Turkey Bans FREEDOM of EXPRESSION

Ankara - Turkish internet users have been blocked via a court order from accessing the site of prominent British biologist Richard Dawkins after complaints from lawyers for Islamic creationist author Adnan Oktar, the website of Turkish television station NTV reported on Wednesday.

A court in Istanbul ordered that Turk Telekom block access to the site and since the weekend Turkish internet users seeking the site have been redirected to a page that says in Turkish 'access to this site has been suspended in accordance with a court decision'.

NTV reported that Oktar complained he and his creationist book 'Atlas of Creation' had been defamed by comments made by Dawkins on the site.

'I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content,' Dawkins, a distinguished advocate of the theory of evolution, wrote on his website in July referring to the Atlas of Creation.

The book has caused controversy not just through its advocation of creationism but also through how thousands of copies of book were distributed to schools in a number of European countries.

Oktar has used the Turkish courts on a number of occasions, the latest being earlier this year when he attempted to have Dawkins' book The God Delusion banned in Turkey on the basis that it was insulting religion but a Turkish court threw the case out.

In August 2007, Oktar, who writes under the pen name Harun Yahya, convinced a Turkish court to block access to millions of web blogs using the Wordpress.com hosting service after finding that a number of blogs carried libellous comments.

In May, Oktar was found guilty of creating an illegal organization for personal gain and sentenced to three years imprisonment. He is appealing the decision.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Harun
• Yahya
• Dawkins
• Allah
• muslim
• quran
• muhammed
• science
• turkey
• EU
• freedom
• of
• expression
• richard
• net
• democracy
• evolution

[yelizunaldan]

Hahaha. Turkey's Law :) Turkey call itself a democratic country yet applies the most undemocratic path. Its a weird country. It should be named as Turkish Islamic Comminist (TIC). If it was a democratic country, the government officials would have taken Harun Yahya to court & charged for false advertisement. He's not a scientist but advertise himself as a scientist, even calls himself professor, in his webpages also at gatherings where he talks about himself and science!

[dumbasrekurd]

im turkish, im also an evolutionist and atheist, why though are you putting up images of the cartoon of muhammed? and why are you asking if turkey should be accepted to the eu? trust me most people in turkey dont agree with the blocking of youtube and other things but dont make it look like turkish people are backwards or extremists matey.

[cimbom1905ful]

sht up bruvh don't get rude turkey

[DSD1v57BG32]

@TheRealBladeRunner

They never banned it, court decided not to.

[CrimeTime12]

Turkey just knows to kill unarmed people hit and run...thats why they are so much hated from the world

[jewishwarrior666]

A muslim country against the principles of freedom and democracy.....I won't believe it!

[TheRealBladeRunner]

Turkey Banned the God Delusion: They are absolutely against freedom of speech IF they do that.

[MWcrazyhorse]

ye we have a saying too 'forgive and forget' but that is one step ahead. you need to reach the time of enlightenment first. next work on your constitution and the freedom of mind. ever wondered why no one wants you in the EU? think about it.

[yelizunaldan]

I've found princefy's other posts on the net :) He's actually Kurdish from Turkey, not from Iraq :)

[yelizunaldan]

selsez! why do you even bother arguing with this guy who call himself British. He's not British :) My guess is he's an Iraqian Kurdish migrated to Britain, living in Britain now :-) This guy can't even write one sentence in English! I think he's used an internet translation engine; there are not sentences but words mixed with each other. Sel! You're so intelligent to understand that spagetti junction. Brits aren't like this man. I know as i live in Britain :))

[princefy]

i go to bonsia-i like your brother-and to kosovo and to palestine and chechnya-your brother dies-you have no power to save your brother-dont talk rubbish--you should be christian and join us-your ottoman is divided and finished

[princefy]

you did not win--arabs kurds turks iranians egyptian albanians bonsians divided--bosnia war-turkey did not help==no power--kosovo-muslims die-turkey have no power-chechnya muslims die-turkey caanot fight-muslims are dogs now--time to eat pig in your country my friend