World - In 10 years, Darwinism will be history: Turkish Muslim scholar

Istanbul, Dec 10 (IANS) A controversial Turkish Islamic scholar has created ripples in the scientific world by challenging Darwin's theory of evolution and claiming there are nearly 100 million fossils to prove that the world came into being as a result of God's creation.

'In 10 years' time, Darwinism will be history and people will only read about Darwinism as a piece of history,' Adnan Oktar, who writes under the name pen name of Harun Yahya, told IANS in an interview.

In 'Atlas of Creation', the latest book authored by him, Oktar claims to scientifically challenge Darwin's theory, which says all forms of life are related and have descended from a common ancestor.

Spread over 800 glossy pages and weighing 5.4 kg, tens of thousands of copies of this book have been sent to schools, colleges, academic institutions the world over, the US and Europe in particular.

The book is now being translated into several Indian languages, including Hindi and Urdu, for massive distribution in India in the coming months.

'Darwinism experiences a solid collapse all over the world,' says Oktar, who has been widely interviewed after the publication of his latest book in the past few months, including BBC and Al Jazeera. He has been published extensively in the Islamic world and major European dailies. The Italian newspaper, La Stampa, in a recent article used the heading 'Fair-well Darwin', while French daily Le Point said 'Save Darwin'.

Oktar and his group of around 30 scholars claim they have offered supporters of Darwin's theory 100 million fossils which can prove that this world came into being as a result of God's creation and not because of evolution.

'Darwin wrote in his books that people have to find transitional forms to prove the theory of evolution, but nobody has been able to find a single transitional form. Darwinists claim that the first cell came into being as a coincidence. But it is impossible for even a single protein to be formed by chance.

'We have proved that the skulls that were displayed as evidence of evolution are fake. Darwinism cannot explain how we can see or hear or sense with the support of our brain,' Oktar claims.

In September, Oktar challenged the scientific community, offering 10 million Turkish lira to anyone who produces a single intermediate fossil demonstrating evolution.

His theory has been rejected by the scientific community. Scholars in the US and Europe say the arguments used by Oktar to undermine evolution are not logical. Eminent evolution biologist Kevin Padian has said Oktar has no understanding of the basic evidence for evolution.

However, Oktar and his Scientific Research Foundation (SRF) claim his theory is gaining ground. 'When you look at the impact of 'Atlas Of Creation', for example, as far as Turkey is concerned, 90 percent of the Turkish population no longer believes in Darwinism and that rate is 80 percent in Europe,' he said.

'With the publication of 'Atlas Of Creation', there has been a huge revolution all around the world,' he claims. 'In Turkey, for example, it will be very difficult for you to find a professor who advocates Darwinism,' he said.

But people in Turkey and Europe say that is because they fear him and his supporters.

Oktar is known to have been instrumental in Turkish courts banning several popular websites in Turkey including that of a leading daily, Vatan, which are critical of him. Early this year, Google Groups too were ordered to be blocked by a Turkish court at his appeal.

'I support freedom of speech, not freedom of insult. In the case of an insult, courts will certainly intervene and do what is necessary. There cannot be freedom of insult in the world,' he says in defense.