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Qureshi, Adnan - MED - Neurology Department, University of Minnesota neurology.umn.edu | Dr. Adnan Fatih Esen wals.org.uk | Adnan Zahid, MD mgh.org | Adnan T Bhutta, MD achri.archildrens.org |
Adnan Oktar (born Ankara, February 2, 1956)--also known by his pen name, Harun Yahya--is a prominent advocate of Islamic creationism in the creation-evolution debate[1] and, more particularly, supports Old Earth creationism[2][3]. He is against Zionism and Freemasonry and sees them as very interrelated movements, though he denounces anti-Semitism[4] and terrorism[5], which he says are products of Darwinism[6]. Oktar had defended his views by litigation; he is responsible for the blocking of numerous, high-profile Web sites in Turkey. Oktar runs two organizations: The Milli Değerleri Koruma Vakfı (Foundation to Protect National Values), which focuses on "moral issues", and the Science Research Foundation (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı, or BAV), which promotes creationism[7]. Oktar founded the Science Research Foundation "to [establish]...peace, tranquility and love"[8], though some media describe the BAV as "a secretive Islamic sect"[9] and a "cult-like organization, that jealously guards the secrets of its considerable wealth"[10]. In 2008, Oktar was sentenced by a Turkish court to three years in prison for "creating an illegal organization for personal gain"."[11]
[edit] BiographyBorn in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar lived there through his high school years. Oktar started his activities in 1979, while he was trying to finish his Interior Design-education at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts.[12] Three years later, he decided to go on with the philosophy department in Istanbul.[13] In the early 1980s, he gathered young students around him to share his views of Islam. According to his former mentor, Edip Yüksel, Oktar was attempting to "[mix] mysticism with scientific rhetoric".[14] These students belonged to socially-active and prosperous families of Istanbul.[15] From 1982 to 1984, a group of 20 to 30 was formed. In 1986, Adnan Oktar published the book, Judaism and Freemasonry. The book suggests that the principal mission of 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."[15][16] 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.[15] Following the publication of Judaism and Freemasonry, Adnan Oktar was arrested and imprisoned.[14] According to his official biography he was released after 19 months.[17] In a 2007 interview on Al Jazeera, he blamed Freemasons saying it was a "message" for him not to write about them anymore.[18] According to the New Humanist, Oktar was arrested, charged with promoting a theocratic revolution for which he served 19 months, though he was never formally charged.[19] In 1990, he founded the Scientific Research Foundation (SRF, or, in Turkish, Bilim Araştırma Vakfı, or BAV), through which he still effectively functions. Members of the SRF are sometimes referred to as Adnan Hocacılar ("Adherents of Adnan the Hodja") by the public[20]. Then in 1995, he founded Millî Değerleri Koruma Vakfı (Foundation for Protection of National Values), through which he networks with other traditional Islamist and nationalist organizations and individuals. Adnan built his organizations and by the mid-1990s his "Followers were especially active in the swanky summer resorts along the shore of the Sea of Marmara.[19] [edit] Anti-semitismIn 1996, the BAV distributed a book which was originally published the previous year, entitled Soykırım Yalanı ("The Holocaust Lie").[21].[6] The publication of Soykırım Yalanı sparked much public debate.[22] This book claims that “what is presented as Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the typhus plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the Germans.”[23] In March 1996, a Turkish painter and intellectual, Bedri Baykam, published a strongly-worded critique of the book in the Ankara daily newspaper Siyah-Beyaz ("Black and White"). A legal suit for slander was brought against him. During the trial in September, Baykam exposed the real author of the book as Adnan Oktar.[22] The suit was withdrawn in March 1997.[24][25] After 9/11, he began promoting inter-faith dialog, and blaming evolution for anti-semitism.[19] In 2004, the Stephen Roth Institute, of Tel-Aviv University, expressed the opinion that Adnan Oktar had increased his tolerance toward others, asserting that "he now works towards promoting inter-religious dialogue".[26] Oktar nowadays states that anti-Semitism has pagan and Darwinist roots.[4] Although he believes that the Old Testament "has been altered by individuals for the sake of all kinds of gain",[27] he publicly calls upon all Muslims to have "a tolerant and friendly attitude toward other religions".[28] [edit] Campaign against evolutionIn early 1998, Adnan Oktar and the BAV launched his first campaign against evolution/Darwinism.[19] Thousands of free copies of Adnan Oktar's book, The Evolution Deceit, and the booklets based on this book were distributed throughout Turkey.[29] Oktar regularly runs full-page ads against evolution in daily Turkish newspapers and even ran an ad in the U.S. magazine TIME.[7] The SRF also spearheaded an effort to attack Turkish academics who taught evolutionary biology.[30] A number of faculty members were harassed, threatened and slandered in fliers that labeled them "Maoists" for teaching evolution. In 1999, six of the professors won a civil court case against the BAV for defamation and were each awarded a large sum of money.[31] In 2005, Professor Ümit Sayın summed up the effect of the BAV's campaign when he said to The Pitch:[31]
