The Stylite

A clash between a creationist and an evolutionist is played out in Turkish courts For two weeks, thousands of internet users in Turkey have been unable to access their blogs as the result of a Turkish court decision to block all access to WordPress.com, a popular blog hosting site. The court action has been met with a storm of protests as Turkey is criticized for censorship in conflict with its own constitution. The case has also been characterized as the latest instance of an ongoing battle between Creation and Evolution in the predominantly Muslim country. Adnan Oktar, a popular Turkish Muslim author, who writes under the pseudonym “Harun Yahya,” successfully petitioned the court, which initiated the block on August 17th. Oktar and his organization have produced dozens of books, videos, and websites all addressing Islamic themes ranging from anti-Semitism to science in the Qur’an; but he is best known for his ardent anti-evolutionist stance. He is the author of the Atlas of Creat...

Last week the İşçi Party (Worker's Party) had a van with loudspeakers riding around our neighborhood. They are radically isolationist, communist, and vehemently anti-American. The chorus of the 'jingle' they were playing was ''America! America! Assassins! Assassins!'' Politics and Turkey's July 22nd general election are at the forefront of just about everyone's mind here right now. It looks like the AK Party, a somewhat moderate Islamist party, will maintain control of the government, although several other parties are also vying for influence. The CHP is second most influential party and they do a lot of complaining about AK Party. They are typically a secularist, pro-democratic party with socialist leanings. They don't like the way that İslam has made inroads in the current government and they criticize the major privatization projects that AK Party have supported. The MHP is next in line and they may gain some seats on Sunday. They are a na...

We live in a big city now. I took advantage of one of the perks last week by going to a good dentist. I needed a porcelain cap on one of my molars. [My wife would have already stopped reading this story. She hates tooth stories. She even has nightmares about teeth. So, I'll understand if you decide to stop reading and click on our pictures link instead ] I picked a dentist on a busy street. Using very scientific criteria I scanned all of the dentist offices on the street and rang the bell of the one with the nicest sign. His office is in an apartment building... I think he lives in the same apartment as his office. Before I walked in I had to put on plastic "booties" over my shoes. In a normal Turkish house you would take off your shoes, but this is a business as well, so the booties are sort of a compromise... I walked into the apartment where the dentist's son was eating lunch on the couch. I waved and said hello as I was directed downstairs. Plastic booties make a ...

Last week we moved out of our old city and we are now settling into our new home. With all of the news coverage here about the three martyrs in Malatya, many people in our old neighborhood had been treating us differently. Some people stopped greeting us on the street, some stopped answering their phones when we called, some made excuses why they couldn't see us. Our neighbors also stopped coming by and some of them even began looking at us with fear and contempt. I suppose some of them were afraid that having Christians close by might mean that something terrible might happen in their own building, others were afraid of being associated openly with Christians. They became more worried about what the other neighbors would think of them. And still others became convinced that we were part of a grand Christian conspiracy to undermine Turkey somehow... During this time, I was walking with my three year-old daughter down the apartment building stairs one afternoon. A middle-aged, conse...