Istanbul: Around one hundred protesters turned out Friday for a rally in a conservative Istanbul district to support the two brothers who gunned down 12 people in an attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Responding to an appeal by a group calling itself the Fraternal Platform of the Prophet`s Companions, the demonstrators held up a banner with the pictures of Cherif and Said Kouachi as well as the late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Turkish security forces blocked the protestors from marching around the Ottoman Fatih mosque which is in the heart of the Fatih district known for its conservative atmosphere.
The two Islamist gunmen were shot dead by French police two days after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, which had angered Muslims by lampooning Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
Charlie Hebdo in its first edition since the massacre put a cartoon of Mohammed on its front page, inciting further anger in the Islamic world.
"The day came when by Allah`s hand two or three people punished and humiliated these infidels. Today, Western media and the infidels know that Muslims will take their revenge," said radical Muslim Bayram Samsam, the leader of the rally.
Turkey has condemned the Islamist attacks on Paris that left a total of 17 dead while warning that Europe must fight against increasing Islamophobia.