In September 2008 Oktar issued a challenge offering "10 trillion Turkish lira to anyone who produces a single intermediate-form fossil demonstrating evolution".[32] Biologist PZ Myers responded: "The US government should immediately send a plane to pick up Mr Oktar, bring him to our country, and take him on a guided tour of the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History, accompanied by Niles Eldredge, Kevin Padian, Jerry Coyne, Sean Carroll, and the entire scientific staff of those museums. Afterwards, they can accept the check from Mr Oktar, run down to the local bank and cash it, and use one trillion dollars to resolve the current financial crisis, seven trillion can be sunk immediately into the American educational system, and they can send the change left over to me as a reward for coming up with this brilliant plan."[33] Oktar's offer is similar to creationist Kent Hovind's $250,000 offer[34], which has been dismissed by creationists and scientists as a misleading gimmick where those who applied for the challenge have questioned his sincerity about paying and understanding of evolution.[35] Larry Arnhart has pointed out that Oktar is not only a critic of evolution, but is critical of intelligent design, which he has called Michael Behe's work "a product of a Masonic conspiracy for promoting atheism and Deism."[36][37] [edit] Writings Oktar has had written for him, by ghostwriters, numerous books under the name Harun Yahya (Harun (Aaron) and Yahya (John)), arguing against evolution. He also asserts that evolution is directly related to the claimed evils of materialism, Nazism, communism, and Buddhism[38]. Most of his anti-evolution resources are identical to Christian creationist arguments.[39] He also has produced various works on Zionism and Freemasonry, accusing Zionists of racism and arguing that Zionism and Freemasonry have had significant negative effects on world history and politics. Oktar's books on faith-related topics attempt to communicate the existence and oneness of God according to the Islamic faith, and are written with the main purpose of introducing Islam to those who are strangers to religion. Each of his books on science-related topics stresses his views on the might, sublimity, and majesty of God. These books attempt to display for non-Muslims what Oktar claims to be signs of the existence of God, and the excellence of his creation. A sub-group within this series are the series of "Books Demolishing the Lie of Evolution", a critique of the ideas of Materialism, Evolution, Darwinism, and atheism. Many of Oktar's books have been made into high-resolution videos which are freely downloadable on the Internet[40]. Oktar asserts that Buddhism as being a false religion built upon idolatry and falsehood.[38] He calls Buddhist rituals "meaningless" and "empty". He has also charged that intelligent design is a tool of Satan.[41] [edit] The Atlas of CreationHis latest publication, The Atlas of Creation, was published by Global Publishing, Istanbul, Turkey in October 2006.[42] The book contains over 800 glossy pages and weighs 12 pounds (5.4 kg). Tens of thousands of copies of the book have been delivered, on an unsolicited basis, to schools, prominent researchers and research institutes throughout Europe and the United States.[3][43] Some of the schools that received copies were in France as well as prominent researchers at Utrecht University, University of Tilburg, University of California, Brown University, University of Colorado, University of Chicago, Brigham Young University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Georgia, Imperial College London, Abertay University and several others.[3][44] When the book was sent to French schools and universities, controversy resulted and the book sparked further concern about Islamic radicalism in France.[3] In 2007, Harper's Magazine contributor Scott Horton reported that 35th U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez had Oktar's Atlas of Creation on a stand at the entrance to his US government office.[45] The arguments used by the book to undermine evolution have been criticized as not logical while evolutionary biologist Kevin Padian has stated that Oktar has no understanding of the basic evidence for evolution.[2][3] Biologist PZ Myers wrote: "The general pattern of the book is repetitious and predictable: the book shows a picture of a fossil and a photo of a living animal, and declares that they haven't changed a bit, therefore evolution is false. Over and over. It gets old fast, and it's usually wrong (they have changed!) and the photography, while lovely, is entirely stolen."