Tag: Darwinism

Turkish Science Agency’s Book Selections Prompt Questions

Not fit to print? The Turkish translation of Ever Since Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould is one of the books that has disappeared from TÜBİTAK’s inventory.
Credit: TÜBİTAK
Virtually all books about evolution—along with more than 100 other titles from other fields—have apparently disappeared in recent months from the selection of popular science books for sale by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), the country’s main science funding agency. The missing books have prompted the latest skirmish in the long-running conflict between the government and parts of the country’s academic community. But TÜBİTAK has denied censoring the books, saying that they are unavailable because of copyright issues.

Through its popular science book program, TÜBİTAK translates a range of science books into Turkish and sells them to the public, both directly and through bookstores. It used to offer more than 450 titles, including more than a dozen books about evolution such as Darwin and the Beagle by Alan Moorehead, The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, and James Watson’s The Double Helix. A list of books offered until recently (in Turkish) is available on an outdated but still accessible version of TÜBİTAK’s Web site. On the current Web site, the books are no longer listed.

Relations between the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey’s academic establishment have been rocky since Erdoğan’s party won a large majority in parliament a decade ago. Academics have decried what they say is government meddling in the organization and oversight of both TÜBİTAK and the Turkish Academy of Sciences, which led to one-third of the academy members resigning and forming a new independent Science Academy. Some prominent academics have also been arrested. Evolution has been a flash point before, when TÜBİTAK delayed an article about Darwin in one of its publications. (The article was published after public outcry.) There have also been some apparent attempts to censor evolution-related Web sites.

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Earlier this month, several Turkish newspapers reported that the evolution-related books were unavailable, and suggested that TÜBİTAK had censored them. A few days later, TÜBİTAK denied censoring the books, saying that the newspaper stories were part of a smear campaign. But Mehmet Ali Alpar, an astrophysicist at Sabanci University in Istanbul and president of the Science Academy, says that, by his count, fewer than 300 titles of the original 455 are currently offered. The selection for adult readers seems hardest hit. The Web site now shows just four biology-related books for adults. One evolution book does remain available, a children’s book by Linda Gamlin, part of a series called Eyewitness Books.

Alpar is a former member of the TÜBİTAK science board and helped launch the council’s publishing program in 1993. The program has been very popular and has sold more than 12 million books, he says. “Our policy was heterodox in selecting books,” Alpar says. “We had an eclectic selection, spread out over all branches of science.” The TÜBİTAK Web site says that it chooses books to publish based on “context, originality and presentation.”

Alpar says other publishers in Turkey will likely pick up the dropped titles. “The demand is there” from book buyers, he says, and notes that a private publisher has recently taken over the rights to at least one book by Richard Feynman. (Books by the physicist have also disappeared from TÜBİTAK’s catalog.) However, he says, the TÜBİTAK imprint is well recognized by the general public. Amid the ongoing debate about evolution and creationism, losing that seal of approval on evolution-related books won’t help.

Science Insider’s questions sent to TÜBİTAK went unanswered. In a 16 January statement (English translation obtained by Science Insider), TÜBİTAK said that it “has no censorship policy and has not censored the writers or the books mentioned in the news,” and that “copyright issues” have kept some books unavailable. One newspaper article quoted a TÜBİTAK source as saying that some books had been dropped because they were outdated. Alpar is not convinced. “Do they consider The Double Helix outdated?” he asks.

It’s possible, Alpar says, that TÜBİTAK has been failing to renew copyright agreements for some time, which could explain the loss of a quarter of the original titles offered. “That would be serious negligence,” he says, with the end result almost the same as targeted censorship. The lost books are concentrated in the natural sciences; many of the current offerings are mathematics and technology titles. “This seems to be part of a strategy—which I see as misguided—to cut back on basic sciences in favor of technology.” Similar trends can be seen in funding decisions, he says.

