An Illusion of Harmony: Science And Religion in Islam by Taner Edis

Author:Taner Edis [Edis, Taner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2010-09-06T05:00:00+00:00

The same antievolutionary chapter also appears in Islam Denounces Terrorism, a book in which Yahya argues that the true responsibility behind events like the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States lies in Darwinian theories. Apparently, “the way to stop acts of terrorism is to put an end to Darwinist-materialist education, to educate young people in accord with a curricula [sic] based on true scientific findings and to instil in them the fear of God and the desire to act wisely and scrupulously.”33

As a growing media operation, the natural next step for Harun Yahya was to go global. Harun Yahya books, articles, videos, and Web materials were made available first in English, French, German, Malay, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Serbo-Croat (Bosniak), Polish, and Albanian. Interestingly, Western languages and languages used in the periphery of the Islamic world preceded languages of the Islamic heartland. This is not a great surprise—creationism finds its largest market in partially westernized countries like Turkey and in the Muslim immigrant communities in the West. Evolutionary ideas first have to be widely available before they lead to widespread religious worries. Still, translations into Urdu and Arabic soon followed, as did Indonesian, Estonian, Hausa, Bulgarian, Uighur, Kiswahili, Bengali, and more. Harun Yahya books are now available in many Islamic bookstores around the world, especially as English translations have been printed in London, the global center of Islamic publishing.

This global venture appears to be another success. Harun Yahya has become popular throughout the Muslim world; he is no longer just a Turkish phenomenon. Articles under Yahya’s name regularly appear in Islamic publications all over the world. Even in the United States, mass-market introductory books such as The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam present Yahya as a “top” Muslim scientist with a worthwhile critique of evolution.34 From small meetings in San Francisco to a series of public presentations in Indonesia, from books to videos to the small Creation Museums that opened in Istanbul in 2006, the gospel of Yahya’s Islamic creationism continues to spread. The popularity of creationism might be a sign of modernization in the Islamic world—evidence that Darwinian ideas have finally penetrated enough to inspire a response beyond just reiterating that orthodox doctrines do not allow evolution. Still, the scale and success of enterprises such as that of Harun Yahya do not inspire confidence for the future of science in Islamic lands.

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