[46] Richard Dawkins reviewed the book (later translated into Turkish) noting that it contains a number of factual errors, such as the misidentification of a sea snake as an eel (two unrelated species) and in two places uses images of fishing-lures copied from the internet instead of actual species. A number of other modern species are mislabelled. However, Oktar himself claims that Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair were influenced by his book.[47] [48][49] [edit] Blocking of Internet sitesSince 2007 Oktar has successfully had the Turkish government block public access to several websites. In April 2007, Oktar filed a libel lawsuit against the owners of ek$i sözlük, a virtual community similar to everything2. The court reviewed the complaint and ordered the service provider to close the site to public access. The site was temporarily suspended so the entry on Oktar could be expunged and locked. Then access to Süper Poligon, a news website, was also restricted following Oktar's complaint.[50] In August 2007, Oktar got a Turkish court to block WordPress.com in all of Turkey. His lawyers argued that blogs on WordPress.com contained libelous material on Oktar and his colleague, which WordPress.com staff was unwilling to remove.[51][52] In addition, Edip Yuksel, a Turkish writer who knew Oktar in the 1980s and is now critical of him, had his website banned in Turkey from Oktar's complaints.[53] In addition, Yuksel wrote a Turkish-language book about Oktar called The Cult of the Antichrist, but he has yet to find "a publisher willing to brave Mr. Oktar's lawyers."[53] Oktar increased his pleas to block websites throughout 2008. On April 10, 2008, Google Groups was blocked in Turkey following a libel complaint by Adnan Oktar.[54] As of May 5, 2008, the ban remains in effect for TTNet users.[citation needed] Several months later, on September 19, 2008, a Turkish court banned Internet users in Turkey from viewing the official Richard Dawkins Web site after Oktar claimed its contents were defamatory, blasphemous and insulting religion, arguing that his personality was violated by this site.[55][56][57][58][59] In response, Dawkins posted a Turkish translation of his "Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya" article ("Zehirli Yilanlar, Kaygan Yilanbaliklari ve Harun Yahya") on his website.[60] Then one week later a complaint by Oktar led to the banning of the internet site of the Union of Education and Scientific Workers (Türk Eğitim Sen).[61][62] This was followed by a block of the country's third-biggest newspaper site, Vatan, in October.[63][64][65][66][67] [edit] Legal issues, arrest, trial, and sentencingOver the last twenty years Oktar has had several problems with law enforcement. In 1991, Oktar was arrested for possession of cocaine, which he claimed security agents planted in his food.[53] He was later acquitted.[53] In September 1999 Adnan Oktar was arrested following multiple scandals and further allegations that were fully covered by the Turkish media.[68][31] In that court case, Oktar was charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime.[69] One complainant was Ebru Simsek, a fashion model, who was blackmailed[53][70], and then slandered as a "prostitute" in fax messages sent to hundreds of different newspapers, TV channels, major business companies, foreign consulates and government offices for refusing to have sex with Oktar. The judicial process lasted over two years, during which most of the complainants retracted their claims, reportedly because of threats or bribes from SRF members. As a result, cases against Oktar and other BAV members were dismissed, with only two members receiving jail sentences for 1 year each.[30][71] A 2008 indictment from the prosecutor’s office, cited by the daily Cumhuriyet, said Oktar's organisation used its female members to attract young scholars from rich families with the promise of sex in exchange for attending events.[72] The sexual activities were videotaped with the purpose of blackmail, and the group record thousands of people in compromising positions.[19] According to the indictment, one of the victims had to sleep with 16 men, which was recorded with hidden cameras and the tapes were given to Oktar.[72] The girls who want to leave the group are threatened that the tapes will be made public.[72] Amidst ambiguous circumstances, all charges were dropped by that court, only to be picked up by another court eight years later. In 2008 Oktar was convicted of a variety of crimes, including the making of criminal threats.[59][69][73] In May 2008 Oktar and 17 other members of his organisation were sentenced to three years in prison,[69] though a BAV spokeswoman claimed that the judge was pressured by special-interest groups.[69] Oktar also denies the charges and is appealing the verdict.[74][75] [edit] BibliographyMain article: Adnan Oktar bibliography According to Arab News, more than 300 books have been published under Oktar's name.[76] [edit] References
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