Come on Muslim Creationists, Catch Up!

In my travels, I have taken great pleasure to study a great deal about Islam. I try to read an English translation on the Koran once a year and have been through much of the Hadith. My time spent with Imams, prayer leaders, and many Muslims from different backgrounds and persuasions has given me an opportunity to effectively understand the culture and religion.

Personally, I think the primary reason Islam is such a delicate subject is due to the mass ignorance the world has about it, and the lack of accessibility someone might find in learning more. In every corner of the globe, Christians have seen to it that everyone hears about their prophet. Due to this, in almost every circumstance, a random person would be able to tell you the gist of the mythology of Jesus. The prophet Muhammad  however, is not more than a question mark in the mind of most. Ask your neighbor about the miracles attributed to the famous Arab, or the life he led, and you will have cautious stares at best.

Another problem with accessibility is the simple fact that you can not introduce a religion to an adult, unless incredibly gullible,  without the inevitable questions. Those types of questions are often met with hostility in Islam, or the closing of minds by those who have previously been forced to swallow their own dogma.

Across the Middle East, and throughout Malaysia, Indonesia and North Africa, I have enjoyed every opportunity to dive into the depths of Islamic theology. My Saudi friends, the more open-minded ones, would commence all night debates, purely for the sake of discussion.  It was just the other day, actually, that My friend living in Yemen sent a message insisting I watch another YouTube video believing it would finally convert me to Islam...

Oh dear. Perhaps he forgot the part where I said that the Prophet Muhammad was an uneducated member of a backwater superstitious tribe who became a megalomaniacal, pedophilic warlord who was known as a treacherously murderous theocratic dictator, encouraging his followers to raid cities, rob the innocent, and commit their lives to holy war. I see no need to go into details here, but I may suggest a few books below.

On the other hand, over an extensive period of time, other monotheistic religions eventually were forced to  allow dissent within their realms and even reformation. Islams has not gone through this yet, and since there is not much dissent within most Islamic societies, there has not been a strong need for a Islamo-political force to fight against secularism.

Except in countries like the secular republic of Turkey, where Creationism is on the rise against a state controlled education demanding science, of all things. Funnily enough, creationists in Turkey are not that creative though, as we seem to find the material taken verbatim from American Christians and simply change a few words to become justification for the Islamic creation story. Authors such as Adnan Oktar and his now infamous Atlas of Creation has demonstrated  this sufficiently.

As expected, one irrational belief follows another, and the same man has published books suggesting a conspiracy between Jews and the Free Masons designed to "erode the spiritual, religious, and moral values of the Turkish people."


It doesn't get more sophisticated, though, and now YouTube is littered with videos, claiming the secular world is in a massive cover up of Islam, while forcing Evolution, gospels of godlessness, and science to confuse our young. Throw in suggestions of a New World Order, and you have a massive, indiscernible cocktail of conspiracy. I have to wonder if the Christian creationists, such as William Lane Craig, featured here would have a heart attack if they knew their arguments were used to justify Islam.

Disclaimer: Only link to this video if you have the stomach to listen to one of the worst attacks on science, rationality, and education. A combination of quote mining, a patchwork of clips, Fine-Tuning fallacy, Intelligent design, false dichotomies, and conspiracy ideas designed to fit into Islamic teachings. Take this with skepticism please...

Worse than any Zeitgeist film by far...and it gets worse.


Suggested sources:
The Holy Koran, the most violent book I have ever read
The Origins of the Koran - Ibn Warraq
Why I Am Not a Muslim - Ibn Warraq
Islam Unveiled - Robert Spencer
The Truth About Muhammad -  Robert Spencer
On the Reality of Islam - Sam Harris
Lifting the Veil: The True Faces of Muhammad and Islam - I.Q. Al Rassooli