“We found the comments hurtful..”

I know, I know.. they’ll just get ideas.. ANYhoo.. a bit of variety in our cultural exposé.. and it’s worth noting what Richard Dawkins had to say before that resignation. As Will Crawley notes here a Turkish court has ordered the state telecoms company to bar access to Richard Dawkins official website following a legal action taken by muslim creationist Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pen name of Harun Yahya. Oktar published a creationist text, Atlas of Creation, and then forwarded it, unsolicited, to many scientists, including Dawkins [Crooked Timber got hold of a copy – Ed], who responded on his website by saying “I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content”. As several commenters on Dawkins website point out, the ban is ineffectual to determined users. But it’s worth noting why the complaint was made, and why the supposedly secular courts upheld that complaint. From the Guardian report.

According to Oktar’s office, Istanbul’s second criminal court of peace banned the site earlier this month on the grounds that it “violated” Oktar’s personality. His press assistant, Seda Aral, said: “We are not against freedom of speech or expression but you cannot insult people. We found the comments hurtful. It was not a scientific discussion. There was a line and the limit has been passed. We have used all the legal means to stop this site. We asked them to remove the comments but they did not.”

Pete Baker