2025

162 Discipline Quotes for Motivation and Success with Work, School and Your Dreams

May 1, 2025

Pickers and Clusters: A Complex Array of Issues Confronts Uzbekistan’s Evolving Cotton Industry

March 13, 2025

Supreme Court Agrees To Hear TikTok’s Challenge To Law That Could Ban Platform

December 18, 2024
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

Can Japan Champion Nuclear Duality?

May 6, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried Uses Weasel Words, Suffers from Memory Loss During Testimony

November 1, 2023

The Australia-India Trade Agreement: The Start of Something More for India?  

September 28, 2023

Indian drug manufacturers benefit from Big Pharma interest beyond China

November 27, 2023
Don't Miss

Short and Funny Sayings for a Happy Summer with Friends

Lifestyle May 9, 2025

I love the beach. Just looking at the calming sea to relax. Having fun in…

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025
About
About

This is your World, Tech, Health, Entertainment and Sports website. We provide the latest breaking news straight from the News industry.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
Categories
  • Business (4,110)
  • Entertainment (4,220)
  • Finance (3,202)
  • Health (1,938)
  • Lifestyle (1,627)
  • Politics (3,084)
  • Sports (4,036)
  • Tech (2,006)
  • Uncategorized (4)
  • World (3,944)
Our Picks

I Tried Grace & Stella Energizing Eye Masks

September 10, 2023

‘A Very Disturbing Event’: Michael Shellenberger Describes ‘Censorship-Industrial Complex’ Created With Taxpayer Funds

March 10, 2023

California, New York pension funds vote against Toyota chairman

June 4, 2023
Popular Posts

Short and Funny Sayings for a Happy Summer with Friends

May 9, 2025

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025
© 2025 Patriotnownews.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.