47 Facts About Adnan Oktar

Adnan Oktar has advocated a version of Islam that rejects both Sunni and Shia traditions, focusing instead on a Quran-centric interpretation.

Adnan Oktar has preached "the true Islam" based on the Quran on his television channel, A9 TV.

Adnan Oktar's organization is commonly referred to as a cult.

Adnan Oktar filed more than 5,000 lawsuits against individuals for defamation from 2005 to 2015, which led to the blocking of a number of prominent websites in Turkey.

Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1956, and grew up there through his high school years.

In 1979, Adnan Oktar moved to Istanbul and entered Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University to study architecture.

Yuksel said Adnan Oktar presented "a refined and urbanized version" of Nursi's teachings "to the children of the privileged class", avoiding a high pressure or traditional, old fashioned approach.

Adnan Oktar personally put money into a pamphlet entitled the Theory of Evolution, which promoted pseudoscientific arguments against evolution.

In 1986 Adnan Oktar enrolled in the philosophy department of Istanbul University and began holding lectures, in which many students, mostly from neighboring Bogazici University, sought to participate.

Adnan Oktar's name began to appear regularly in the press, including a cover story in Nokta magazine.

Adnan Oktar was arrested on the grounds of promoting a theocratic revolution and was detained for nineteen months, though he was never formally charged.

Adnan Oktar spent ten months in a mental hospital, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, but he maintains that he was a political prisoner who was punished because of the publication of Judaism and Freemasonry and not mentally ill.

Adnan Oktar continued building up his community for the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Adnan Oktar's followers were especially active recruiting at summer resorts along the Sea of Marmara.

Adnan Oktar told us the Mehdi would emerge from Turkey, and he would come with an army of youth.

Adnan Oktar never said that he was the Mehdi himself, but we all believed that he was.

In 1990, Adnan Oktar founded the Science Research Foundation.

The BAV held conferences and seminars in which Adnan Oktar blamed political and social problems on Darwinism and materialism.

In 1998 Adnan Oktar distributed a new book, The Evolution Deceit.

Adnan Oktar was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, but the verdict was appealed and in May 2010 it was overturned.

Adnan Oktar built a large publishing enterprise with publications sold though Islamic bookstores worldwide.

Adnan Oktar is one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world.

Adnan Oktar's television show is viewed by many in the Arab world.

In 2010, Adnan Oktar was selected as one of the top fifty of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan for his dissemination of creationism in an Islamic context, and other extensively distributed publications on Islamic topics.

On 19 July 2018, Adnan Oktar was remanded into custody pending trial along with 168 of his associates.

Adnan Oktar was sentenced to 8,658 years in prison on 17 November 2022 as a result of his retrial.

Adnan Oktar has written numerous books under the pen name Harun Yahya.

Adnan Oktar has been called "fiercely opposed to the theory of evolution" and Darwinism, which he believes undermines religious belief, thus leading to "the discord, atheism, terrorism and extreme political ideologies" of contemporary life.

For many years Adnan Oktar drew on the writings of young earth Christian creationists to develop his case against evolution.

Adnan Oktar later produced material which was more similar to Intelligent Design.

In September 2008 Adnan Oktar issued a challenge offering "10 trillion Turkish lira to anyone who produces a single intermediate-form fossil demonstrating evolution".

Adnan Oktar believes that a secret cabal, known as the "British deep state", is trying to control the world.

Three years later, the Stephen Roth Institute expressed the opinion that Adnan Oktar had increased his tolerance toward others, asserting that "he now works towards promoting inter-religious dialogue", calling upon all Muslims to have "a tolerant and friendly attitude toward other religions".

Adnan Oktar disclaimed the first book, and said the second book reflected his own opinions.

On 21 March 2011, Adnan Oktar started television broadcasting on the A9 satellite channel, which broadcasts over both the internet and Turkish cable networks.

Adnan Oktar has been described as preaching Islam as a "dutiful disciple" of Kurdish Islamic scholar Said Nursi, criticizing not only Communism, but Ataturk's secular reforms, and especially his mortal enemy Freemasonry, but making "no claim whatever to clerical authority".

Adnan Oktar has preached for Turkish-Islamic union, "a new Ottoman Empire girdling the world from Eastern Russia to Western Nigeria, which would unify the Islamic world under Turkish leadership".

In [Adnan Oktar's] reading, the love for mother and father is an offence to God.

Adnan Oktar's palace was beautiful; there were beautiful people around him.

Adnan Oktar was arrested for promoting a theocratic revolution for which he served 19 months, though he was never formally charged.

In 1991, Adnan Oktar was arrested for possession of cocaine, which he claimed had been planted in one of the books in his library by the security forces, who, he said, spiked his food with cocaine.

In 1999, Adnan Oktar was arrested and charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime.

Adnan Oktar was convicted of creating an illegal organization for personal gain.

Since 2007, Adnan Oktar has successfully had the Turkish government block public access to several websites.

The site was temporarily suspended so the entry on Adnan Oktar could be expunged and locked.

On 19 September 2008, a Turkish court banned Internet users in Turkey from viewing the official Richard Dawkins website after Adnan Oktar claimed its contents were defamatory, blasphemous and insulting to religion, arguing that his personality was violated by this site.

In September 2008, a complaint by Adnan Oktar led to the banning of the internet site of the Union of Education and Scientific Workers.