Erol Gelenbe, a computer scientist at Imperial College London, is skeptical about the council’s intentions as well. TÜBİTAK has been moving “step by step” into line with the government’s Islamic-leaning policies, and the disappearance of the books is consistent with that trend, he says. However, he, too, is optimistic that other publishers will step into the gap. “These books will reappear somewhere,” Gelenbe says.

via Turkish Science Agency’s Book Selections Prompt Questions – ScienceInsider.

February 1, 2013
RACIST RANTS OF ELECTED BNP MAN, ANDREW BRONS, REVEALED

Jamie Doward, home affairs editor

The Observer, Sunday 14 June 2009

Yorkshire MEP Andrew Brons drew up some of the National Front’s most inflammatory policies

British National party MEP Andrew Brons. Photograph: BNP/PA

One of the British National party’s first MEPs’ attempts to play down his past links to the extreme right as “silly” teenage posturing are today exposed as a sham after it emerged that for many years he played a crucial role in shaping the National Front’s most overtly racist policies.

In 1983, when he was in his late twenties, Andrew Brons edited the National Front’s general election manifesto that called for a global apartheid to prevent the “extinction” of whites everywhere.

The Let Britain Live! manifesto was prepared by the party’s policy department, chaired by Brons. It outlined a series of hugely controversial positions, crystallised in one of its opening statements: “The National Front rejects the whole concept of multiracialism. We recognise inherent racial differences in Man. The races of Man are profoundly unequal in their characteristics, potential and abilities.”

The manifesto claimed the UK had been “swamped” by “racially incompatible Afro-Asians” and that “Black muggings of White people, especially elderly ladies, occurs regularly”.

It continued: “The eruptions in Bristol in 1980 and Brixton in 1981 were just two examples of the ‘cultural enrichment’ promised to us by the multiracialists.” And it claimed: “We believe the gradual dismantlement of the Apartheid system over the last 17 years to be retrograde … The alternative to Apartheid, multiracialism, envisages an extinction of the White man.”

Brons was also an enthusiastic contributor in the 1970s and 1980s to Spearhead, a far-right magazine considered so extreme even the BNP tried to distance itself from it. In two lengthy polemics for the magazine, Brons outlined the supposed importance of nationalism and interpreted genetic studies to suggest Europeans had a “greater cognitive ability” than non-whites. He attacked the influence of “people of Jewish ethnic origin” and peddled the myth that a number of predominantly Zionist organisations were controlling the world.

The now retired college lecturer wrote: “One ethnic, national and religious group whose power and influence has undoubtedly increased has been the Jews. It can be no mere coincidence that the number of people of Jewish ethnic origin to be found in internationalist and multiracialist schools of thought and organisations of action is out of all proportion to their numbers in the population.”

Brons, who was elected as the BNP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber this month, has tried to distance himself from his National Front days. “People do silly things when they are 17,” he said recently. “Peter Mandelson was once a member of the Young Communist League but we don’t continue to call him a communist.”

But his critics say his relationship with the National Front was more than a youthful dalliance and question the extent to which he has left his past behind. A 1980 edition of National Front News, the party newspaper, carried an article about Brons saying he was prepared to go to jail for his beliefs. It noted that Brons refused a “Negro reporter permission to attend two National Front ticket-only meetings” and explains that Brons, then 29, has “campaigned against Coloured Immigration since he was a teenager” – suggesting his extremist views have been a feature as much of his adult as his teenage life.

Brons seized the NF chairmanship in 1980 when John Tyndall quit to form the BNP. In 1984 Brons was convicted of using insulting behaviour towards an ethnic-minority police officer and left the party, citing family problems.

At the National Front, Brons was a close ally of Richard Verrall, the author of the Holocaust-denial tract Did Six Million Really Die?, who was vice-chairman. In 1981, while Brons was chairman, the NF endorsed We are National Front, a pamphlet carrying an introduction from Verrall. It had photographs of Brons and Verrall as well as a picture of a gorilla and a black man stating: “These two creatures look the same, don’t they?”

Anti-racism and Jewish support groups yesterday described Brons’s failure to condemn his past activities as disturbing. “From a young man until well into his middle age, Andrew Brons was very much involved in a series of viciously antisemitic and racist far-right movements,” said a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which monitors attacks on the UK’s Jewish community. “It’s hard to believe he has undergone a serious conversion since then.”

