Islamic Creationist Adnan Oktar (a/k/a Harun Yahya) Convicted!

ANOTHER CREATIONIST goes down! This time it’s a famous Islamic creationist, who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya. According to the Reuters story, Turkish Islamic author given 3-year jail sentence:

Controversial Turkish Islamic author Adnan Oktar was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday for creating an illegal organization for personal gain, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

[...]

Oktar, born in 1956, is the driving force behind a richly funded movement based in Turkey that champions creationism, the belief that God literally created the world in six days as told in the Bible and the Koran.

Istanbul-based Oktar, who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya, has created waves in the past few years by sending out thousands of unsolicited texts advocating Islamic creationism to schools in several European countries.

The Reuters story doesn’t mention it, but this guy had connections with his fellow creationists in the US. Here’s a story about well-known American and Islamic creationists working together in Turkey: SRF (Science Research Foundation) Conferences. Excerpt:

Professor Duane Gish: Famous evolutionist expert Professor Gish, in his speech entitled “The Origin of Man”, refuted the thesis of man’s evolution from apes.

ICR President Professor John Morris: Professor Morris, the president of the Institute for Creation Research and a famous geologist, gave a speech on the ideological and philosophical commitments lying behind evolution. He further explained that this theory has been turned into a dogma and that its defenders believe in Darwinism with a religious fervour.

You probably thought creationism (or Intelligent Design) was just good ol’ down home Christianity, right? You didn’t know that there was a world-wide network of creationists, did you? Now you know. Think about it.

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