Creation vs. Darwin takes Muslim twist in Turkey
Pastor Dale Morgan
Creation vs. Darwin takes Muslim twist in Turkey*
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
Reuters
November 23, 2006; 12:25 PM
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A lavishly illustrated "Atlas of Creation" is
mysteriously turning up at schools and libraries in Turkey, proclaiming
that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is the real root of terrorism.
Arriving unsolicited by post, the large-format tome offers 768 glossy
pages of photographs and easy-to-read text to prove that God created the
world with all its species.
At first sight, it looks like it could be the work of United States
creationists, the Christian fundamentalists who believe the world was
created in six days as told in the Bible.
But the author's name, Harun Yahya, reveals the surprise inside. This is
Islamic creationism, a richly funded movement based in predominantly
Muslim Turkey which has an influence U.S. creationists could only dream of.
Creationism is so widely accepted here that Turkey placed last in a
recent survey of public acceptance of evolution in 34 countries -- just
behind the United States.
"Darwinism is dead," said Kerim Balci of the Fethullah Gulen network, a
moderate Islamic movement with many publications and schools but no link
to the creationists who produced the atlas.
Scientists say pious Muslims in the government, which has its roots in
political Islam, are trying to push Turkish education away from its
traditionally secular approach.
Aykut Kence, biology professor at the Middle East Technical University
in Ankara, said time for discussing evolution had been cut out of class
schedules for the eighth grade this year.
"The students will just learn there is a theory called evolution
defended by Darwin back in the 19th century," he said. "However, views
of Islamic thinkers from the Middle Ages about evolution and creation
have been included."
A DOSE OF RELIGION
Like the Bible, the Koran says God made the world in six days and
fashioned the first man, Adam, from dust. Other details vary but the
idea is roughly the same.
But unlike in the West, evolution theory has not undermined the
traditional creation story for many Muslims.
"Science is hardly an issue in Turkey, therefore evolution could hardly
have been an issue," said Celal Sengor, a geology professor at Istanbul
Technical University.
Darwinism did become an issue during the left-versus-right political
turmoil before a 1980 military coup because Communist bookshops touted
Darwin's works as a complement to Karl Marx.
"It looked like Marx and Darwin were together, two long-bearded guys
spreading ideas that make people lose their faith," said Istanbul
journalist Mustafa Akyol.
After the coup, the conservative government thought a dose of religion
could bolster the fight against the extreme left.
In 1985, a paragraph on creationism as an alternative to evolution was
added to high school science textbooks and a U.S. book "Scientific
Creationism" was translated into Turkish.
In the early 1990s, leading U.S. creationists came to speak at several
anti-evolution conferences in Turkey.
DARWIN AND TERROR
Since then, a home-grown strain of anti-Darwinist books has developed
with a clearly political message.
"Atlas of Creation" offers over 500 pages of splendid images comparing
fossils with present-day animals to argue that Allah created all life as
it is and evolution never took place.
Then comes a book-length essay arguing that Darwinism, by stressing the
"survival of the fittest," has inspired racism, Nazism, communism and
terrorism.
"The root of the terrorism that plagues our planet is not any of the
divine religions, but atheism, and the expression of atheism in our
times (is) Darwinism and materialism," it says.
One Istanbul school unexpectedly received three copies recently. "It's
very well done, with magnificent photos - a very stylish tool of
creationist propaganda," said the headmaster, who asked not to be named.
The driving force behind these books is a reclusive Islamic teacher
named Adnan Oktar who over the past decade has published a flood of
books under the pseudonym Harun Yahya.
"Harun Yahya has managed to create a media-based and popular form of
creationism," said Taner Edis, a Turkish-born physicist at Truman State
University in Missouri.
Harun Yahya, which is probably a pool of writers, has turned out over
200 books in Turkish and translated many of them into 51 other languages.
Oktar, 50, appears on the group's Web site sporting a clipped beard and
dapper suits. His works can be found in Islamic bookshops around the
world and downloaded for free over the Internet.
Nobody seems to know how all this is funded. The Harun Yahya
organization, based in Istanbul, declined to comment despite interview
requests from Reuters.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Intelligent Design (ID), a more recent argument about life's origins
that is championed by U.S. Christian groups, may also be making the leap
across the Atlantic.
ID says some organisms are too complex to have evolved without some
superior cause, but avoids calling that cause God because that would ban
it from U.S. science textbooks.
Akyol, a Muslim believer who says Darwinism is incompatible with his
faith, has been waging an uphill struggle to popularize ID here. But
most Turks show no interest because they see no need to avoid naming God.
His lonely campaign got an unexpected boost last month when Education
Minister Huseyin Celik hinted on television that he might want to see it
added to Turkish textbooks.
"If it's wrong to say Darwin's theory should not be in the books because
it is in line with atheist propaganda, we can't disregard intelligent
design because it coincides with beliefs of monotheistic religions about
creation," he told CNN Turk.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler)