Adnan Oktar (; born 2 February 1956), is a Turkish Muslim Quranist televangelist, Islamic creationist, author, and religious leader. His organization is commonly referred to as a cult, and he has been described as a cult leader.

Between the 2000s and late 2010s, he was engaged in "a massive campaign" of proselytizing Westerners to Islam, producing dozens of vividly illustrated books. On 17 November 2022, he was sentenced to 8,658 years in prison for leading a criminal gang, engaging in political and military espionage, sexual abuse of minors, and other charges. Prior to his arrest, Oktar established and ran two organizations: Bilim Araştırma Vakfı (BAV), which promoted creationism, and Millî Değerleri Koruma Vakfı which worked domestically on a variety of moral issues.

In the West, before his arrest and trial, Oktar sent thousands of unsolicited copies of his creationist book, The Atlas of Creation, to French schools and universities in January 2007, and several months later to American scientists, members of Congress, science museums, and schools.

Oktar has advocated a version of Islam that rejects both Sunni and Shia traditions, focusing instead on Quranism. He has preached "the true Islam" based on the Quran on his television channel, A9 TV. Oktar filed more than 5,000 lawsuits against individuals for defamation from 2005 to 2015, which led to the blocking of a number of prominent websites in Turkey.

Life and career

Early life and education

Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1956, and grew up there through his high school years. a Kurdish scholar who wrote Risale-i Nur, an extensive tafsir (Qur'anic commentary) that includes a comprehensive political and religious ideology. According to Oktar biographer Anne Ross Solberg, he grew up in a "relatively affluent secular family". It was here, according to Solberg, that he became fully engaged in religious activism. Oktar personally put money into a pamphlet entitled the Theory of Evolution,

Oktar was arrested on the grounds of promoting a theocratic revolution and was detained for nineteen months, though he was never formally charged. but he maintains that he was a political prisoner who was punished because of the publication of Judaism and Freemasonry and not mentally ill.

Oktar continued building up his community for the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. His followers were especially active recruiting at summer resorts along the Sea of Marmara.

In 1990, Oktar founded the Science Research Foundation (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı, or BAV). (Oktar ran and also served as honorary president of both BAV and the later Millî Değerleri Koruma Vakfı) As reported by Solberg, members of the BAV discarded their "overtly Islamic garments" in favor of "designer clothing" and "proclaimed themselves supporters of the ideals" of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, despite the fact that Atatürk was secularist. Based his own experiences and conversations with ex-members of the BAV, Yüksel characterizes the group as "a complete cult" with "all the criteria of a cult as you would define it today ... isolation, entire control of the lives of the cult members". He was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, and worldwide. He built a large publishing enterprise with publications sold though Islamic bookstores worldwide. He is one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world. According to Middle East Eye, his TV programs were known for featuring him discussing Islamic principles, while (somewhat incongruously), "scantily clad women with bleached blonde hair danced around him to popular music. These women Oktar referred to as his 'kittens'".

In 2010, Oktar was selected as one of the top fifty of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan for his dissemination of creationism in an Islamic context, and other extensively distributed publications on Islamic topics.

July 2018 arrest and criminal charges

On 11 July 2018, the financial crimes section of the Turkish police detained Oktar and over 160 of his associates on charges including forming a criminal enterprise, financial fraud and sexual abuse. Other charges Oktar faces range from sexual intercourse with minors and kidnapping children to holding people captive, political and military espionage, money laundering and torture. According to the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office, Oktar was apprehended while attempting to run away from the arresting police officers. In addition, after Oktar's initial arrest, over 45 people from over six countries, including two children, have pressed charges against him. When asked why he was arrested before being questioned by the police, Oktar stated: "It's a British plot." The first hearing was scheduled for 17 September in Silivri Prison. after being tried for charges including forming a criminal enterprise, financial fraud, and sexual abuse.

and on 15 March 2022, his verdict was overturned by the Turkish Court of Appeal "due to incomplete prosecution and erroneous assessment," with the court asking for "the retrial of all defendants". As of 17 March, taking into account time spent in jail, the appeal court has "decided to release 68 defendants", but not "16 high-profile defendants, including Oktar".

His publications argue against evolution. They assert that evolution denies the existence of God, abolishes moral values, and promotes materialism and communism.

Truman State University physicist Taner Edis, who was born in Turkey, says the secret to BAV's success is the huge popularity of the Harun Yahya books. "They're fairly lavishly produced, on good-quality paper with full-color illustrations all over the place," he says. "They're trying to compete with any sort of science publication you can find in the Western world. And in a place like Turkey, Yahya books look considerably better-published than most scientific publications."

Creationism

Oktar has been called "fiercely opposed to the theory of evolution" and Darwinism, which he believes undermines religious belief, thus leading to "the discord, atheism, terrorism and extreme political ideologies" of contemporary life.

For many years Oktar drew on the writings of young earth Christian creationists to develop his case against evolution. Oktar later produced material which was more similar to Intelligent Design. In fact, Harun Yahya's website was listed as an "Islamic intelligent design" website by the Discovery Institute.

In early 1998, the BAV launched its first campaign against evolution. and the booklets based on this book were distributed throughout Turkey. They regularly ran full-page ads against evolution in daily Turkish newspapers and even ran an ad in the U.S. magazine Time. A number of faculty members were harassed, threatened and slandered in fliers, leading to legal action against BAV (see "Legal Issues" below). In 2005, Professor Ümit Sayın summed up the effect of the BAV's campaign when he said to The Pitch:

Taner Edis has said "there is nothing new in the Yahya material: scientifically negligible arguments and outright distortions often copied from Christian anti-evolution literature, presented with a conservative Muslim emphasis" concluding it "has no scholarly standing whatsoever". According to Richard Dawkins, Oktar "doesn't know anything about zoology, doesn't know anything about biology. He knows nothing about what he is attempting to refute".

Volumes 2 and 3 followed in 2007. A dedicated website registered to Global Yayıncılık (Global Publishing), Istanbul, went online the same year.

At 28 cm x 43 cm and nearly 5.5 kg, with a bright red cover and almost 800 glossy pages, most of them lavishly illustrated, Atlas of Creation is, according to The New York Times, "the largest and most beautiful creationist challenge yet to Darwin's theory, which Yahya calls a feeble and perverted ideology contradicted by the Koran".

In France, scientists spoke out against the book, and in America scientists are unimpressed.

Biologist PZ Myers wrote: "The general pattern of the book is repetitious and predictable: the book shows a picture of a fossil and a photo of a living animal, and declares that they haven't changed a bit, therefore evolution is false. Over and over. It gets old fast, and it's usually wrong (they have changed!) and the photography, while lovely, is entirely stolen."

The Committee on Culture, Science and Education of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe wrote in a report that "None of the arguments in this work are based on any scientific evidence, and the book appears more like a primitive theological treatise than the scientific refutation of the theory of evolution."

Conspiracy theories

Oktar propagates a number of conspiracy theories, beginning with the antisemitic canard in his 1986 Judaism and Freemasonry (Yahudilik ve Masonluk). The book suggests that the principal mission of Jews and Freemasons in Turkey was to erode the spiritual, religious, and moral values of the Turkish people and, thus, make them like animals, as stated in what Oktar refers to as their use of "Distorted Torah." Oktar asserts that "the materialist standpoint, evolution theory, anti-religious and immoral lifestyles were indoctrinated to the society as a whole" by Jews and Freemasons. and Global Freemasonry. According to Oktar, Freemasonry is "the main architect of the world system based on materialist philosophy, but which keeps that true identity concealed." In recent publications and interviews (since 2004). Oktar qualifies his condemnations of Zionism and Freemasonry by adding the word atheist before them, as in atheist Zionists and atheist Freemasons.

He believes that a secret cabal, known as the "British deep state", is trying to control the world.

Holocaust denial and affirmation

Oktar's position on the Holocaust has evolved from "antisemitic conspiracy-theorising" (1980s), denying that the Nazis had a plan for the mass extermination of Jews (The Holocaust Deception, 1996), to acknowledging the genocide (The Holocaust Violence, 2006), and most recently to attending "numerous events in Israel", being photographed with "far-right Zionists like Yehuda Glick and Rabbi Meir Lau". This book claims that "what is presented as Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the typhus plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the Germans."

A Turkish painter and intellectual, Bedri Baykam, published a strongly worded critique of the book in Ankara's daily newspaper, Siyah-Beyaz ("Black and White"). A legal suit for slander was brought against him. <!-- by whom? -->During the trial in September, Baykam exposed the real author of The Holocaust Lie as Adnan Oktar.

In 2001, the Stephen Roth Institute, of Tel Aviv University, listed Oktar as a Holocaust denier due to the publication of The Holocaust Lie. Three years later, the Stephen Roth Institute expressed the opinion that Oktar had increased his tolerance toward others, asserting that "he now works towards promoting inter-religious dialogue",

In 2006, BAV published a book affirming the Holocaust, called The Holocaust Violence. The Holocaust Violence states,

In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, Oktar denied writing The Holocaust Lie, a claim that The Guardian stated was "hard to believe." The next year in an interview with Der Spiegel, Oktar claimed The Holocaust Lie had been written by a friend who had published his own essays using Oktar's pen name, "Harun Yahya", on his own. Oktar disclaimed the first book, and said the second book reflected his own opinions.

In 2009, Oktar expressed his new views on Jews in his own words, "hatred or anger toward the line of the Prophet Abraham is completely unacceptable. The Prophet Abraham is our ancestor, and the Jews are our brothers. We want the descendants of the Prophet Abraham to live in the easiest, pleasantest and most peaceful manner. We want them to be free to perform their religious obligations, to live as they wish in the lands of their forebears and to frequently remember Allah in comfort and security."

