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The
Story of Adnan Oktar's Life
Adnan
Oktar, who writes his books under the pen-name "Harun Yahya", is an
idealist person who devoted his entire life to share his views on the
existence and unity of God and the graces of the Quranic morals with
other people. Starting from his university years, he has spent every
moment of his life, serving to this cause and never dreaded facing
difficulties. There has been several campaigns of persecution against
Mr. Oktar because of his faith and ministry. He has been arrested many
times, kept in custody, tortured by Turkish authorities for many months,
but always found innocent at the end. Today, he still stands firmly
against all the pressure and slanders that he confronts by displaying
the same patience and fortitude.
Below,
you will find the brief biography of Adnan Oktar, whose works you will
find on website listed at the end of the page.
Adnan
Oktar was born in 1956 in Ankara and spent his life in Ankara until the
end of high school. His commitment to Islam got even more steadfast
during high school years. Reading various religious books during this
period, he gained profound knowledge about Islam. Moreover, he himself
grasped important facts and decided to share these with the people
surrounding him. In 1979, Adnan Oktar moved to Istanbul to attend Mimar
Sinan University. It was by this time that he undertook the mission to
call people to the faith and morals of Islam.
Years in Mimar Sinan University
By the time Adnan Oktar entered Istanbul Mimar Sinan University, the
school was already under the influence of various illegal Marxist
organizations and militantly atheistic views were prevalent in the
university. Everyone, be him a faculty member or a student, was a
materialist adhering to the atheist way of thinking. Indeed, instructors
took every opportunity to propagate the materialistic philosophy
and Darwinism in their lectures albeit irrelevant with their
topic.
In an
environment where each and every religious and moral value was
disrespected and outright rejected, Adnan Oktar started to call the
people around him to the unity and existence of God. As may be
understood, under such circumstances, any theistic idea was not given an
opportunity to gain ground. As Mediha Oktar, his mother, relates, during
that period he only had a few hours sleep each night, spending his time
reading, taking notes and keeping files. He read hundreds of books,
including the basic works on Marxism, communism and materialistic
philosophy and thoroughly studied the books on secular ideologies, both
classical works and rarely-read ones. He worked on them, marking the
significant sections and taking notes at the back. He became highly
knowledgeable about these philosophies and ideologies, far better than
their own advocates. He also made extensive research on the evolutionary
theory, the allegedly scientific basis of these ideologies, and gathered
documents and information about it.
Having
gathered ample information on deadlocks, contradictions and lies
inherent in these philosophies and ideologies based on the rejection of
God, Mr. Oktar used this accumulation to tell the facts. He told the
existence and unity of God and the truth of the Qur'an in the light of
rational and scientific evidence almost to everyone, including the
students and instructors in the university. In the course of a
conversation in the school cafeteria, on the corridors or during breaks,
one could see him refuting the materialist philosophy and Marxism,
quoting from these ideologies' own reference books.
He
particularly gave emphasis to the theory of evolution, i.e. Darwinism.
This theory, advanced against the fact of creation, was widely adopted
by university students.
His First Booklet on Darwinism
With this purpose in mind, Adnan Oktar primarily concentrated his
efforts on proving the invalidity of this deception. As Darwinism was
advanced in the name of science, he thought science would serve as the
best means to disclose its fallacy. He wrote a booklet titled The
Evolutionary Theory, which was a summary of his extensive researches
and studies. He, himself, paid all costs of this booklet by selling some
of the estates he inherited from his family. Then, he started
distributing free copies of this booklet to university students and
discussed it with anyone he met. This booklet was indeed a comprehensive
work revealing that the evolution theory was a fraud which had no
scientific and rational value whatsoever. Furthermore, some militant
students at the university were straightforwardly threatening Oktar
stating that he would put his life to risk if he did not stop his
activities. Yet, all these pressures and threats made Oktar even more
committed and resolute.
In a
university under the Marxists' domination where terror was reigning, the
religious people were harassed because of their beliefs. At that time in
Turkey, many young people were murdered because of the ideological
tension. Under such circumstances, Adnan Oktar was openly preaching the
existence and the unity of God, and the righteousness of the Qur'an. In
a school where people never dared to disclose their faith, he regularly
went to the Molla Mosque and fulfilled his prayers, never being
intimidated the reactions and threats he encountered.
