Beorn
04-13-2009, 08:18 PM
The battle for Turkey's soul
TURKEY is the Islamic world's leading secular democracy. It spends a large proportion of its income on scientific research and aims to match that of the European Union by 2013 (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/50/41559414.pdf). Turks like science: one of the country's top-selling magazines is the popular science monthly Bilim ve Teknik (http://www.biltek.tubitak.gov.tr/) ("Science and Technology"), published by the country's scientific funding agency TÜBITAK. The best-seller is a science monthly for kids.
But Turkey is also a hotbed of creationism. So when a cover feature on Darwin planned for the March issue of Bilim ve Teknik was pulled at the last minute, it caused an uproar. Turkish scientists suspected that pressure from religious politicians had led to censorship. Is Turkey changing course? Does this bode ill for science in the Muslim world?
It depends. Seen in context, the incident could be a good sign, as the inevitable growing pains of a country adapting to a scientific world view. The key question is which way the process goes now. What happens in Turkey is important because its battles could be the first of many.
First, the basics. In early February the editorial staff of Bilim ve Teknik decided to mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth with a 15-page cover story on evolution. The issue went to the printer on Saturday 28 February. The following Monday, editor Çiğdem Atakuman received a phone call from TÜBITAK vice-president Ömer Cebeci. The presses were stopped. The issue finally came out a week late with the Darwin article gone and the cover featuring a story on global warming (http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=925485&Date=10.03.2009&CategoryID=77). So what happened?
It depends on who you ask. Cebeci maintains that he did not order Atakuman to remove the piece. He insists there was no censorship, only that the dropped article had been "prepared hastily without regard to institutional procedures". TÜBITAK says the magazine will carry a Darwin special later this year (http://www.tubitak.gov.tr/home.do?ot=5&rt=3&sid=0&cid=13697).
Atakuman sees it differently. She issued a public statement saying that the pages were planned as normal and that Cebeci had ordered her to cancel the piece as it was deemed inappropriate for the "sensitive environment" of Turkey.
Whether the cancellation was an administrative glitch, censorship, or just an attempt to sidestep controversy, the row is highly revealing. Evolution is a lightning-rod issue in Turkey. Every leading newspaper reported the story. The Turkish Academy of Sciences called for an investigation and for Cebeci to resign (neither seems likely, although another senior TÜBITAK official resigned in protest).
Scientists, who mostly suspect censorship, demonstrated in Ankara; readers returned their March issues of Bilim ve Teknik. New Scientist's blog (http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/turkeys-battles-with-islamic-c.html) raised impassioned comments from Turks.
Those at the centre of the fuss say it portrays Turkey in the wrong light. "I am sad to think that people are seeing my country through this incident. Most people are secular," says Atakuman. Cebeci adds: "The outside perception of these events as censorship of science has caused great sorrow at TÜBITAK."
In many respects they are right. Incidents like this are, paradoxically, a hallmark of countries that are adapting to secularism, as Turkey appears to be. In surveys, about a quarter of Turks accept evolution (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/322/5908/1637.pdf) - way more than nearly all Muslim countries, though less than any rich, industrialised one (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/313/5788/765.pdf). That puts Turkey in the midst of a social transition that can be painful. All over the world, people are leaving the security of religion-dominated societies for the uncertainties of secular ones. The resulting alienation fuels fundamentalist religion (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18825201.200-end-of-the-enlightenment.html), and makes evolution the focus for backlashes (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18725073.700-creationism-special-a-battle-for-sciences-soul.html) against secular society. Some western countries are still in this transition.
Turkey is the Islamic country furthest down this road, so that is where trouble with evolution is flaring, says Salman Hameed of Hampshire College in Massachusetts, who studies Muslim creationism (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16258-how-to-stop-creationism-gaining-a-hold-in-islam.html). "Evolution just isn't an issue elsewhere - yet," he says. As other Islamic countries modernise, however, it will be.
That is not to say that Turkey will necessarily continue down this road. Although the modern Turkish state was secular from its foundation, since a military coup in 1980 secularism has been rolled back by religiously inclined governments, says biologist Can Bilgin (http://www.metu.edu.tr/%7Ecbilgin) of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. In 1985, the elected government put creationism into high school biology texts, where it remains. Turkey is reaping the fruits of that now, Bilgin believes.
The governing party AKP is moderate Islamist, and education minister Hüseyin Çelik has equated Darwinism with atheism (http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav052407.shtml) and supports intelligent design.
Pressure on scientists is increasing and Bilgin fears more incidents like the one at Bilim ve Teknik. He is not alone. "I believe the situation is getting worse for science and science education than many people in Turkey are aware of," says Aykut Kence (http://www.eubios.info/EJ86/ej86i.htm), another biologist at METU and a veteran campaigner for evolution.
Turkish scientists are fighting back. They are pursuing a lawsuit to have creationism removed from textbooks. A group of activist students called Hard Workers of Evolution has translated (http://evrimianlamak.org/e/Ana_Sayfa) the University of California's Understanding Evolution website (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/). In February, Turkish scientists launched the Darwin 2009 Assembly (http://www.darwinyili.org/) and will hold conferences on evolution across Turkey this year.
If nothing else, the Bilim ve Teknik incident has focused minds. "Censoring Darwin caused outrage among students and academics," says Kence. "It may actually make our job easier," adds Bilgin. Even Cebeci agrees: "The positive side was that it revealed the sensitivity of our scientific community to the autonomy of science." Let's hope they will be able to continue using that autonomy to stand up for what matters.
