Harun Yahya's Way Of Building His Influence: Forming Research Institutions, Opposing The Theory Of Evolution, And Creating A Money Machine

JAKARTA - Adnan Oktar alias Harun Yahya is well known for the idea of Islamic creationism which is against Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The popularity that Harun Yahya gained until he became a cult figure did not suddenly appear. He built up his influence for nearly three decades. How is the story?

Harun Yahya, the person who has just been sentenced to 1,075 years in prison is actually an interior design graduate who has absolutely no formal educational background in Islamic studies and science. However, many people consider him a significant Muslim figure, especially because of his thoughts against Darwin's theory of natural selection. Thanks to this he was named the world's 50 most influential Muslim figure in 2010.

The man who was born in Ankara, Turkey, February 2, 1956, has been known to people since the 1980s. Meanwhile, the turning point of his life according to AR Solberg in his dissertation entitled The Mahdi Wears Armani (2013) began in 1990, when he became honorary president of a research foundation Bilim Arastirma Vakfi (BAV). This group consists of people who have different backgrounds and each have different jobs.

For example, there is a division in charge of collecting donations for organizations, a division for research and writing. To promote their research, BAV is also diligent in holding conferences and creating advertising campaigns. Then after they felt that they had quite a lot of money, they published their own books in the name of Harun Yahya. And the book is distributed free of charge.

BAV builds an identity as an organization oriented towards the secular figure of Turiki, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. They completely reject reactionary Muslims.

In 1986 Harun Yahya actually wrote a booklet against Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the theory of materialism. However, until the mid-1990s, Harun Yahya's propaganda against the theory of evolution was getting more intense.

As quoted by Tempo, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) building in the United States (US), Harun Yahya began to show himself as an interfaith speaker. Harun Yahya portrays himself as a supporter of interfaith dialogue. He also made his name as the main enemy of international terrorism.

But his international fame peaked around 2006, when he released Atlas of Creation. A year later he sent thousands of copies of the book refuting the theory of evolution to doctors and academics to many countries.

According to him Darwin's theory of evolution is the source of the terrorism movement in the world. He gave the example of Adolf Hitler who agreed with Darwin's theory so that he legitimized himself to kill millions of Jews.

"The Nazis believed, the weak will perish and the strong will survive. Hitler fully accepted Darwin's theory of humanity. The general idea that was brought up was that the Aryan race was superior," said Harun Yahya quoted by Marilyn Oakley in I Was Blind But Now I See Evolution.

The mass distribution of the Atlas of Creation has attracted the attention of academics and various international media towards the idea of Islamic creationism as a phenomenon. A report commissioned by the Council of Europe in 2007 warned of the growing tide of Islamic creationism.

Behind Harun Yahya, there are large companies operating not only to counter Darwinism, but also to promote Islam a la Harun Yahya. The company is called Harun Yahya Enterprise.

In addition, the support of Harun Yahya's rich supporters made the promotion engine go fast. They channeled large amounts of funding to produce and distribute materials and spread Harun Yahya's ideas through a variety of channels.

From this strong support, he managed to publish 300 titles covering various topics related to religion and politics. In addition, he also published material on DVD versions and held various conferences.

Harun Yahya Enterprise also manages hundreds of websites containing videos, audios and articles by Harun Yahya's thoughts which are distributed free of charge. The material is also translated into many languages. With this strategy, it is safe to say that Harun Yahya is a new generation of preachers who have successfully utilized the internet and other contemporary advertising tools to promote his message.

Harun Yahya's company not only manages hundreds of websites that discuss Islamic topics, and publishes his books, but also becomes Adnan Oktar's personal branding promotion engine to become a significant influencer. One of his personal branding series, namely, since 2011 Harun Yahya has hosted a talk show on his own television channel A9 TV, which has gone viral on the internet.

Since then, it has begun to gain a large following from among wealthy families in Istanbul. The Harun Yahya congregation changed from a religious group to one that resembled a cult.

Harun Yahya is also an eccentric figure because he is surrounded by many women. According to some of his former followers, Harun Yahya brainwashed the women. Harun Yahya also intimidated, threatened, and made these women sex slaves.

The search for women around Harun Yahya was organized. According to reports, the Harun Yahya group sent people specifically tasked with looking for beautiful women and handsome men from established families to become followers. Allegedly, most of the recruits were carried out in private Turkish universities.

In addition, from the social media channels he has, it appears that Harun Yahya has a large following. On the Facebook page of the television channel that Harun Yahya owns, for example, A9 TV Global has recorded almost 1.3 million followers. Not yet on other channels such as the YouTube channel, and his personal website harunyahya.com which is translated into many languages.