Name	Ruby Muhammad
Birth name	Ruby Macie Grier
Birth date	March 20, 1907
Birth place	Sandersville, Georgia, U.S.
Death date	March 02, 2011
Death place	Sacramento, California, U.S.
Other names	Ruby Pittman
Known for	Mother of the Nation of Islam(1986-2011)
Relations	Paulette Helton (daughter)

Ruby Muhammad (March 20, 1907 – March 2, 2011) was an American religious figure known as the "Mother of the Nation of Islam." She was born in Sandersville, Georgia and grew up in Americus. No birth certificate exists to confirm her age, and it has been reported with significant disparity, although she claimed in newspaper interviews that she was born Ruby Macie Grayer on March 20, 1897.

Her mother died when she was very young, and she was raised by a woman she called her aunt, although she would later say that this woman was probably not her aunt. She did not know her father until she was a teenager.

Muhammad joined the Nation of Islam in 1946 and was named "Mother of the Nation of Islam" in 1986 by Minister Louis Farrakhan. This is an honorary title; Muhammad, who was married twice, was not the widow of Elijah Muhammad, who founded the Nation of Islam.

In 2006, Muhammad moved into a senior center in Sacramento, California.

Death

She died in 2011, aged 103, from lung cancer in Sacramento, California.

References

External links

Sacramento News & Review interview with Ruby Muhammad, July 13, 2006

Ruby Muhammad's website, owned by her daughter Paulette Helton

Category:1907 births Category:2011 deaths Category:African-American people Category:American centenarians Category:Members of the Nation of Islam Category:Longevity claims Category:Nation of Islam Category:People from Sacramento, California Category:People from Washington County, Georgia Category:People from Sumter County, Georgia Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from lung cancer

Name	Adnan Oktar
Residence	Turkey
Other names	Harun Yahya, Adnan Hoca
Caption	Adnan Oktar
Birth name	Adnan Oktar
Birth date	February 02, 1956
Birth place	Ankara, Turkey
Known	Islamic creationism, Anti-Zionism, Anti-Masonry
Occupation	Author
Religion	Sunni Muslim
Website	www.harunyahya.com

Adnan Oktar (born Ankara, February 2, 1956), also known as Harun Yahya, is an Islamic creationist. In 2007, he came to international attention when he sent out thousands of unsolicited copies of the Atlas of Creation advocating Islamic creationism to schools, colleges and science museums in several European countries and the USA. Oktar runs two organizations of which he is also the Honorary President: Bilim Araştırma Vakfı ("Science Research Foundation", BAV, established 1990), which promotes creationism and Milli Değerleri Koruma Vakfı ("Foundation to Protect National Values", established 1995) which promotes Turkish nationalism. In the last two decades, Oktar has been involved in a number of legal cases, both as defendant and plaintiff.

Biography

Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara on February 2, 1956. He grew up in Ankara, and lived there through his high school years where he studied the works of Islamic scholars like Said Nursi, a Muslim Kurdish scholar who wrote Risale-i Nur, an extensive Qur'anic commentary which includes a comprehensive political and religious ideology.

In 1979, Adnan Oktar came to Istanbul and entered Mimar Sinan University. These years were marked with violence and repression which led to the installation of a military junta following the coup of September 1980. The environment in Turkey was one of political and cultural instability, threatened by Cold War politics, and a clash between Kemalist secular modernisers and a rising tide of Islamic militancy. because he felt that it had been turned into an ideology used to promote materialism and atheism, and numerous derivative ideologies. He personally funded a pamphlet entitled the Theory of Evolution Oktar also claims he was thrown in a mental institution as punishment after the publication of his first book.

Throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, Oktar built up his community. His followers were especially active recruiting in the summer resorts along the shore of the Sea of Marmara. The social organization within the group become more hierarchical and took on a Messianic nature.

