The Mahdi wears Armani wears Mahdi The The prolific Turkish author Harun Yahya attracted international attention after thousands of unsolicited copies of his large-format and lavishly illustrated book Atlas of Creation were sent free of charge from Istanbul, Turkey, to schools, universities and state leaders worldwide in 2007. This book stunt drew attention to Islamic creationism as a growing phenomenon, and to Harun Yahya as its most prominent proponent globally. Harun Yahya is allegedly the pen name of the Turkish author and preacher Adnan Oktar. Behind the brand name “Harun Yahya”, a highly prosperous religious enterprise is in operation, devoted not merely to the debunking of Darwinism, but THE also to the promotion of Islam. Backed by his supporters, Oktar channels vast financial resources into producing numerous books, dvds, websites and lately also television shows promoting his message. MAHDI The aim of this dissertation is to shed light on the Harun Yahya enterprise by examining selected texts published in the framework of the enterprise. It describes, WEARS analyzes and contextualizes four key themes in the works of Harun Yahya, namely conspiracy theories, nationalism/neo-Ottomanism, creationism and apocalypticism/ Mahdism. The dissertation traces the development of the enterprise from a religious ArMANI community emerging in Turkey in the mid-1980s to a global da‘wa enterprise, and examines the way in which its discourse has changed over time. The dissertation’s point of departure is the notion that the Harun Yahya enterprise and the ideas it promotes must primarily be understood within the Turkish context from which it emerged. Drawing on analytical frameworks from social movement theory and rhetorical analysis as well as contemporary perspectives on Islamic da‘wa and activism, the study approaches Harun Yahya as a religious entrepreneur seeking market shares in the contemporary market for Islamic proselytism by adopting and adapting popular discourses both in the Turkish and global contexts. It examines how the Harun Yahya enterprise employs rhetorical and argumentative strategies in order to promote not merely a certain interpretation of Islam, but also increasingly Adnan An Analysis of the Oktar and the Harun Yahya enterprise itself, by rhetorically placing its efforts into a cosmological framework. Harun Yahya Enterprise Anne Ross Solberg Anne Ross Solberg Södertörns högskola SE-141 89 Huddinge [email protected] www.sh.se/publications THEMAHDI WEARS ARMANI An Analysis of the Harun Yahya Enterprise Södertörns högskola 2013 Södertörns högskola SE-141 89 Huddinge www.sh.se/publications © Anne Ross Solberg Cover Image: Scanpix Cover Design: Jonathan Robson Layout: Jonathan Robson & Per Lindblom Printed by Elanders Sweden, Stockholm 2013 Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 80 ISSN 1652-7399 ISBN 978-91-86069-68-1 (print) ISBN 978-91-86069-69-8 (digital) Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion University of Gothenburg 32 ISSN 1102-9773 ISBN 978-91-628-8723-0 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSi CHAPTER 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Statement of purpose ................................................................................................................... 2 3. The curious case of Harun Yahya .............................................................................................. 3 3.1. 1979–1989: The emergence of the Adnancılar group .................................................... 3 3.2. 1990–1999: Creationism and legal troubles .................................................................... 5 3.3. 1999–2007: The Harun Yahya enterprise: Going global ............................................... 7 3.4. 2007–2012: Adnan Oktar steps into the limelight ......................................................... 8 3.5. From reclusive cemaat leader to flamboyant talk show host ........................................ 8 4. Defining the Harun Yahya enterprise ..................................................................................... 11 5. The water for the mill: the finances of the enterprise ........................................................... 13 6. Method and material ................................................................................................................. 17 6.1. Method ............................................................................................................................... 17 6.2. Primary material: The works of the Harun Yahya enterprise .................................... 18 6.3. Previous research .............................................................................................................. 22 7. Analytical framework ................................................................................................................ 23 7.1. Fragmentation of authority and new media ................................................................. 23 7.2. Harun Yahya as a da‘wa enterprise ................................................................................ 25 7.3. Islam as a discursive tradition ......................................................................................... 28 7.4. The discourse of the Harun Yahya enterprise as rhetoric .......................................... 30 7.5. Social movement theory and framing ............................................................................ 31 8. Outline of chapters ..................................................................................................................... 35 9. Notes on transliteration and translation ................................................................................. 36 CHAPTER 2: The Turkish Context ................................................................................................... 37 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 37 2. General background: Modern Turkey .................................................................................... 38 2.1. Late Ottoman Empire and the birth of the Turkish republic ..................................... 38 2.2. The modern Turkish republic ......................................................................................... 39 2.3. 1970s and 1980s: The rise of political Islam .................................................................. 40 2.4. Approaches to Turkish modernity and Islam............................................................... 42 3. The discursive field: Islamic thought in Turkey .................................................................... 43 3.1 Said Nursi and the Nur movement ................................................................................. 44 3.1.1. Islamic modernism in Turkey ............................................................................... 44 3.1.2. The life of Said Nursi ............................................................................................... 45 THE MAHDI WEARS ARMANI 3.1.3. The Risale-i Nur ....................................................................................................... 46 3.1.4. The “Third Said” and the expansion of the Nur movement ............................. 48 3.2. Islamic thought in Turkey between the state and civil society ................................... 50 3.2.1. Nationalism, ethnicity and minorities in Turkey ............................................... 51 3.2.2. The alliance between Islam and rightist nationalism ......................................... 53 3.2.3. Neo-Sufism and political Islam ............................................................................. 55 3.2.4. The ideology of the Milli Görüş ............................................................................ 55 3.2.5. The Turkish-Islamic synthesis and the Turkification of Islam ........................ 56 4. Opportunity spaces: The Islamic revival post-1980s ............................................................ 58 4.1 Theoretical perspectives on the Islamic revival ............................................................. 59 4.2 The scene in the 1980s ....................................................................................................... 60 4.3. Identity politics and the construction of difference ..................................................... 61 4.4. The failure of political Islam and the rise of the JDP ................................................... 63 4.5. The Gülen movement ....................................................................................................... 65 4.5.1. Fethullah Gülen’s vision ......................................................................................... 66 4.5.2. From political Islam to faith activism: Gülen vs. Milli Görüş ........................... 68 5. Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................. 70 CHAPTER 3: Nationalism and Conspiracism ................................................................................. 75 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 75 2. Conspiracism