Entering The Dark Side Of Harun Yahya, The Criminal Mastermind Of Today

JAKARTA - Harun Yahya has a birthday today, marking his 65th annual cycle. The writer who is also a preacher of Islam whose real name is Adnan Oktar alias Adnan Hoca has recorded so much controversy in his life. Harun Yahya is currently in prison with a sentence of 1,075 years. We look back at Harun Yahya's actions and his relationship with a number of legal cases.

In 2018, Harun Yahya was arrested. At that time the police raided several places related to the activities of Harun Yahya and his group. The places are spread across five provinces in Turkey. Then, in early January, the Turkish Court sentenced Harun Yahya to prison. He was found guilty of rape and conspiracy crimes.

The raids at that time were carried out for financial crimes, fraud, sexual harassment, and conspiracy crimes committed by Harun Yahya and his group. Harun Yahya himself was arrested in Istanbul, at his residence, in the Cengelkoy area. Reported by The Guardian, Tuesday, January 12, this is the second time that Harun Yahya and his organization have dealt with the law. Harun Yahya was arrested.

The first case involving Harun Yahya and his group occurred in 1999. At that time Harun Yahya was arrested on charges of intimidation and the establishment of a criminal group. Harun Yahya was also detained, although the investigation into the case was stopped later.

The NTV television station explained that Harun Yahya's crimes include rape of minors, fraud, and attempts to spy on the government regarding military and political matters. Prosecutors also charged Harun Yahya with legal charges of leading a criminal organization.

The trial of Harun Yahya has been held since September 2019. In relation to the Harun Yahya case, the Turkish legal authorities arrested 236 other suspects. They have gone on trial, with 78 of them detained.

Harun Yahya built up his influence

Harun Yahya is known for the idea of Islamic creationism that 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 is actually an interior design graduate who has no formal education 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 theory, 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 in Harun Yahya's life, according to AR Solberg in his dissertation entitled The Mahdi Wears Armani (2013) began in 1990.

At that time Harun Yahya was appointed honorary president of the Bilim Arastirma Vakfi (BAV) research foundation. This group consists of people who have different backgrounds with different occupations. For example, there is a division in charge of collecting donations for organizations to a division for research and writing.

Harun Yahya at a meeting (Facebook / A9 TV Global)

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 Turkish secular figure, 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.

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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.

His international prestige 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.

Atlas of Creation book (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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 for humanity. The general idea 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.

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Harun Yahya Enterprise

Behind Harun Yahya, there is a large company operating. Not only to refute 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 has been carried out since 2011, in which Harun Yahya hosted a talk show on his own television channel, A9 TV, which went viral on the internet.

Footage from Harun Yahya's television program (YouTube / Harun Yahya English)
Harun Yahya: Follower and sex slave

All these structured and systematic efforts spurred the growing number of followers of Harun Yahya. He began to gain a large following from among wealthy families in Istanbul. Harun Yahya's congregation changed, from a religious group to a cult-like thing.

From his social media channels, it can be seen that Harun Yahya has so many followers. On the Facebook page of the television channel Harun Yahya owns, for example. Recorded A9 TV Global has nearly 1.3 million followers. Not to mention on other channels, such as the YouTube channel, and his personal website, harunyahya.com which is translated into many languages.

Harun Yahya is also an eccentric figure because he is surrounded by many women. There are people who are his followers and there are people who are sex slaves for him. Harun Yahya brainwashed the women. He intimidated, threatened, and made the women a means of satisfying sexual desire.

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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.

Harun Yahya's female followers (Facebook / A9 TV Global)

According to the statements of many families of victims of manipulation by Harun Yahya, after recruitment, the family usually loses contact with the victim of new recruits, Harun Yahya. Don't expect time to meet. In the evidentiary file for the 1999 case, the police said that women recruited by Harun Yahya would be persuaded to participate in sexual activities that were documented through films or photographs.

These digital materials are Harun Yahya's tools to threaten his victims. This was revealed by a Turkish model, Ebru Simsek, who admitted to being blackmailed by the threat of a sex video by Harun Yahya's group. There is a sad condition that was told by women victims of Harun Yahya. According to them, a woman is often forced to marry Harun Yahya just to be free from being forced to sleep with many men in the group.

Every woman who marries Harun Yahya, that woman will become a "sister". Within the group there is an unwritten rule, not one male follower of Harun Yahya - usually called a lion - is allowed to have sex with a sister.

However, Harun Yahya's thoughts attracted attention. It has proven to be a lucrative force in Turkey and many other countries for nearly three decades. Harun Yahya had a great influence through his 'grounding the Koran'.

Bernando J. Sujibto, through the book Harun Yahya Undercover tries to refute this view. Bernando explained that Harun Yahya's view is actually contrary to the effort to ground the Koran.

Harun Yahya had no real interest in the Koran and the faith in it. On the other hand, Harun Yahya uses the Koran as a tool to attract world sympathy. Harun Yahya himself admitted this.

In the midst of the investigation, Harun Yahya told the head of the arrest team, Sercar Sacan that he had no purpose or interest in religious matters. This book also states that what Harun Yahya did is irrelevant.

The scientific proof of the scriptures is what is called futile in this book. "The holy book does not need to be sought for its legitimacy through scientific findings. Science and religion have their respective areas, have different characters.

The statements in the scriptures are final, never changing forever. While science will never reach the final line, it will never stop at any time, ”wrote.

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