In 1990, he founded the Science Research Foundation (SRF, or, in Turkish, Bilim Araştırma Vakfı, or BAV). Oktar founded the Science Research Foundation to hold conferences and seminars for scientific activities "that target mass awareness concerning what the real underlying causes of social and political conflicts are", which he describes to be materialism and Darwinism, though some media describe the BAV as "a secretive Islamic sect" and "cult-like organization, that jealously guards the secrets of its considerable wealth". Members of the BAV are sometimes referred to as Adnan Hocacılar ("Adherents of Adnan the Hodja") by the public

In 1994 the Islamist Welfare Party (Refah Partisi), the predecessor of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), won control of the municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara. The new mayors (in Istanbul this was Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, now Turkey’s Prime Minister) sought broader support. The journalist and editor Fatih Altayli claimed that Oktar made business agreements with municipalities under the control of the Welfare party. This claim was denied by Oktar, and resulted in libel suits against Fatih Altayli with various results. After a court case lasting two years the charges were dismissed.

After September 11, 2001 and the WTC attacks, Oktar published a book called Islam Denounces Terrorism. Oktar spoke more of interfaith dialogue, attempting to unify believers of all stripes. Muslims, Christians and Jews should unite against the corrupting influence of Darwinism, which he held responsible for fascism, anti-Semitism and the holocaust. and worldwide. He built a large publishing enterprise with publications sold though Islamic bookstore worldwide. He is considered "one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world". Adnan Oktar has been preaching about the “Turkish-Islamic Union”, which would bring peace to the entire Muslim world under the leadership of Turkey.

Writings

Oktar has written numerous books under the pen name Harun Yahya. Harun referring to the biblical Aaron and Yahya referring to the New Testament John the Baptist.

Oktar's books on faith-related topics attempt to communicate the existence and oneness of God (Allah in the Qur'an ) according to the Islamic faith, and are written with the main purpose of introducing Islam to those who are strangers to religion. Each of his books on science-related topics stresses his views on the might, sublimity, and majesty of God. These books attempt to display for non-Muslims what Oktar claims to be signs of the existence of God, and the excellence of his creation. A sub-group within this series are the series of "Books Demolishing the Lie of Evolution", a critique of the ideas of materialism, evolution, Darwinism, and atheism.

These publications argue against evolution. They assert that evolution denies the existence of God, abolishes moral values, and promotes materialism and communism. Oktar argues that Darwinism, by stressing the "survival of the fittest", has inspired racism, Nazism, communism and terrorism. A claim not unexpected in Turkey when during the political turmoil before a 1980 military coup, communist bookshops touted Darwin's works as a complement to Karl Marx.

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

The spread of organized Christian creationism to Islam began in the 1980s, when the Muslim minister of education in Turkey turned to the Institute of Creation Research (ICR), a Christian institution in Dallas Texas, for help in developing twofold curriculum that would teach evolution and creation side by side.

In 1990, the Science Research Foundation (BAV in Turkish) was formed in Istanbul, headed by Oktar.

Oktar for many years drew on the writings of young earth Christian creationists to develop his case against evolution. However, Islam does not require belief in Young Earth creationism, and making use of the fact that earth may have existed for billions of years, Oktar later produced material which was more similar to Intelligent Design. So similar in fact, that 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/Darwinism. 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:

However, the reaction of scientific community is negative and dismissive.

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".

The Atlas of Creation

Oktar published volume 1 of his Yaratılış Atlası (The Atlas of Creation), with Global Publishing, Istanbul, Turkey in October 2006. Volumes 2 and 3 followed in 2007. A dedicated website (yaratilisatlasi.com, English atlasofcreation.com) registered to Global Yayıncılık (Global Publishing), Istanbul, went online also in 2007.

At 11 x 17 inches and 12 pounds, with a bright red cover and almost 800 glossy pages, most of them lavishly illustrated, “Atlas of Creation” is according the New York Times "probably the largest and most beautiful creationist challenge yet to Darwin’s theory, which Mr. Yahya calls a feeble and perverted ideology contradicted by the Koran".

However, the book has been widely criticized and dismissed by scientists.

Biologist Kevin Padian from University of California, Berkeley, said that people who had received copies were “just astounded at its size and production values and equally astonished at what a load of crap it is." adding that "[Oktar] does not really have any sense of what we know about how things change through time.” .

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 Council of Europe's Committee on Culture, Science and Education wrote in its report on this book 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 his 1986 Yahudilik ve Masonluk (Judaism and Freemasonry). 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.