Nevertheless, that year the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described Yahya as "an anti-Semitic Turkish writer whose articles demonize Jews who support Israel as "godless" and blames them for committing atrocities." The ADL also argued that Yahya quotes Holocaust-denier Roger Garaudy and still cites The Holocaust Deception in the articles on his site.

After his 2018 arrest Oktar was described by The Times of Israel as having "been criticized in the past for publishing books featuring anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial, but in recent years has renounced them and held events to combat those phenomena in the Muslim world. He has been embraced by some high-profile Israelis."

Television broadcasting

On 21 March 2011, Oktar started television broadcasting on the A9 satellite channel, which broadcasts over both the internet and Turkish cable networks. and in particular for featuring female devotees, he calls his 'kittens'. In stark contrast to orthodox Islamic decorum and the shows of any other Muslim televangelist, the women, who are usually wealthy socialites who have undergone plastic surgery, wear heavy make-up and tight Versace T-shirts (or other tight, revealing outfits), and dance to pop music between sets. They and Adnan Oktar have discussions about Islam, fossils that supposedly discredit evolution, and about Oktar himself.

Oktar has defended the unusual appearance of his co-hosts in Islamic terms ("A woman may wear the head-covering, or cover herself up entirely or uncover her head or wear low-cut clothes. Once she says, 'I am a Muslim,' nobody has the right to judge her.") But others have questioned whether Oktar and his kitten cohosts are motivated by the empowerment of women and basing Islam only on the Quran (setting aside Sunni and Shia doctrines and traditions).

According to Edip Yüksel, Oktar got the idea that hijab is not necessary for women from him in the 1980s.

;Eschatology

Oktar preaches that "the day of judgement, contrary to what may believe, is approaching now, not in some distant future". There will be two apocalyptic phases: one of "material and spiritual problems", followed by a 'Golden Age', where "true religion" brings "generosity and kindness". This will be followed by "rapid social collapse" before Judgment Day arrives. One unique variation by Oktar on the traditional prophesy of Gog and Magog is that their invasion will not be of hordes of warriors but of television programs they transmit, and that the blocking of them by the Two-Horned One (Dhu al-Qarnayn) will not be by some wall but by electromagnetic jamming. Oktar has also emphasized the importance in Islam of "the role to be played by Jesus at the end of the world", which permits him "to cultivate an ecumenical image"—Muslims and Christians will be joined in combat 'destroying the society established by the Antichrist, they will save mankind from atheism'".

;No true beliefs

According to one critic (Halil Arda in New Humanist), Oktar's "ideological and political promiscuity" (jumping from Anti-Darwinism, interfaith dialogue, Turkish-Islamic union) may be because he doesn't really have any "genuine beliefs", and merely work by opportunistically jumping "on issues" that followers have come up with and that he thinks "will further his notoriety".

Publication media includes books, booklets, pamphlets, children's books, journals, documentaries, audiobooks, CDs, posters and over a hundred websites. The total number of books and brochures published by Oktar number in the hundreds. The works are lavishly produced, on high-quality paper with colored illustrations

In the summer of 1986, Oktar was arrested for his statement "I am from the nation of Abraham and Turkish ethnicity" in a newspaper interview. Oktar was arrested for promoting a theocratic revolution for which he served 19 months, though he was never formally charged. He was later acquitted.

In 1999, Oktar was arrested and charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime. The judicial process lasted over two years, during which most of the complainants retracted their claims. As a result, cases against Oktar and other BAV members were dismissed. In the face of all these allegations against BAV, the Chairman of the Court announced in the hearing on 29 February 2008, that testimonies obtained through unlawful means may not be considered as evidence based on article 148 of the criminal code.

Oktar was convicted of creating an illegal organization for personal gain. He and 17 other members of his organisation were sentenced to three years in prison. Oktar appealed the verdict. In May 2010, the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and dismissed the charges.

Blocking of Internet sites

Since 2007, Oktar has successfully had the Turkish government block public access to several websites. In April 2007, Oktar filed a libel lawsuit against the owners of Ekşi Sözlük, a virtual community similar to everything2. The court reviewed the complaint and ordered the service provider to close the site to public access. The site was temporarily suspended so the entry on Oktar could be expunged and locked. Then access to Süper Poligon, a news website, was also restricted following Oktar's complaint. In August 2007, Oktar got a Turkish court to block WordPress.com throughout Turkey. His lawyers argued that blogs on WordPress.com contained libelous material, which WordPress.com was unwilling to remove.

Edip Yüksel, a Turkish writer who knew Oktar in the 1980s, had his own website banned in Turkey due to Oktar's complaints. In addition, Yüksel wrote a Turkish-language book, The Cult of the Antichrist, but has yet to find "a publisher willing to brave Mr. Oktar's lawyers."

In September 2008, a complaint by Oktar led to the banning of the internet site of the Union of Education and Scientific Workers. This was followed by a block of the country's third-biggest newspaper site, Vatan, in October.

See also

  • List of Mahdi claimants
  • List of longest prison sentences

Notes

References

Books

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  • Taner Edis: Harun Yahya and Islamic Creationism (2003)