Searchlight, the anti-fascist organisation, said Brons was influential in shaping the NF and it was important that those voting for him should be aware of his past views. “The fact that Brons is an intellectual fascist and bigot rather than an ignorant fascist and bigot cuts little ice,” a spokesman said. “We are unimpressed by his claims that his prejudice was a result of youthful exuberance.”

Attempts to contact Brons through the BNP were unsuccessful.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, June 14th, 2009

June 16, 2009
A Brief Report on Azerbaijanis in Iran Prepared by The World Azerbaijanis Congress June 1st, 2009 To Switzerland Parliament members and United Nations High Commission on Human Rights
01 June, 2009

by Professor Gholam-Reza Sabri-Tabrizi, President of World Azerbaijanis Congress

Cartoon showing an Azerbaijani Turkish-speaking cockroach, from a Tehran-based government-owned periodical called 'Iran' newspaper

The Special Representative of Switzerland Parliament members and The United Nations High Commission on Human Rights

The situation on Islamic Republic of Iran, With special reference to South Azerbaijan,

First, we deeply appreciate your giving us an opportunity to bring our peoples’ deep grievances to your attention. We also would like to thank you for defending all those whose basic and ethnic human rights have been grossly violated, especially millions of Azerbaijani Turks that have been exposed to forced assimilation and Persianization. We hope you will give due voice to over 30 million Azerbaijanis in your reports to the UN General Assembly. Helping us in our efforts to fight the systematic destruction of ethnic identities will promote freedom and equality worldwide. Only if you report these injustices to the world community can proper actions be taken to terminate the systematic destruction of ethnic identity and gross violation of human rights in Iran over the last 70 years. Azerbaijanis are looking for your help.

Iran is a multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual country. Persians (Farsis), Azerbaijanis (Azerbaijani Turks), Kurds, Arabs, Loris, Beluchies and Turkomans have lived in Iran for thousands of years. Until the 1920s, they all retained and promoted their unique culture, history and language, without harming each other’s identities. However, the inception of the Pahlavi dynasty’s supremacist policy in the 20s has endangered this semi-harmonious way of life.

With his alleged national unity policy, Reza Shah Pahlavi designed a plan, forcing all non-Persians to sacrifice their ethnic identity and language, in order to fulfill his vision of purely Persian Iran.
Unfortunately, his successors, including the Islamic Republic, followed and perfected his inhumane conduct. Subsequent results have been brutal against all persons not of Persian descent. Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Loris, Beluchis, Arabs and Turkomans have been under tremendous Persianization.

Iran’s reformist leader, President Khatami, deceived the global community with his talk of “dialogue between civilizations,” meanwhile suppressing the people of Iran by ignoring Human Rights in general and Azerbaijani Turks in particular. However the reaction of World Human Rights’ organizations to this assimilation and rather cultural genocide has been very slow and ineffective due to lack of objective information from South Azerbaijan (Iran).

More than 30 million Azerbaijanis are on the verge of losing their language and rich cultural heritage, which they have preserved for thousands of years. They are paying heavy tolls to obtain Iran’s purported “national unity.” This “national unity” with “Islamic” and fanatically supported theocratic government is determined to annihilate Azerbaijani national and ethnic identity, the Iranian government has participated in forced assimilation and other methods of Persianization to create a monolingual “national unity.” We would like to briefly highlight some of them:

Policy on Language

The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran in the article 15 claims: “The state and common language and script of Iran is Persian. Documents. Correspondence, official texts and text books shall be in this language and script. However, the use of local and ethnic language in the press and for the mass media and the teaching of their literature shall be allowed, besides the Persian language.”

The Constitution Revolution in 1905-1911, the Democratic movement in 1945-46 and subsequent agreement by the Iranian government to guarantee ethnic rights as well as the constitution of Islamic Republic have for some degree taken ethnic grievances into consideration. However, the Iranian governments have all been against honoring their promises and the constitution.

