Turkey, allegedly the most secular of all Muslim-majority countries in the world, is home to Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, a Muslim young earth creationist who has led a crusade against evolution. It appears that he has won a significant victory:
The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has put a stop to the publication and sale of all books in its archives that support the theory of evolution, daily Radikal has reported.
The evolutionist books, previously available through TÜBİTAK’s Popular Science Publications’ List, will no longer be provided by the council…
Books by Richard Dawkins, Alan Moorehead, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levontin and James Watson are all included in the list of books that will no longer be available to the Turkish readers.
I don’t know how things work in Turkey, of course, but I doubt this means that books about evolution are actually illegal to sell or own in that country. But it’s certainly not a good thing.
14 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Funny Diva
January 17, 2013 at 1:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Interesting description there…
But you’re right, this is going to be awful for Turkey and any Turks who want a decent education.
raven
January 17, 2013 at 1:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Harun Yahya is also a convicted criminal who runs a nasty Islamic cult.
AFAICT, the last time Turkey had anything good going on was the start of the Ottoman empire a few centuries ago.
chilidog99
January 17, 2013 at 2:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So why can’t the authors /publishers offer a free Turkish language e-book version?
nooneinparticular
January 17, 2013 at 3:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am pretty sure that the Turkish science council issued a statement saying this story is untrue. Not sure where I read the statement (only saw it in passing) …I’ll see if I can find it…..
nooneinparticular
January 17, 2013 at 4:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is not the one I saw, but still has some details
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-state-science-council-denies-evolution-censor.aspx?pageID=238&nID=39102&NewsCatID=374
mildlymagnificent
January 17, 2013 at 4:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Give credit where it’s due. Ataturk was an outstanding leader. Turkey wouldn’t have been in the position it now appears to be backsliding from if it weren’t for him.
Augustus Carp
January 17, 2013 at 4:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not that it makes any difference to the scale of Yahya’s lunacy….. but I think he is an old world creationist Ed.
It is not a pretty sight watching Turkey retreating back into the dark ages. Ataturk would be seriously unimpressed with the current wave of islamization in TR
maxhannan
January 17, 2013 at 5:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Still believe it is! I mean, it’s not doing very well but the US isn’t doing well on the whole secularism either….
iangould
January 17, 2013 at 6:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Give credit where it’s due. Ataturk was an outstanding leader. Turkey wouldn’t have been in the position it now appears to be backsliding from if it weren’t for him.”
Yes, they’ve “backslid” back to a multi-party democracy. They’ve “backslid ” from the widespread use of torture in criminal investigations. they’ve “backslid” from jailing people for publishing or broadcasting in the Kurdish language.
iangould
January 17, 2013 at 6:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“I am pretty sure that the Turkish science council issued a statement saying this story is untrue. ”
It’s negative,
It’s about Muslims.
Of course, it’s true.
Rip Steakface
January 18, 2013 at 12:26 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
All of this true, but they have certainly backslid from being more staunchly secular than any of the Founding Fathers ever were.
iangould
January 18, 2013 at 3:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Under Ataturk, the Ministry of Religious Affairs owned every Sunni mosque in Turkey, appointed Imams and paid their salaries; dictated the curicula of religious schools and required standardized government-approved sermons be presented verbatim every Saturday.
Discriminating against women who wear the hijab isn’t secularism.
laurentweppe
January 18, 2013 at 6:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ataturk’s secularism was not “staunch”: it was authoritarian, built upon the support of a de facto military aristocracy which kept the secular institutions intact via a constant threat of pulling a coup. If anything, what’s happening right now is Ataturk’s legacy
Olav
January 18, 2013 at 8:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed, Adnan Oktar is not quite a young earth creationist, he propagandises intelligent design. Of course, with con men like him, it is easy to get confused what their real message is sometimes.