Radical Muslim Funding US Creationist Groups?
Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 9:11:19 pm PDT
Here’s an interesting article with lots of detail on the Turkish radical Islamic creationist Harun Yahya (real name: Adnan Oktar), who has joined forces with US creationist groups like the Institute for Creation Research, to promote their Dark Ages anti-science agenda around the world: Muslim creationist preaches Islam and awaits Christ.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Harun Yahya is one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world. He may also be among the most widely criticized Muslim authors in the Western world.
His glossy books and DVDs on religion and science sell in Islamic bookshops around the globe. He gives away thousands of expensive volumes and lets readers download much of his work from his websites for free.
The Council of Europe accuses him of trying to infiltrate schools with religious extremism and French teachers are told to keep his work from their students.
Unknown outside Muslim circles two years ago, Adnan Oktar — the 52-year-old Turk behind the pseudonym Harun Yahya — caught the attention of scientists and teachers in Europe and North America by mass-mailing them his 768-page “Atlas of Creation”. His lavishly illustrated book preaches a Muslim version of creationism, the view scientists usually hear from Christian fundamentalists who say God created all life on earth just as it is today and oppose the teaching of Darwin’s evolution theory.
“Every academic I know says they’ve got one of those,” retired University of Edinburgh natural history professor Aubrey Manning told the Glasgow Herald when “The Atlas” turned up in Scotland early this year. “And it’s peddling an absolute, downright lie.”
But Oktar, whose reclusive ways and opaque business have prompted many rumors about why and how he gives away so many books, brushed off all criticism in a rare interview with Reuters. “This huge impact shows the influence of the book,” the author, stylishly turned out in a white suit, red tie and clipped beard, said through an interpreter.
The controversy stirred up by “The Atlas” has turned the spotlight on a publishing empire that boasts about 260 books in 52 languages, over 80 DVDs and dozens of websites.
Well-illustrated and free of theological jargon, they preach that Islam is the one true faith and Darwinism, by undermining religious belief, has led to the discord, atheism, terrorism and extreme political ideologies plaguing the world. ...
The flood of free books prompted suspicion among baffled Western scientists and teachers that U.S. creationists or Saudi financiers might be helping finance the campaign.
Oktar said the giveaways — he estimated them at about 10,000 out of print runs of over 200,000 — were normal public relations funded by profits from sales of “The Atlas” and other books.
“That seems implausible — this book is expensive,” said Taner Edis, a Turkish-American physicist whose 2007 book “An Illusion of Harmony” analyzed Islam’s approach to science. “And to my knowledge, it’s not selling like hotcakes.”
Edis doubted the rumors of funds from U.S. creationists, saying: “American creationists I talk to basically envy Harun Yahya’s financial resources. If there were any fund flowing, it would be from Adnan Oktar to the creationists.”