The Iranian government has banned the Azerbaijani Turkish language in schools. Education is available only in the Persian language. Many first grade school children struggle to understand school books written in Persian. Those children unaccustomed to Persian suffer high drop out rates. To prevent this, some parents teach their children Persian as their primary language, rather than their native Azerbaijani Turkish. Said Persian instruction usually comes at the expense of children’s mastery of Azerbaijani Turkish, thus children are encouraged to replace Persian with their mother tongue for social and job advancement.

Television and radio broadcasts help to propagate the hybridized Azerbaijani Turkish, considered a local language. So-called “local languages,” however, are rarely used and thus marginalized, with Persian predominating Iranian media. Azerbaijani Turkish, in fact, has no place in Islamic Republic’s media.

Discrimination operates in other ways, as well. In cities like Tabriz, where Azerbaijanis comprise more than 99% of the population, the judiciary and government systems still must operate solely in Persian. Incredulously, proceedings for a lawsuit comprised of a Azerbaijani plaintiff and an Azerbaijani defendant in a Azerbaijani city, with an Azerbaijani judge, prosecutor and defense lawyer, must be conducted in, not Azerbaijani Turkish, but Persian.

The Iranian government’s destruction of language is one part of the multi-pronged attack to eliminate Azerbaijani ethnic identity. If this policy persists, Azerbaijani identity is doomed to perish.

The following CARTOONS show the attitude and view of Iran Islamic Republic and Persian chauvinism

CONTINUE >>> [download id=”4″]
June 16, 2009
Only 25% of Britons believe evolution

EVOLUTION SURVEYS UNDER THE MONOPOLY OF THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP

An opinion poll was conducted in Britain. But the result came as a shock to Darwinists. The level of belief in the theory of evolution, in Darwin’s homeland, Britain, where Richard Dawkins’ atheist and Darwinist propaganda is most intense, emerged at a mere 25%. Britain’s best-known dailies immediately carried the story. This important and major development came as a real shock to Darwinists. It was the loudest declaration of Darwinism’s defeat.

The result of the survey, carried out nationwide on the Guardian website on 2 February, 2009, was announced as follows: “Only 25% of Britons believe Darwin’s theory of evolution”. This headline, which reflected the poll findings, was altered within a few hours.

This defeat being carried in the headlines was unacceptable to the Darwinist dictatorship. For that reason, the headline to the report carried in the publications in question was swiftly changed in a matter of hours. The new report did not repeat that the level of belief in Darwinism was very low. The poll findings were distorted. The genuine report, which was carried for a brief period of time, was suddenly changed. Once again, people had been deceived under the influence of the Darwinist dictatorship.

The incident did not end there. The results of this poll in Britain must have been particularly unwelcome, for Darwinists lost no time in resorting to another method in order to cover them up. “We have conducted a new poll,” they said. They gave the result of the poll they claimed to have conducted among 2000 people to the press. Under the influence of the Darwinist dictatorship the captions in the British press were swiftly altered. The British people were announced to be “evolutionist” by this false poll based on the opinions of 2000 persons.

The fact is that this was a dirty trick by the Darwinist dictatorship that has taken the whole world under its sway and deceived people for many years.

These intrigues have long been an effective technique for this sinister dictatorship that strives to spread Darwinist propaganda. Formerly, Darwinists used to draw pictures of imaginary ape ancestors, discover perfectly complex fossils of extinct life forms and claim that these were transitional fossils and maintain that a whole country was evolutionist, and people would duly believe them. That was because Darwinists kept the real scientific evidence carefully hidden away and nobody knew that Darwinism was a lie. They imagined that the equine series they saw in museums and the peppered moths they read about in school books were true, and were duly convinced because they knew nothing more. Whatever the Darwinist dictatorship said, went.

But then something happened that Darwinists never expected.

THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP WAS DEALT A BODY BLOW: BY ATLAS OF CREATION.