The Anxiety of the Atheist Instructors
Adnan Oktar always entered the lectures with scientific documents and
research files he always kept with him and had discussions with the
instructors about the materialist philosophy and the evolutionary
theory. At that time, there were two well-known faculty members who were
continuously talking about evolution and making atheist propaganda.
Thus, they were popular among Marxist students and earned their respect.
However, their desperate efforts to defend their ideas throughout the
discussions they had with Adnan Oktar, and the illogical answers they
provided revealed the futile and unrealistic nature of their ideologies.
One
day after the lecture, one of these instructors made a brief, yet
efficient discussion about the deadlocks of the evolutionary theory with
Adnan Oktar. This person could bring no reasonable explanation and
answer to the scientific and rational arguments provided by Adnan Oktar.
All he could do was to leave that place immediately.
However, that he met such a defeat before the very eyes of the students
was what most distressed him. From that time on, this person, who used
to wander around the corridors and hold serious lengthy philosophical
conversations with his students after the lectures, started to hastily
run to his room all alone to avoid Adnan Oktar.
Alone for Three Years
Adnan Oktar was alone when he started communicating Islam at Mimar Sinan
University. For more than three years, there was no one supporting his
views. However this lack of support did not change his commitment. He
knew that God was his sole Companion and he did all this to earn the
good pleasure of God.
Adnan Oktar made a remarkable exam score in the entrance exams of the
Mimar Sinan University. He had an exceptional ability in drawing. If it
was what his goal, he could easily have a degree in fine arts and make a
brilliant career. He could normally think, "First let me make my career
and then I can start communicating Islam"; but he didn't. He devoted all
his time, energy and means to only one purpose.
Having
no support throughout these years, Adnan Oktar could simply think his
efforts to be vain and simply give up. But he did not. With
determination and commitment, he continued to convey the words of God to
people around him. Keeping in mind the words of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi,
"The skill is not to have many listeners but to earn the good
pleasure of God", he went on.
In
1982, for the first time, a few young people who were new at Mimar Sinan
University, decided to support Mr. Oktar in his ideological struggle. As
months and years passed by, the number of young people embracing the
same views increased. The evidence for creation, the invalidity of
Marxism and materialist philosophy, which was then a dominant ideology,
were the major subjects of Adnan Oktar's conversations with these young
people. His main ambition was to guide them in being honorable people.
From 1982 to 1984, a group of 20-30 young people was formed.
During
the two years following 1984, conversations held with young people, who
were then attending private high schools in Istanbul, were about moral
values. During these years, Oktar did not attend Mimar Sinan University.
He enrolled to a new faculty, Istanbul University, Philosophy
Department.
His
name appeared in Nokta (The Point) magazine for the first time in
1986 and this was the first time he became to be known by the general
public.
First impression in the press
The news about Adnan Oktar appeared as the cover story of Nokta
(The Point) magazine after the visit of Rusen Cakir, a correspondent for
the Nokta (The Point) magazine, to the mosque where Adnan Oktar
gathered with his friends and held conversations. The story published
under the headline "Disciples from Colleges" covered basically
Adnan Oktar and the way he communicated the message of Islam to the
young people who shared his ideas. During this period, many university
students, mostly from Bosphorus University, one of the most prestigious
universities of Turkey, started to participate in the conversations of
Adnan Oktar.
Until
the beginning of the summer of the same year, press organs made a full
coverage of Adnan Oktar almost everyday. Many newspapers carried his
name to the headlines. Adnan Oktar, who spread the message of Islam into
the section of society which seemed to be the most secularized, was
understandably startling for the media.
The First Persecution
The powers in the Turkish society who are at odds with Islam, which are
traditionally organized under the banner of Freemasonry, were greatly
disturbed by the ministry led by Adnan Oktar. On the other hand, some
distinguished families of Istanbul were concerned about their children
who changed their way of living and started to observe their religious
duties. Essentially these two factors initiated a campaign of
persecution to halt the activities of Adnan Oktar.
In the
summer of 1986, Adnan Oktar was arrested for a crime he never had the
chance to know. As was related later, he was arrested because of his
words "I am from the nation of Abraham and Turkish ethnicity."
This statement appeared in an interview which was published in a
newspaper. This was also the time when false reports, unfounded
information and slanders started to appear in the media.
