DAWKINS’ PUBLISHER FACES JAIL OVER ‘ATHEIST MANIFESTO’
By Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
The Independent/UK
Published: 30 November 2007
Richard Dawkins’ best-selling atheist manifesto The God Delusion was
at the centre of a growing row over religious tolerance yesterday
after the Turkish publishers of his book were threatened with legal
action by prosecutors who accuse it of ‘insulting believers’.
Erol Karaaslan, the founder of the small publishing house Kuzey
Publications, could face between six months and a year in jail for
"inciting hatred and enmity" if Istanbul prosecutors decide to press
charges over the book, which has sold 6000 copies in Turkey since it
was published this summer.
"A reader complained, saying that he wanted the book banned and the
publishers punished", said Mr Karaaslan after talks with the Istanbul
state prosecutor. Mr Karaaslan, whose company specialises in self-help
books and children’s literature, has been given a few days to prepare
a written statement of defence.
This is not the first time Dawkins has come up against the wrath
of the Turkish authorities. Published here in the mid-1990s, his
less confrontational book The Selfish Gene also faced problems,
with the Islamist government then in power trying to get it banned
from bookshops. The God Delusion, the fourth of Dawkins’ books to be
published in Turkish, sparked controversy with its damning approach
to religion and unashamed avowal of atheism. While some appreciated
his frankness, many questioned the book’s relevance to Turkish readers.
"It aims to explain atheism from the perspective of Christianity",
one amateur reviewer wrote, "and I don’t think that’s of much use in a
Muslim country, because Muslims are already aware of the contradictions
and oddities of Christianity as it is." Another writing on a popular
blogging website was more direct: "If I were God, I’d give Dawkins
a good smacking" they wrote.
Mr Karaaslan is by no means the first publisher to face
investigation in Turkey, a country that has become notorious over
the past two years for a slew of cases based on laws restricting
freedom of expression. Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk and
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink were two of dozens of writers
to be charged last year under a controversial law that makes it a
crime to "insult Turkishness." Pamuk was acquitted. Dink – who was
murdered this January by a 17-year ultra-nationalist – was convicted.
The fact is, analysts say, that for all that it has a secular
constitution, Turkey remains a relatively conservative country. The
word atheist has only recently appeared in Turkish, but "godless"
still remains an insult here.
"Only 2% of the people we interviewed said they didn’t believe in God",
says Ali Carkoglu, co-author of a 2006 study of religious attitudes.
"Given that we had a 2% margin of error that could mean nobody",
he added.
"In any case it takes considerable courage for a Turk to admit to a
stranger that they are atheists."
In this atmosphere, writers like Richard Dawkins will invariably
cause a stir. Polls done last summer showed that only 25% of Turks
accepted evolutionary theory.