The fossils so carefully hidden away were suddenly revealed. THERE WERE 100 MILLION FOSSILS THAT PROVED CREATION. These all belonged to perfect, flawless and complex life forms, and many were living fossils. People realized that a tiger is the same today as it was 50 million years ago. A squid is the same today as it was 100 million years ago. And people also realized THAT NOT A SINGLE TRANSITIONAL FORM FOSSIL EXISTED. Most important of all, they realized THEY HAD BEEN DECEIVED. The scientific facts were before their eyes. There was now no way of deceiving people by holding back the scientific proofs. Unable to produce any scientific evidence, and thus forced to rely on propaganda alone, Darwinism was abandoned.

Demagoguery and propaganda are old Darwinist techniques. But that age is now over. It has no more influence over people who are now aware and have seen the scientific evidence. People are abandoning evolution in droves and turning to belief in Allah (God). This is now showing itself very clearly and with powerful evidence in all countries. That is why Darwinists are in such a panic and such despair.

Darwinism has been totally routed. It has been demolished. The Darwinist system that regarded people as ignorant and insignificant has realized that it can no longer deceive them. Nobody falls into the traps of the Darwinist dictatorship any more. They can make as much propaganda as they like, but nobody in the world really believes in Darwinism any more.

Mar 17, 2009

Source: www.harunyahya.com, Mar 17, 2009

March 18, 2009
”AGGRIEVED DARWIN” PROPAGANDA IS A TRICK

A new piece of propaganda has recently entered the agenda in the Turkish and international pro-Darwinist press. It has persistently been claimed that reports about Darwin are censored and that “science is therefore under pressure.” Under headlines such as “They have sent Darwin to the shredder,” the Darwinist dictatorship tries to give the world the impression that Darwinism is being “aggrieved.”

But THIS IS AN UGLY TRICK BEING PLAYED BY THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP.

For some two centuries now, Darwinism has been under the protection of freemasons and atheist zionists, who first proposed it. This heretical ideology enjoys official protection in 95% of the states of the world. It is officially taught in schools. INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES AIMED AGAINST OFFICIALLY PROTECTED DARWINISM ARE PREVENTED THROUGH OFFICIAL CHANNELS. Even the most dangerous ideologies – fascism and communism – can be criticized. But it is impossible to criticize Darwinism. One can only find work in official institutions or get on in school by appearing to espouse Darwinism. Otherwise, the Darwinist dictatorship immediately goes to work. People who speak out against it are silenced, pressurized, removed from their posts and deprived of all resources. This fact, which has been repeated time and time again, IS SHAMELESSLY AND BLATANTLY APPLIED BY DARWINISTS.

Senior professors hurriedly removed from their posts for supporting the fact of Creation.

The world’s greatest and highest-ranking universities are Darwinist. The world’s best-known publishing organs and scientific journals are Darwinist. Laws in Christian European countries frequently place Darwinism under close protection. Darwinist masonic lodges have entered all institutions, schools and universities, and have enshrined the religion of Darwinism there. DARWINISM IS THE ONLY IDEOLOGY IMPOSED AND DETERMINEDLY PROTECTED ACROSS THE WORLD.

The Darwinist dictatorship has established such a dictatorship that not only official institutions and schools but also religious institutions have had to submit to this pressure. The way that churches have apologized to Darwin and that the Vatican has been pressurized into leading the way for Darwinist conferences are the results of this.

Under the dominion of the Darwinist dictatorship, there is no permission for the fact of Creation to be taught, to appear in scientific publications or even to be discussed. The Atlas of Creation is full of thousands of fossils, meaning thousands of pieces of scientific evidence. Yet not one of these appears in Darwinist publications, which appear under a guise of being scientific. Because since this scientific evidence proves Creation it is banned by the Darwinist dictatorship, which is itself run by the freemasons. Even the teaching of Creations in schools is aggressively prevented. The Darwinist dictatorship is afraid of students learning about the fact of Creation and does all in its power to prevent it.