Torture in the Mental Hospital
Adnan Oktar was first arrested and imprisoned. Then, he was transferred
to Bakirkoy Mental Hospital and placed under observation on the pretext
that he was mentally unwell. In the hospital, he was placed in the "14A"
ward, a special section where only very dangerous patients who were
immune to punishment were kept. Since murders were very ordinary
incidents among these mentally sick people, Oktar was expected to be
murdered. For a certain period of time, he was chained to bed by his
ankles and exposed to cruel treatments. By force, he was given drugs
blurring consciousness. Meanwhile, his young friends who had the chance
to secretly visit and see him witnessed that he never lost his
commitment and enthusiasm in the meanwhile. Moreover, all the things he
went through added more to his commitment.
Oktar
was held in prison and mental hospital for a total of 19 months and then
acquitted and released by the court since his statements were found to
be inoffensive. After his release, he saw that during the time he was in
the mental hospital, the number of his young supporters increased
dramatically. Since visiting him was prohibited they could only see him
behind the hospital bars. A few minutes talk they had with Adnan Oktar
behind these bars -one could only go to this place by jumping over the
hospital fences- made these young people have a profound and everlasting
love and respect for him.
Darwinism
Since 1979, the year he started to communicate his views about religion,
disclosing the real face of the Darwinism had been the major goal of
Adnan Oktar. This subject never lost its importance throughout the years
however. The theory of evolution always had priority for Oktar. With
resoluteness, he carried out his studies on Darwinism. In 1986, he
compiled all his valuable researches on Darwinism in his book Living
Beings and Evolution. In the light of scientific sources, this book
showed the impasse of the theory of evolution and revealed the fact of
creation.
During
those years, the friends of Adnan Oktar also concentrated their efforts
on the evolutionary theory. They put forth a great effort to tell people
the groundless nature of the theory. In colleges and high schools,
scientific arguments were carried out among students. This was a total
surprise to some instructors blindly attached to Darwinism. In their
lifetime, this was the first time they met such students, who were very
knowledgeable about the theory. To their surprise, they actually knew
more than themselves and defended creation eloquently.
These
were actually the preliminary works of the campaign which would be
launched in 1998. The goal of the campaign was already set: to
eradicate the evolution theory and materialism from the Turkish society.
By the time Adnan Oktar was released in 1988, most of his friends were
in the university. Mr. Oktar's efforts to spread the message of Islam
and moral values were no longer limited to schools. It was the time when
different sections of society were informed about these views. Adnan
Oktar and his friends took upon themselves the responsibility to remind
young people, who aimed nothing but to make the most of their life, that
they will be hold responsible for their acts and thoughts and that they
will be ultimately judged in the presence of God. Accordingly, they
recommended them to reorient their lives and submit to the Will of God.
Indeed, some of those who were indulged in extremes as a way of life
abandoned this degenerate life style and became conscientious and
responsible people.
The Science Research Foundation
During the two years following his release in 1988, Adnan Oktar laid the
ideological basis of the
Science Research Foundation which was founded in 1990. He held
conversations over moral values with his friends who shared his views.
It was during this period that the intellectual groundwork of the
Science Research Foundation was shaped by the contribution of Adnan
Oktar.
Finally, in January 1990, Adnan Oktar and his young friends founded the
Science Research Foundation to carry out their services under the name
of an institution and to address to larger masses. Adnan Oktar was
declared the Honorary President of the foundation. The Foundation
carried out several activities; the members of the foundation published
books and conducted cultural studies, held panels, discussions and
conferences to cherish and revive moral values.
After
the establishment of the foundation, a great police raid was made
to a regular meeting in which more than 100 members participated. More
than a hundred members were taken into custody and were interrogated by
the police. The following day, some newspapers covered the story of this
operation as if a big crime ring was caught. Majority of the members
were released in 3-4 hours. However the slander campaign launched by the
press continued for days. The press wrote incredible scenarios about
Adnan Oktar and the members of the foundation. The main purpose of the
subjective news was to mislead the security and judicial institutions by
these imaginary accusations. Yet all these efforts were in vain. Adnan
Oktar who was kept in custody and interrogated for a week was released,
as there was no element of crime in the incident. It was evident that
the same circles were trying to give a message in their own way.
Cocaine Plot
During 1990, activities of the Science Research Foundation continued
with an even stronger determination. In the midst of 1991, two
foundation members officially married. However, the families of these
young people filed complaints against this marriage. What is more, Adnan
Oktar was surprisingly blamed for this ordinary marriage, which had by
no means any illegitimate aspect. Accordingly, Adnan Oktar was once
again arrested. However, this time, the existence of a more inclusive
plot was evident. Officers who broke into the house of Mr. Oktar in
Ortakoy where he lived with his mother found a packet of cocaine in a
book. There were some thousand books over the bookshelves covering two
walls, and the officers found the cocaine in a few minutes as if they
had just left it there.
