Turkish court bans Dawkins website

[Rrose Selavy]

Turkey, what a tolerant place it is shaping up to be - and they want to join the EU

A Turkish court has banned internet users from viewing the official Richard Dawkins website after a Muslim creationist claimed its contents were defamatory and blasphemous.
Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pen name of Harun Yahya, complained that Dawkins, a fierce critic of creationism and intelligent design, had insulted him in comments made on forums and blogs.
According to Oktar's office, Istanbul's second criminal court of peace banned the site earlier this month on the grounds that it "violated" Oktar's personality.

More here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/18/turkey

 

[bokonon]

Fingers in ears is standard operating procedure for religious fundamentalists. Religious fascists also want to stick their fingers in everyone else's ears.

 

[Beerina]

So the slippery slope, not content to be able to legally silence mockers, or even just critics, of culture and religion, has forged on to include peoples' personalities?

 

[I Ratant]

I wonder when Islam will recognize that Islam defames Islam?

 

[Professor Yaffle]

That is such a coincidence. Just 5 minutes my husband came home from work with a HUGE book written by - Harun Yahya. Never heard of him before, and I get 2 references in 5 minutes. The book is an islamic creationist book that was sent to a library my husbands friends wife works at (they were going to throw them away). My husband kept a copy because it has some fabulous pictures of fossils in it.

http://www.harunyahya.com/

 

[Undesired Walrus]

This is what Dawkins said about the book folks: 'I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content'. That's it.

Islam's skin becomes thinner by the day.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Wasn't that guy covicted of fraud or some such thing?

 

[El Greco]

And to think that Turkey is probably the most progressive amongst the Islamic states...

 

[Professor Yaffle]

This is what Dawkins said about the book folks: 'I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content'. That's it.

Islam's skin becomes thinner by the day.

Its true the fossil pictures are beautiful and the text hilariously inane.

 

[bokonon]

Wasn't that guy covicted of fraud or some such thing?

Wikipedia has accounts of him pandering, pimping out women to entice men to come to his events, asking the women to videotape themselves having sex with the men and provide him with the tapes, and using the tapes for blackmail.

"Liars for Jesus" seems almost benign by comparison.

 

[Blackadder]

That is such a coincidence. Just 5 minutes my husband came home from work with a HUGE book written by - Harun Yahya. Never heard of him before, and I get 2 references in 5 minutes. The book is an islamic creationist book that was sent to a library my husbands friends wife works at (they were going to throw them away). My husband kept a copy because it has some fabulous pictures of fossils in it.

http://www.harunyahya.com/

I AM NOT KIDDING! Just yesterday I complained at MY local libray that they had a book by this very Harun Yahya in the science section of the library. I was looking for some book on biology and got anoyed that all scientific books were mixed up with creationist rubbish. (I think it is fine to have creationist books, but please put them in the humor section, or at least the religion section, and not the biology section)

The world is a small place

 

[odeed]

Is this the same Guardian that took down a article by Simon Singh when British Chiropractic Association threatened to sue?

No idea about Turkish defamation/libel laws, or what was posted at Dawkins site but the article in the OP doesn't suggest it was blocked for religous reasons.

 

[Kthulhut Fhtagn]

No idea about Turkish defamation/libel laws, or what was posted at Dawkins site but the article in the OP doesn't suggest it was blocked for religous reasons.

If Wikipedia is to be beleived he's gotten a large amount of websites banned. Anywho, the the article specifically mentions that Harun Yahya complained about the site as being defamatory and blasphemous to Islam.

If you look at his website he also runs another website that is essentially one giant compilation of every quote that has ever been mined.

 

[maxfrost]

Turkey, what a tolerant place it is shaping up to be - and they want to join the EU



More here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/18/turkey

Sounds like Oktar's personality is already violated-up...

 

[odeed]

If Wikipedia is to be beleived he's gotten a large amount of websites banned. Anywho, the the article specifically mentions that Harun Yahya complained about the site as being defamatory and blasphemous to Islam.

If you look at his website he also runs another website that is essentially one giant compilation of every quote that has ever been mined.

I see from the first paragraph in the article, that Harun Yahya claims that what was written was blasphemous, but I fail to see where the court blocked the website for insulting Islam. It goes on to say...

According to Oktar's office, Istanbul's second criminal court of peace banned the site earlier this month on the grounds that it "violated" Oktar's personality.

...nothing about Islam, same goes for the complaints made from Oktar/Harun against other websites according to the wikipedia entry.

I see on the comments page at Dawkins site and here, is to blame Turkey for being a muslim country, I don't see the same reaction to blame other countries religion/secularism when similar cases are brought in these countries to silence criticism.

 

[quixotecoyote]

I see on the comments page at Dawkins site and here, is to blame Turkey for being a muslim country, I don't see the same reaction to blame other countries religion/secularism when similar cases are brought in these countries to silence criticism.

Have you looked?

 

[odeed]

Have you looked?

Yes, from dawkins site

Calling facts and opinions "defamation" is an extremely common Muslim tactic used to suppress criticism of themselves and their religion.

Another reason not to allow Turkey full accession to the European Union, repressive Islamic regimes don't deserve any favors from the enlightened west

and I have not seen anyone blame christians/secularists for libel laws in the UK, which worried the Guardian enough to remove the article by Simon Singh.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Yes, from dawkins site

Are you disputing the fact that there are frequent claims of defamation to suppress criticism of Islam?

and I have not seen anyone blame christians/secularists for libel laws in the UK, which worried the Guardian enough to remove the article by Simon Singh.

This is not the same as:

to blame other countries religion/secularism when similar cases are brought in these countries to silence criticism.

Because libel laws in themselves are not a problem.

 

[bokonon]

What websites has the US banned? What websites has the UK banned?

Harun Yahya is all about promoting Islam. If he's having the Turkish government ban websites, I'd say it's a good bet that Islam is the motivation.

China bans websites which are critical of the Chinese government. Banning sites which "violate" some individual's personality may happen if the personality is Kim Jung Il, but I'd need to see some evidence before I'd be convinced it's happening in Turkey.

I've been banned from Islamic discussion boards simply for saying that the Quran was written by men. There is a mindset among some religious people (VenomFangX on the YouTube site is an example of a Christian who does the same thing) that seeks to stifle open discussion. I think that's what's happening in Turkey, and it demonstrates that their commitment to free speech is not as strong as their commitment to defending Islam.

 

[odeed]

Are you disputing the fact that there are frequent claims of defamation to suppress criticism of Islam?

In this case I am saying that there is no proof that the Turkish court made it's decision based on the criticism of islam.

In both cases I have mentioned, libel laws are being used to silence critics, but neither case has anything to do with the religions (or lack of) of those countries.