The way that attempts are made use the idea of “aggrieved Darwin” to give the impression that Darwinists are being aggrieved IS A HUGE FRAUD AND TRICKERY. The Darwinist dictatorship intends to use this trick to muster support. This ideology, which cannot be questioned, rejected or criticized anywhere in the world, which dominates all official institutions and which constantly appears as a joke element in scientific publications, IS BY NO MEANS AGGRIEVED. This trickery is intended to lay the foundation for the deceptive idea that “Darwin has been censored on his 200th anniversary, so greater coverage needs to be given him.” The aim is to ensure greater Darwinist propaganda by hiding behind the idea of “You are under pressure, so we must give Darwin coverage.” This is a false, cheap and ugly trick, aimed against our public in order for Darwin to be brought onto the agenda time and time again.

But what matters is this: They can talk about Darwinism as much as they like, the result will still be the same. It was easy to deceive people with Darwinist lies before they had seen the truth. But people are now aware of the Atlas of Creation. All they need is to be aware of a few fossils within it. LIVING THINGS HAVE NEVER CHANGED. ONE HUNDRED MILLION FOSSILS PROVE THE FACT THAT living things have never changed in any way over millions of years. BUT THERE EXISTS NOT A SINGLE TRANSITIONAL FORM FOSSIL that might confirm Darwinism. In the absence of intermediate fossils, Darwinism has collapsed and it is no longer possible to espouse such a theory. That is the reason for the Darwinist panic not to allow Creation into schools and the way that proponents of Creation in official institutions are immediately silenced. Their aim is to prevent the emergence of evidence that proves Creation and discredits evolution. But with the Atlas of Creation their worst fears have come true.

PEOPLE NOW KNOW THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. They have now seen the Sun. Closing the curtains and saying ‘It is dark outside’ is not going to convince them. Everyone, even those who say “I support evolution,” is aware of one thing in the face of the scientific evidence: DARWINISM IS DEAD!

Mar 17, 2009

Source:

March 17, 2009
INTERVIEW WITH HARUN YAHYA: ‘All Terrorists Are Darwinists’

Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya) is one of Turkey’s major proponents of creationism and he believes Darwin’s theory of evolution is the Devil’s work. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, he explains how he plans to defeat Darwinism.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Virtually every respected biologist in the world considers the theory of evolution as perhaps the best-proven scientific theory ever, on par with the knowledge that the world is round. How do you want to prove them wrong?

Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya) is a Turkish Muslim and a major proponent of Creationism.

Adnan Oktar: First of all, there are 100 million fossils that prove creation. And these have never changed in any respect. For example, fish have always been fish, shrimp have always been shrimp, and crabs have always been crabs. And their fossils are on display in every corner of the world. We displayed them in Turkey as well, and people saw them with their own eyes. First and foremost, this is a clear proof. Secondly, in contrast to creation, Darwinism does not have a single piece of evidence demonstrating the theory of evolution. Its proponents don’t have any fossil evidence, of the kind which they should be able to put forward.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Last year, the Council of Europe even asked its member states not to teach creationism along with the theory of evolution in schools. Do you consider this a defeat?

Oktar: Darwinism is under official protection throughout the world. No other ideology in history, no other idea, has ever been kept under such strict official protection. To make any kind of statement criticizing Darwinism causes an official reaction. However, the invalidity of Darwinism and the actuality of creation are scientific facts. Anyone reading or looking over my “Atlas of Creation” arrives at this opinion. Darwinism lies about many issues and deceives humanity. They have deceived the whole of humanity for 150 years.

As Yahya sees it, Darwinism is the root of all the world's evils. In order to help rid the world of this theory, he has had thousands of copies of The Atlas of Creation printed and shipped around the world.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How much were you influenced by Christian movements, the so-called intelligent design movements in Europe and the United States?

Oktar: I find the concept of intelligent design rather dishonest. One should openly stand up for the existence of Allah, should sincerely stand up for religion, for Islam. Or, if one is a Christian, one should honestly stand up for Christianity. This is a theory which claims that things have somehow been created, but it is unknown who created them. I find this rather dishonest, actually. The followers of intelligent design should openly and clearly declare the existence of Allah as the Creator.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Richard Dawkins, one of the most prominent figures of the new atheism, recently had his book “The God Delusion” translated into Turkish. In Turkey, 15,000 copies were reportedly sold. In it, he writes that religion is one of the causes of terrorism.