Just
after this event Adnan Oktar, who was then in Izmir with a couple of his
friends, was arrested. He was then transferred to Istanbul Security
Headquarters, where he was detained for 62 hours. After 62 hours, he was
sent to Forensic Medicine Institution for a cocaine test. The result was
very interesting indeed! Very high doses of a by-product of cocaine were
detected in Adnan Oktar's blood!
Yet
subsequent evidences proved that this was merely a plot. Firstly, it was
found out that the cocaine alleged to be found in Mr. Oktar's house was
part of the plot. A short while before this plot, Adnan Oktar felt that
a stealthy plan was being hatched against him and left his house in
Ortakoy, Istanbul. Then, he called his mother and said that it was
likely that a plot was being hatched against him and he wanted his
mother to clean and check the house thoroughly with a couple of other
people so that they could be witnesses. Upon this, Mr. Oktar's
mother Mediha Oktar called one of her neighbors and the doorkeeper and
they all together thoroughly cleaned the house, dusted one by one all
the books over the bookshelves. Despite the fact that Adnan Oktar had
never been at home after this cleaning, 16 police officers raided the
flat and suddenly found a "a packet of cocaine" in one of the books. The
neighbor of Mediha Oktar and the doorkeeper gave their individual
testimonies before the notary public stating "We cleaned Adnan
Oktar's books thoroughly one by one; and there was not such a packet
there."
The
second part of the cocaine plot was the cocaine by-product detected in
Adnan Oktar's blood. Scientific and judicial evidences disproved this
allegation. Adnan Oktar had been in the Security Headquarters for 62
hours and the test was conducted after 62 hours. Normally, by looking at
the amount of the by-product of cocaine detected in the blood, one can
scientifically calculate the exact amount of cocaine taken. This
calculation can also indicate how many hours ago the cocaine was taken.
The dose of the cocaine detected in Adnan Oktar's blood was, however, at
a fatal level, had it been taken 62 hours ago. In other words, such a
high dose of cocaine would kill him if he had taken it 62 hours ago.
This result clearly revealed that the cocaine detected in Adnan Oktar's
blood was given to his body during those 62 hours. In other words, he
was given cocaine during the time he was detained in the security
headquarters. The cocaine was actually mixed to his food when he was
under police detainment.
This
fact was also confirmed by 30 international forensic medicine
institutions, including Scotland Yard. They all examined the file sent
to them about the case. Their conclusive view was the following:
"Cocaine was mixed to his food when he was under police detainment. The
event is a plot. "
The Secluded life of Adnan Oktar
After Mr. Oktar shaped the mission of the Science Research Foundation,
he closely monitored the activities of the foundation for an
uninterrupted two years and then by 1991, he devoted all his time to
work on his books. Especially after the cocaine plot made against him,
he retreated into a secluded life in order both to prevent similar plots
and assaults and to have time for his books. He spent all his time in
his house. He occasionally visited his friends and participated in
discussions. He constantly refused to give interviews to newspapers and
TV channels despite their insistent requests.
During
this time, Adnan Oktar's involvement in the activities of the Science
Research Foundation was limited to giving ideas at the stage of laying
down the general principles of the foundation. Meanwhile, he was only
giving some recommendations to the members of the foundation about the
principles of the Qur'an and good manners. This period lasted until
November 12, 1999, the day a police operation was conducted against the
SRF community.
Communicating Islam to the Prominent People
One of the major goals of Adnan Oktar was to make a radical change in
society's firm conviction about religion that "religion is a
phenomenon that addresses merely to elderly people or a particular
section of society." This conviction utterly hampered the
penetration of the Qur'anic truth to a considerable part of society.
Those who were to set examples for the young people were homosexuals,
forgers, indecent people etc. Degenerate masses, totally bereft of their
religious and moral values, were committing themselves to more
destruction each day. However, there might be a hope to save majority of
these people if they were told the truth.
In
order to eliminate this prejudice prevalent in society, Adnan Oktar took
the initiative to contact people who could make a "symbolic" impact over
society and inform them about moral values. This was why some SRF
members contacted celebrities like models, singers and movie stars. This
is explained in the press release of the SRF as follows:
Gulay
Pinarbasi
is a
notable example of this spiritual awakening. She was a model before she
met the SRF community; but then she decided to change her entire life.