According to an recent interview Oktar's position is essentially merely against atheism as he has met Christians and Jews worldwide. He stated his objectives of a religious alliance "include waging a joint intellectual and spiritual battle against the worldwide growing tide of irreligiousness, unbelief and immorality." The interviewer noted "But even more unusual is their agreement with regard to the need to rebuild the Jewish Temple, a structure that Mr. Oktar refers to as the 'Masjid (Mosque)' or the 'Palace of Solomon.'"

Holocaust Denial and Affirmation

In 1996, BAV distributed its first book, originally published the previous year, entitled Soykırım Yalanı (The Holocaust Lie). 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."

In 1996, during a slander suit brought against Turkish painter and intellectual, Bedri Baykam, Baykam exposed Adnan Oktar as responsible for the publication of The Holocaust Lie.

Three years later the Stephen Roth Institute expressed the opinion that Adnan 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 "The Nazis subjected European Jews to indisputable and unforgivable cruelty during World War II. They humiliated, insulted and degraded millions of Jewish civilians, forcing them from their homes and enslaving them in concentration camps under inhuman conditions... Certainly the Jewish people, of whom 5.5 million died in concentration camps, were the worst victims of the Nazi barbarity."

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, Adnan Oktar stated that "The Holocaust Lie," had been written by a member of his organization who had published his own essays using Oktar's pen-name "Harun Yahya", upon his own initiative. Oktar disclaimed the first book, and said the second book reflected his own opinions.

In 2009, Oktar expressed his views for 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." In 2009 and 2010, Oktar published several websites of Jewish interest.

Legal issues, arrest, trial, and sentencing

In the last two decades, Oktar has been involved in a number of legal cases, both as defendant and plaintiff. Oktar is seen as controversial in the Turkish media. Although most of the legal cases are unrelated to creationism or religion, a BAV spokesperson says Oktar is being persecuted “because of his ideas.” Physicist Taner Edis of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, who has followed the case closely says given the political pressures on Turkey’s justice system, that’s “not entirely implausible.”

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

A number of faculty members who taught Evolution were harassed, threatened and slandered in fliers that labeled them "Maoists". In 1999, six of the professors won a civil court case against the BAV for defamation and were each awarded $4,000.

In 1999 Adnan 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. Consequently, in the face of all these allegations against BAV, the Chairman of the Court announced in the hearing dated 29.02.2008 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 denied the charges and 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 in all of Turkey. His lawyers argued that blogs on WordPress.com contained libelous material on Oktar and his colleague, which WordPress.com staff was unwilling to remove.

In addition, Edip Yuksel, a Turkish writer who knew Oktar in the 1980s and is now critical of him, had his website banned in Turkey from Oktar's complaints. In addition, Yuksel wrote a Turkish-language book about Oktar called The Cult of the Antichrist, but he has yet to find "a publisher willing to brave Mr. Oktar's lawyers." One week later a complaint by Oktar led to the banning of the internet site of the Union of Education and Scientific Workers (Türk Eğitim Sen). This was followed by a block of the country's third-biggest newspaper site, Vatan, in October.

Bibliography

Oktar's books and brochures appear in Turkish with "Vural Yayıncılık" ("Global Publishing"), Istanbul. English translations of Oktar's books appear with "Ta-Ha Publishers", London, UK; "Global Publishing", Istanbul, Turkey; "Al-Attique Publishers", Ontario, Canada and "Goodword Books", New Delhi, India.

Publication media includes: Books, Booklets (Pamphlets), Children's Books, Journals, Documentaries, Audio Books, CD's, 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 good-quality paper with full-color illustrations and sold in Islamic bookstores worldwide.

References

External links

Official Harun Yahya site

Harun Yahya: Catalog of works

Taner Edis: Harun Yahya and Islamic Creationism (2003)

Richard Dawkins on Harun Yahya's Atlas of Creation

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1956 births Category:People from Ankara Category:Turkish Muslims Category:Living people Category:Turkish prisoners and detainees Category:Islamic creationists Category:Conspiracy theorists Category:Internet censorship Category:Anti-Zionism Category:Anti-Masonry