Oktar: Darwinism has laid the groundwork for Hitler’s and Mussolini’s fascism and Stalin’s communism. And when we look at the present day, we see that all the members of terrorist organizations — even those that portray themselves as Muslim organizations — are Darwinists, atheists. That is to say, a faithful person who prays regularly does not go and plant bombs here and there. It is just people who pretend to be Muslims, those who depict themselves as Muslims, who perpetrate bombings, or Darwinists who make it clear that they are terrorists or communists who commit terrorism. Consequently, they are all Darwinists.

Only a quarter of Turks believe that Darwin's theory is correct.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you really think that someone like Osama bin Laden, who justifies terrorist acts using the Koran and the alleged ungodliness of the west, is following Darwinist ideas?

Oktar: Things are not what they seem to be. You do not see that appearance and style in such people in their youth. Yet, when their actual faith is scrutinized, it emerges that they are genuine materialists and Darwinists. It is impossible for a person who fears Allah to commit terrorist acts because of his faith. Such acts are committed by people who were educated abroad, who received a Darwinist education and who internalized Darwinism, but who later called themselves Muslims. When scrutinized carefully, when their speech and essays are carefully analyzed, we see that all these people are Darwinists.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Speaking of Hitler and fascism: On your Web site, you condemn the Holocaust and link it to Darwinism. But, in the early 1990s, you published a book about the so-called “Holocaust Lie.”

Oktar: The book, “The Holocaust Lie,” is by one of my friends, Nuri Özbudak. It is not one of my books. He published his own essays under that title. Later, we protested against this through the Public Notary and declared the fact to the public. I did not take any other legal action but only protested through the Public Notary because he used my name. My book expressing my own ideas was published later.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Next year, a part of the world will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his first publication of “On the Origin of Species.” Will you be celebrating, too?

Oktar: It will actually turn out to be a worldwide celebration of Darwinism’s collapse. People will be stunned at how they believed in Darwinism. They will be amazed at how they were taken in by such a hoax for years. They will also be astonished at themselves and at how hundreds, thousands of universities around the world and hundreds, thousands of professors backed such a hoax, and how they were deceived by Satan’s plot.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: One of your books is called “The Atlas of Creation,” a massive and obviously very expensive volume. It was distributed all over the world, and many free copies were sent to members of the Western media. How do you finance your struggle against Darwinism?

Oktar: The publishing house makes a great profit, since I do not take any royalties from my books. And my books are being sold in great numbers both domestically and abroad. Last year, 8 million copies were sold in Turkey and 2 million abroad. This makes a considerable total sum. Almost no other book has ever sold so much in Turkey. This year it is even higher; it is many times higher. Sales have doubled. It is perfectly normal for the publishing house to use part of that income to distribute books. This counts as publicity. However, the financial resources for this, as I have stated, are supplied by the publishing house.

Adnan Oktar has published hundreds of books under the pseudonym Harun Yahya. Creationism and its related theory of "intelligent design" are gaining in popularity in Turkey.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In May, you were sentenced by a Turkish court for having created an illegal organization for personal gain.

Oktar: Yes, there had been an allegation of a criminal organization. Yes, I was accused of being a gang leader. I have been given a penalty of three years’ imprisonment. This needs to be ratified by the Supreme Court of Appeals. If the Supreme Court of Appeals ratifies this verdict, I will be given three years’ imprisonment. However, there is no legal evidence in the sense that I understand to be acceptable. Since my deposition was taken without my lawyer present, it should be invalid. My deposition — which I was made to give under coercion, by force — has been accepted (as) valid both in the Supreme Court of Appeals and also in the court. Thus, I have been given this sentence.

Interview conducted by Daniel Steinvorth

Source: Spiegel Online International, 23.09.2008

September 25, 2008