Soon she abandoned her old way of living and started a decent life. She
devoted all her time to scientific and religious studies and after a
while she started her career as a columnist in a conservative newspaper.
Meanwhile, some male models who were also impressed by the truths told
by the SRF members quit their career and started to reorient all their
lives in a totally different way.
Unrelenting Struggle against Darwinism
In early 1998, Adnan Oktar and his friends launched a great intellectual
campaign against Darwinism. To start with, thousands of free copies of
Adnan Oktar's book, The Evolution Deceit and the booklets
based on this book were distributed in every corner of Turkey. The
Science Research Foundation started to hold a series of conferences
"The Collapse of the Evolution Theory and the Fact of Creation" all
around Turkey. The first three of these conferences which were held in
Istanbul and Ankara hosted world renowned American scientists as
lecturers.
Then
similar conferences were held in 120 different cities and towns of
Turkey. In these conferences, the SRF members, each an expert in his own
field, delivered lectures. The purpose was to scientifically disprove
Darwinism, a fallacy propagated under the guise of science, and thus
to bring the materialist thought and moral understanding to ruin.
These
activities carried out by the Science Research Foundation in the
leadership of Adnan Oktar proved to be a great success. People, who were
not knowledgeable about the theory of evolution until then, had the
opportunity to learn the real truth about the evolutionary theory and
the dimensions of the scientific forgery it committed worldwide. Turkish
people acknowledged the fact that the education system, based on the
indoctrination of the evolutionary theory to the young brains, was a
part of the stealthy plan against the social and moral values and our
future generations.
Publication of books, organization of conferences, production of
videotapes and CDs were the basic activities carried out by the
contribution of the Science Research Foundation. These productions were
essentially about the scientific invalidity of the evolutionary theory,
the ideological background of the theory and the fact of creation.
The
books written under the pen name "Harun Yahya" and the
productions made by the contribution of the Science Research Foundation
include more than 190 books on political, scientific and religious
issues, 14 documentaries, dozens of tape-cassettes and interactive CD on
the collapse of the theory of evolution and the fact of creation. This
collection of high quality works with aesthetic appeal and well-founded
content is an important source.
And Pressure Again...
All these committed activities highly annoyed and disquieted some
particular centers. With the provocation of materialist centers and
Mason circles, they launched a campaign against these activities. The
circles in question made declarations like "Conferences held by the
Science Research Foundation must absolutely be stopped." The aim was
to prevent any scientific study refuting evolution. They were enraged by
the deathblow these activities gave to their philosophy they could
hardly sustain. Unable to provide any scientific response, they only
claimed that these activities had to be stopped as soon as possible.
They could not stand the total rebuttal of the theory they were blindly
attached to before the very eyes of the Turkish Public. These efforts of
Adnan Oktar and his young friends to prove the scientific invalidity of
the theory of evolution continued until the fall of 1999. This was
exactly the time when the news about the Global Freemasonry, a
great book by Harun Yahya in three volumes, spread. All these laid the
ground for the greatest police operation of the Turkish Republic.
Surely
Adnan Oktar was not openly accused of "inviting people to the true path
of God, reminding them God, religion and the good morals of Islam, and
standing against materialism, disbelief and immorality."
By
November 12, 1999, some media organs, which had enmity against Adnan
Oktar, employed their usual methods to produce groundless slanders,
scenarios and lies. Inconceivable lies and slanders appeared in the
press every day, all of which, interestingly, contradicted with one
another.However, as Adnan Oktar always states, they, too, have
inevitably submitted themselves to the Will of God and, albeit
unknowingly, they perform the duty assigned to them in the best manner
possible since this is what is predestined for them by God.
They
are not aware but they actually served to the purposes of Muslims in the
sense that Muslims were tested and they earned the good pleasure of God
by means of these incidents. Furthermore, by this way, those who tell
the truth became apparent so that everyone could recognize them.
In
accordance with the verse, "Repel (Evil) with what is better" (Surah
Fussilat: 34), Adnan Oktar always has a peaceful and tolerant approach
to those who bear enmity against him. He underlines the fact that "The
fate God creates is always perfect and there is goodness in all".
Adnan Oktar's
website-
www.harunyahya.com
Email-
info@harunyahya.com
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