Following my previous blog entry, Adnan Oktar’s lawyer has got back to be with an explanation about the origins of the book Holocaust Deception. This book has been attributed to Oktar’s pen-name Harun Yahya, and at one point it was listed on his website. However, Oktar denies he wrote it, and instead directs us to another book, entitled Holocaust Violence, which affirms the reality of the Holocaust. Otkar has explained in interviews that his friend Nuri Özbudak wrote Holocaust Deception and used his pen-name without his permission, and that it is not available.
This raised the question as to why Otkar would describe Özbudak as his “friend”, and why Özbudak continues to be associated with his “Science Research Foundation”. Further, having had a chance to look at both books (Holocaust Violence is available from the Harun Yahya website, while a bootleg of Holocaust Deception has shown up on Scribd), I could see that they have very similar covers and some overlapping content of common authorship.
Otkar’s lawyer has responded to these difficulties: he tells me that Otkar uses a number of research assistants, and that materials prepared for Holocaust Violence were misinterpreted by Özbudak in order to create Holocaust Deception. However, when Özbudak was confronted with his mistake, he admitted to being in the wrong, which is why he remains a friend to Otkar and a member of the Foundation.
So, it seems that Holocaust Deception came into existence only because one of Otkar’s deputies took it upon himself to publish a book promoting Holocaust denial in his boss’s name without running it past him first to make sure that was acceptable. It’s still unclear when exactly the blunder came to light; it should be recalled that soon after publication, Özbudak attempted to sue the Turkish painter and intellectual Bedri Baykam over a newspaper article attacking the book – a curious course of action for someone who had repented of writing it, although he reportedly withdrew his suit in March 1997. Michael Hopkins saw the book listed in Turkish and English as “Soykirim Yalani (The Holocaust Hoax)” on the Harun Yahya website as late as 2001; doubtless this was another unfortunate mistake that had nothing to do with Otkar.
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This is hilarious! Great work, Richard.
This is a fascinating slip on his part. It’s also very entertaining to see him forced to admit what people have always suspected: That he doesn’t write his own work.
Everything Harun Yahya produces is pseudo-scholarly dreck that is devoid of any pretense to objectivity. I realize that the lowest common denominator is often what sells, but as a Muslim I find it depressing to see his junk so widely distributed.
If you didn’t know, there is a cult-like following around him. To the extent that his followers appear to believe him to be the Mahdi (a belief that he is said to encourage in private). http://akramsrazor.typepad.com/islam_america/2005/11/rejecting_a_mah.html
Personally, I would hope the Mahdi would be a little more intelligent. This would be dreadfully anti-climatic.
Minor correction: They’re no strictly speaking “*devoid* of any pretense to objectivity.” It’s that pretense that makes them so irritating.