Mr. Erdoğan: Our Mistake Lies Here

A9 TV:  January 3^rd, 2013

ADNAN OKTAR: If there is no intellectual struggle, if those books that would respond to Darwinist and materialist propaganda in state schools are not published, this strife and turmoil may continue, may Allah forbid, because this leads to ill fortune and a lack of productivity. Darwinism and materialism are explicitly described in official books. Children are subconsciously indoctrinated with detailed Darwinist and materialist propaganda in every chapter of textbooks in all classes at middle school, high school and university. I respond, but that can only go so far. As a result, those people raised with false information become Darwinists and materialists. 

What will happen if you provide a Qur’an class for such a person? He will not believe, because you have raised a Darwinist and materialist. He believes in Darwinism and materialism. He will then regard the Qur’an as nonsense because he says, “This is what is scientific.” Who says this? The state’s own books, the Ministry of Education’s own books. And not just in one place; it starts in primary school and continues through middle and high school and university.

 February 20^th, 2009: Hürriyet Daily News Interview

ADNAN OKTAR: I support liberty and am someone who favors the free expression of all ideas. Of course evolution should be taught in schools. Young people should see what a farce people believed in at one time, what irrational tales they were deceived by, and that will be a useful deterrent. We are now in the age of the internet. Young people learn the true facts from the internet, whether or not Creation is taught in schools, whether or not they are indoctrinated with the idea that evolution is true. They regard those people who tell them fables from the 1800s as fascinating case histories and are amazed that there should still be minds capable of espousing evolution. But the correct thing, the democratic thing, is for evolution to be taught alongside Creation in schools. Or while evolution is being taught, young people should also be told about how scientific activities, the fossil records and findings and other data all refute evolution. It is wrong to constantly indoctrinate people with a one-sided lie.

Prime Minister Erdoğan spoke at a group meeting of his party. Erdoğan said that they had been unable to teach young people their traditions and that they were at fault in this; “We have been unable to teach these young people their own traditions. Our mistake lies here.” 

Religious Affairs Minister Mehmet Görmez said that  social media has caused young people to adopt a rude and angry kind of language, and said, "We clergy, teachers, schools and universities have been unable to find a language of the heart to embrace the younger generations.”