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.
At first sight, it looks like it could be the work of United States creationists, the Christian fundamentalists.
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.
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."
Following these statements the report summarized developments regarding creationism in Turkey, describing the impact of books setting out the invalidity of Darwinism, and went on to say:
The driving force behind these books is a[n] … Islamic teacher named Adnan Oktar who over the past decade has published a flood of books under the pseudonym Harun Yahya… 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.
