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Adnan Oktar nom de plume Harun Yahya (a.k.a Adnan Hoca) (born Ankara, 1956) is a figure in Turkish creationism, and a fervent advocate of creationism in the creation vs. evolution debate. He is considered the leading Muslim advocate of creationism; unlike the majority of Christian creationists he subscribes to Old Earth creationism. He is an anti-zionist and anti-mason which he sees as very interrelated movements, but he rejects allegations of anti-Semitism . He and his organization are also regarded as a cult and is very controversial in Turkey . He also founded the BAV, an organisation that is accused of being a criminal organization.
Biography
Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar lived there through his high school years. In 1979 he moved to Istanbul to attend an interior design-study at Mimar Sinan University, but did not graduate.
In the first half of the 1980s, he gathered young students around him, to teach them his views about Islam, mixing mysticism with scientific rhetoric. These young people belonged to socially active and prominent families of Istanbul which had a high economic status. From 1982 to 1984, a group of 20 to 30 young people was formed.
In 1986, Adnan Oktar published the book, Judaism and Freemasonry. The book suggests that the principal mission of the Jews and freemasons in Turkey was to erode the spiritual, religious and moral values of the Turkish people and, thus, make them like animals, as stated in what Oktar refers to as the "Distorted Torah." Oktar asserts that "the materialist standpoint, evolution theory, anti-religious and immoral lifestyles were indoctrinated to the society as a whole" by Jews and Freemasons.
Shortly after the publication of Judaism and Freemasonry, Adnan Oktar was arrested and imprisoned. He was transferred to Bakırköy Mental Hospital and placed under observation. After 19 months, Oktar was released.
In 1990, he founded the BAV (Bilim Araşırma Vakfı (Foundation for Scientific Research)), through which he still effectively functions. His followers gathered around the BAV are usually named as Adnan Hocacılar ("Adherents of Adnan the Hodja") by the public. Adnan Oktar was declared the Honorary President of the BAV. The Foundation ensured the performance of several activities; the members of the foundation published books and conducted cultural studies, held panels, discussions and conferences claiming to protect and revive moral values.
In 1995, he also founded Millî Değerleri Koruma Vakfı (Foundation for Protection of National Values), which links him to traditional Islamist and nationalist circles.
Antisemitism
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Campaign against Evolution
In early 1998, Adnan Oktar and the BAV launched a campaign against Darwinism. Thousands of free copies of Adnan Oktar's book, The Evolution Deceit, and the booklets based on this book were distributed within Turkey.
BAV also spearheaded an effort to attack Turkish academics who taught evolutionary theory. A number of academics were harassed, threatened and slandered in fliers that labeled them "communists, separatists and Maoists" for teaching evolution. In 1999, six of the professors won a civil court case against BAV for defamation and were awarded $6,000 each.
The court decided that "a severe and unjust attack was perpetrated on the plaintiffs' personal rights, by listing the names of the scientists defending the theory of evolution and describing them as communists and separatists on the flyers distributed by the foundation." Professor Ümit Sayın summed up the effect of BAV's campaign when, in 2005, he said: In 1998, I was able to motivate six members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences to speak out against the creationist movement. Today, it's impossible to motivate anyone. They're afraid they'll be attacked by the radical Islamists and the BAV.
Writings
External links
Sites based on the works of Harun Yahya:
Critical articles
Other Articles
- Evolution and religion: In the beginning, The Economist, Apr 19th 2007 (Istanbul, Moscow and Rome)
References
- http://www.salon.com/books/int/2007/01/02/numbers/index3.html
- "Yahya accepts that the world is billions of years old...", Martin Enserink, In Europe's Mailbag: A Glossy Attack on Evolution, Science 315{5814):925, 16 February 2007.
- Cornelia Dean (July 17, 2007). "Islamic Creationist and a Book Sent Round the World". New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2007.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Harun Yahya's islamdenouncesantisemitism.com site
- http://english.sabah.com.tr/2E6E66B0FB3D4D60AE374D08A8473D9D.html
- http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9036706
- http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/05/18/son/sontur40.asp
- "BAV has been taken to court repeatedly over the last decade. .." http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav052407.shtml
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20050221142255/19.org/index.php?id=14,194,0,0,1,0
- ^ LIFE STORY OF ADNAN OKTAR Jamiatul Ulama, Ask the Jamiat
- PALESTINE ZIONISM: A SECULAR NATIONALISM THAT BETRAYED JUDAISM, Harun Yaha, An Invitation to the Truth
- http://www.harunyahya.com/theauthor2.php
- Article by Tony Ortega: http://www.pitch.com/issues/2005-05-05/news/feature_1.html
- ^ Article in Cumhuriyet Newspaper June 25, 1999 http://web.archive.org/web/20010803145236/www.geocities.com/evrimkurami/mahkeme2.html
- http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/rncse_content/vol19/8300_islamic_scientific_creationism_12_30_1899.asp
- http://www.pitch.com/issues/2005-05-05/news/feature_1.html