The battle for Turkey's soul

New Scientist ^ | 10 April 2009 | Debora MacKenzie

[ConservativeJen]

TURKEY is the Islamic world's leading secular democracy. It spends a large proportion of its income on scientific research and aims to match that of the European Union by 2013. Turks like science: one of the country's top-selling magazines is the popular science monthly Bilim ve Teknik ("Science and Technology"), published by the country's scientific funding agency TÜBITAK. The best-seller is a science monthly for kids.

But Turkey is also a hotbed of creationism. So when a cover feature on Darwin planned for the March issue of Bilim ve Teknik was pulled at the last minute, it caused an uproar. Turkish scientists suspected that pressure from religious politicians had led to censorship. Is Turkey changing course? Does this bode ill for science in the Muslim world?

It depends. Seen in context, the incident could be a good sign, as the inevitable growing pains of a country adapting to a scientific world view. The key question is which way the process goes now. What happens in Turkey is important because its battles could be the first of many.

[ConservativeJen]

Interesting, I didn't realize other countries had disputes over evolution as well.

[SkyPilot]

Turkey lost its soul when it became Islamic.

[atlaw]

For additional background, Islamic creationism as a political force is driven in large part by Sheikh Adnan Oktar, who operates the rather murky Turkish Islamic organization "Bilim Araştırma Vakfıand" (or BAV). Among the BAV's activities is the publishing of a vast array of glossy Islamic creationist literature under the pseudonym "Harun Yahya."

The creationist publications under the name of Harun Yahya are virtually interchangeable with the plethora of ICR articles that are posted here on a regular basis. This isn't really surprising since "much of what appears under the pseudonym Harun Yahya comes straight from Henry Morris [of the ICR]". Samples of the stuff can be found at www.harunyahya.com.

Unlike ICR's "evil-darwinist-conspiracy" theories, however, the BAV:

"identifies the main forces behind evolution as Masons and Jews. This fits in with the all-too-common antisemitism among Islamists; indeed, Harun Yahya is also listed as the author of a book entitled The Holocaust [Deception]."

It is the opinion of Sheikh Oktar-qua-Yahya that "all terrorists are Darwinists," a view that, surprisingly enough, has found sympathetic support here on FR, along with the inverse proposition that the solution to terrorism is to further spread the message of creationism amongst Muslims.

[eleni121]

TURKEY is the Islamic world’s leading secular democracy

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Secular? democracy? — LOL-—That absurd statement alone should be enough to warn us that this is nothing but junk and lies.

[ksm1]

I notice a huge disconnect between the Islamists in Turkey and Turkish people that I know in the US who drink, enjoy the nightlife, and are productive in society. Let’s hope the latter group wins.