Creationism Is Having An Increasing Impact in Europe

Le Monde, a left-leaning French daily, carried an article headed “Creationism Is Having an Increasing Impact in Europe” in its 18 November, 2008, issue. In its report, the 400,000-circulation daily noted the rapid spread of creationist belief in Europe and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to teach the theory of evolution. The report once again stated that the Atlas of Creation has been the most effective agent behind this: 

Will France become part of the war being waged against creationists, whose beliefs have spread just about everywhere in the world?

On 13 and 14 November, on the instructions of the Minister of Education, French College and the French City of Science and Industry, hundreds of people, including evolutionist researchers, philosophers, professors, and high school and college inspectors, came together in Paris to discuss the increasing difficulty in teaching evolution.
 
The most prominent creationist offensive came at the beginning of 2007. Many high schools, colleges and universities in Europe received copies of an impressive, illustrated book; the Atlas of Creation. Written and printed in Turkey, the book was intended to show that evolution is not a scientific doctrine, but rather anti-religious propaganda. The real aim of its author, Harun Yahya – real name Adnan Oktar – is to preach the Qur’an... The biologist Dr. Olivier Brosseau, one of the authors of a splendid pamphlet about creationists, makes this statement, “With the dissemination of this book the West became aware of a Muslim creationism it had never known about until then...”  A report in the Council of Europe in June 2007 about “The dangers of creationism in education” rang the warning bells. Four months later, the educational board decided to invite 47 of its members “to strongly oppose the teaching of creation as a scientific discipline.” But this has failed to prevent the emergence of an ever more significant objection to evolution classes among young students in many countries of Europe.”