Turkey blocks Charlie Hebdo websites as anger rises in Islamic world

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered a block on websites featuring the controversial front cover of the first issue of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo as anger grew in the Islamic world over the edition.

The court in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, responding to a petition ordered the block on websites displaying the cover.

Cairo´s Al-Azhar university, Sunni Islam´s most prestigious centre of learning, had warned that new cartoons will only serve to "stir up hatred" while there was also an angry reaction from Iran and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

The government in mainly Muslim Senegal also banned distribution of the editions of Charlie Hebdo and the French daily Liberation.

Few Turkish websites published the cover but among those who did was the opposition website T24.tr. Access to the picture was still unfiltered Wednesday evening despite the court ruling.

"Words, writing, cartoons and publications denigrating religious values and the prophet is regarded an insult to the followers of that faith," the court ruling said.