Source (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227036.200-the-battle-for-turkeys-soul.html)
TURKEY is the Islamic world's leading secular democracy. It spends a large proportion of its income on scientific research and aims to match that of the European Union by 2013 (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/50/41559414.pdf). Turks like science: one of the country's top-selling magazines is the popular science monthly Bilim ve Teknik (http://www.biltek.tubitak.gov.tr/) ("Science and Technology"), published by the country's scientific funding agency TÜBITAK. The best-seller is a science monthly for kids.
But Turkey is also a hotbed of creationism. So when a cover feature on Darwin planned for the March issue of Bilim ve Teknik was pulled at the last minute, it caused an uproar. Turkish scientists suspected that pressure from religious politicians had led to censorship. Is Turkey changing course? Does this bode ill for science in the Muslim world?
It depends. Seen in context, the incident could be a good sign, as the inevitable growing pains of a country adapting to a scientific world view. The key question is which way the process goes now. What happens in Turkey is important because its battles could be the first of many.
First, the basics. In early February the editorial staff of Bilim ve Teknik decided to mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth with a 15-page cover story on evolution. The issue went to the printer on Saturday 28 February. The following Monday, editor Çiğdem Atakuman received a phone call from TÜBITAK vice-president Ömer Cebeci. The presses were stopped. The issue finally came out a week late with the Darwin article gone and the cover featuring a story on global warming (http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=925485&Date=10.03.2009&CategoryID=77). So what happened?
It depends on who you ask. Cebeci maintains that he did not order Atakuman to remove the piece. He insists there was no censorship, only that the dropped article had been "prepared hastily without regard to institutional procedures". TÜBITAK says the magazine will carry a Darwin special later this year (http://www.tubitak.gov.tr/home.do?ot=5&rt=3&sid=0&cid=13697).
Atakuman sees it differently. She issued a public statement saying that the pages were planned as normal and that Cebeci had ordered her to cancel the piece as it was deemed inappropriate for the "sensitive environment" of Turkey.
Whether the cancellation was an administrative glitch, censorship, or just an attempt to sidestep controversy, the row is highly revealing. Evolution is a lightning-rod issue in Turkey. Every leading newspaper reported the story. The Turkish Academy of Sciences called for an investigation and for Cebeci to resign (neither seems likely, although another senior TÜBITAK official resigned in protest).
Scientists, who mostly suspect censorship, demonstrated in Ankara; readers returned their March issues of Bilim ve Teknik. New Scientist's blog (http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/turkeys-battles-with-islamic-c.html) raised impassioned comments from Turks.
Those at the centre of the fuss say it portrays Turkey in the wrong light. "I am sad to think that people are seeing my country through this incident. Most people are secular," says Atakuman. Cebeci adds: "The outside perception of these events as censorship of science has caused great sorrow at TÜBITAK."
In many respects they are right. Incidents like this are, paradoxically, a hallmark of countries that are adapting to secularism, as Turkey appears to be. In surveys, about a quarter of Turks accept evolution (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/322/5908/1637.pdf) - way more than nearly all Muslim countries, though less than any rich, industrialised one (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/313/5788/765.pdf). That puts Turkey in the midst of a social transition that can be painful. All over the world, people are leaving the security of religion-dominated societies for the uncertainties of secular ones. The resulting alienation fuels fundamentalist religion (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18825201.200-end-of-the-enlightenment.html), and makes evolution the focus for backlashes (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18725073.700-creationism-special-a-battle-for-sciences-soul.html) against secular society. Some western countries are still in this transition.
Turkey is the Islamic country furthest down this road, so that is where trouble with evolution is flaring, says Salman Hameed of Hampshire College in Massachusetts, who studies Muslim creationism (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16258-how-to-stop-creationism-gaining-a-hold-in-islam.html). "Evolution just isn't an issue elsewhere - yet," he says. As other Islamic countries modernise, however, it will be.
That is not to say that Turkey will necessarily continue down this road. Although the modern Turkish state was secular from its foundation, since a military coup in 1980 secularism has been rolled back by religiously inclined governments, says biologist Can Bilgin (http://www.metu.edu.tr/%7Ecbilgin) of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. In 1985, the elected government put creationism into high school biology texts, where it remains. Turkey is reaping the fruits of that now, Bilgin believes.
The governing party AKP is moderate Islamist, and education minister Hüseyin Çelik has equated Darwinism with atheism (http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav052407.shtml) and supports intelligent design.
Pressure on scientists is increasing and Bilgin fears more incidents like the one at Bilim ve Teknik. He is not alone. "I believe the situation is getting worse for science and science education than many people in Turkey are aware of," says Aykut Kence (http://www.eubios.info/EJ86/ej86i.htm), another biologist at METU and a veteran campaigner for evolution.
Turkish scientists are fighting back. They are pursuing a lawsuit to have creationism removed from textbooks. A group of activist students called Hard Workers of Evolution has translated (http://evrimianlamak.org/e/Ana_Sayfa) the University of California's Understanding Evolution website (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/). In February, Turkish scientists launched the Darwin 2009 Assembly (http://www.darwinyili.org/) and will hold conferences on evolution across Turkey this year.
If nothing else, the Bilim ve Teknik incident has focused minds. "Censoring Darwin caused outrage among students and academics," says Kence. "It may actually make our job easier," adds Bilgin. Even Cebeci agrees: "The positive side was that it revealed the sensitivity of our scientific community to the autonomy of science." Let's hope they will be able to continue using that autonomy to stand up for what matters.
Source (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227036.200-the-battle-for-turkeys-soul.html)