Turkish Creationism

[Bikewer]

Our local NPR affiliate dropped PRI's "The World" so I've been downloading the podcasts and listening during my commute.
The episode I listened to today had an article on a Turkish media personality and apparent cult leader named Adnan Oktar.
He has his own TV channel, much like Western TV Evangelists, and the primary brunt of his hours-long preaching is that Charles Darwin is responsible for much of the evil in the world.

That and promoting the idea of Islam as a religion of peace and love. To help promote this image, he has a flock of women he calls his "kittens". The radio segment referred to these women as "Barbie-like" and sure enough, the picture shows that to be the case:

http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/turkey-building-bridges/

Evidently these ladies cluster around Oktar as he preaches, applauding and nodding and expressing total agreement with whatever he says.
All very odd... Some of the women even have their own radio segments and shows.
No indication from the segment what arguments the fellow is using to criticize evolution... From the tone of the recorded bits it sounds like the usual arguments from incredulity....

 

[A'isha]

Yeah, he's kind of infamous as the leading advocate of Islamic creationism around the world (under his better-known pseudonym, Harun Yahya). I guess he needed to go more lowbrow in his promotional approach after sending giant glossy creationist books to Congressmen, scientists, and museums all over the US didn't work.

Here's a much longer article about him.

 

[kedo1981]

My first thought is truth is stranger than fiction
And also these "kittens" don't appear to jive with most Islamic thought, or what little I know about.
Why would they all be blonds

 

[A'isha]

My first thought is truth is stranger than fiction
And also these "kittens" don't appear to jive with most Islamic thought, or what little I know about.

Oktar seems to follow his own special Oktar-centered version of Islam. At least one person formerly associated with him claims that he believes he's the mahdi.

Why would they all be blonds

Personal preference, I imagine. There are a lot of blonde people in Turkey, too, more than most people think.

 

[Psi Baba]

I'm assuming his use of the term "kittens" is a euphemism or a mistranslation.

 

[Zelenius]

Personal preference, I imagine. There are a lot of blonde people in Turkey, too, more than most people think.

Like a lot of men, Turkish men have/had something of a blonde fetish for many centuries. The Crimean Khanate, a client state of the Ottoman Empire that existed in southern Ukraine from 1441–1783, frequently went on raids in Eastern Europe, often for the purpose of kidnapping women to serve as sex-slaves back in Turkey. It's said that beautiful blonde women commanded a higher price in the slave markets of the Middle East(and this horrific human sex trafficking still goes on in Eastern Europe and all over the world, with the Middle East or south Asia often being their destination).

I think this may partially explain why natural blondes are more common in Turkey than they should be. After all, most Turks are Mediterraneans with dark hair.

As for the OP, Turkish/Islamic creationism isn't anything new. The Turkish government even banned Dawkin's website at one point. Luckily for Islamic creationists, it's an easy business to get into, since the Christian creationists in the west have already produced a ton of material for them to borrow. Heck, borrowing the worst elements from Christianity and Judaism is all Islam practically is when you really think about it.

 

[Delvo]

He works against the "extremist" aspect of Islam and politics in general, promotes the idea of people just getting along and enjoying things together, and puts women in a position they seem to find liberating/empowering, including giving them some of their own time on his shows/channel. I'll forgive the pseudoscience, overlook the possibility that he's insane, and say I'm on his side. He's more what the world, particularly the Islamic world, needs, than what it should avoid.

 

[Dog Breakfast]

Perhaps the elements in Christianity and Islam that share a disbelief in the theory of evolution will be what one day effects a lasting peace between the two religions.

Or perhaps in the years to come wars will be fought between them over which religion's disbelief in the theory of evolution is the correct disbelief.