Turkey and science

Peddling religion

Why secular academics fret about an “Islamic bicycle”

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Readers' comments



Ali Alpar is a first rate scientist, but his elitist attitude is not helpful in the advancement of science and a wider acceptance of scientific ideas in Turkey.
His resignation from the National Academy of Sciences and establishment of a new academy was an unfortunate display of selfish and ego-centric behavior. What was really the point of it? To separate himself from those he deemed unworthy? It is true that not everyone, appointed or elected, can be of his caliber, but a National Academy should include a broad spectrum of accomplished scientists. In a country like Turkey where sciences are for the most part still in their infancy, what is badly needed is wise and mature leadership, not this elitist, "you're not worthy of my company" attitude.

Peter the Cat

I guess that's the problem with Democracy. Enlightened leaders like Attaturk separate state, mosque & church (witness Ayasofia), only to have the demographics undo their work. How sad for Turkey (said the patronising git), that that is what it's people want.

Jake Elwood

The Economist insists on labelling the current AKP government “mildy Islamist”. To start with, that phrase is a total oxymoron. There can be nothing mild about a political entity that aims to rule a nation based on a religion whose principles are absolute and unbending. There is no room for grey when you take your cues from scriptures set in black and white. I’ve said it here before but it obviously requires bolder reiteration: THERE IS NOTHING MILD ABOUT THE AKP GOVERNMENT!

AKP, and its leader Erdogan are on a warpath to systematically dismantle all of the secular, democratic, and progressive institutions founded by Mustafa Kemal ATATURK and in doing so are rapidly spreading their cancer which is destroying the Turkish Republic! Short-sighted Western governments – preoccupied with re-election and financial crises – ignore the path AKP is taking Turkey at their peril.

At the start of this school year the “mildy Islamic” AKP government changed the primary education system and divided compulsory primary education (previously 8 full years) into 4+4 years which in effect will allow parents to remove kids from education after just 4 years of schooling. They also have modified hundreds of ordinary secondary schools into ‘imam hatip’ schools originally created for the training of imams and Islamic clergy. Is it any surprise that ‘professors’ at one of the leading technical universities in Turkey come up with ludicrous, harebrained ideas such as ‘Islamic bicycles’!

Western powers have always preferred a weak Turkish Republic but the world is changing very rapidly. Afghanistan and Iran are past examples of Western powers backing the wrong side and ending up in muck they’re still trying to wash their hands of. Over 2011-2020, Turkey's population is projected to expand by 8.3%, overtaking Germany to become the most populated nation in Europe. The question is, do you want your future 80 million+ neighbours to be secular, democratic and modern or regressive, divided and quarrelsome?

Hamakko in reply to Jake Elwood

Very well said, Jake. I almost made a comment similar to yours since I too have long bridled at the phrase.
However, the most disappointing aspect of the AK's rise for me is the fact that the Turkish people have collectively chosen it - repeatedly.

stands for truth in reply to Jake Elwood

You are an atheist it looks like!
But you are forgetting Turkey is an Islamic nation.It has decided to return to its original Islamic roots.
Kemal Ataturk was brainwashed by western system of God free system!
Mercifully his secular mischief is dying a natural death!
Th Fredom and Kustice Party and its brave PM Erdogan will steer Turkey to its ecnomic successes!
Whining will not deter Turkey from rejecting anti-Islamic policies.

Jake Elwood in reply to stands for truth

The Republic of Turkey never was and never will be an Islamic nation. It was founded on democratic, inclusive, secular lines and despite AKPs best efforts will remain that way.

A secular state in contrast to a ‘religious’ one embraces ALL citizens equally, and does not espouse a single group. ATATÜRK’s great achievement was to transform disparate people of multiple faiths and varying ethnicities separated along tribal lines into a modern nation state.

Arabs and other Islamic countries continue warring today because, essentially, they remain tribal people who have not embraced nationhood nor have they understood the demands of becoming a nation. They need to overcome the shackles of religion and centuries of local tribal autocracy and look to build themselves a true nation embracing all. Otherwise, they are doomed to continue devouring their own children!

Left and Right. in reply to Jake Elwood

Yes it is sad after three generations you would hope that the evil spell would have been be broken. I have some hope as there is a good group of educated people who are far from pleased. We have an office in Istanbul and there are the seeds of democracy and some very good people but they all fear that the country is slipping back and it does not bode well. I would like the country to join the EU provided it remains secular, democratic and modern but if it does not, sorry they can join the others.


The idea of an 'Islamic bicycle' reminds me of the so-called 'Islamobile,' a product of Malaysia that includes a built-in compass that leaves the driver in no doubt whatsoever as to the direction of Mecca.

The next development, one assumes, will come when China shifts plane manufacturing to its predominantly Muslim west and produces an 'Islamoplane' with a compass pointing, one assumes, toward Mecca once again or New York city perhaps.

My own favourite would be an 'Islamic planet,' artificially manufactured in another solar system and offering immigrants from Earth the luxury of complete isolation from all unbelievers (who would, in turn, be 'forced' to suffer isolation in turn). Unfortunately for the rest of us it would probably turn out to be a death star.

Peter the Cat in reply to MadKingGeorge

There are now IPhone and Android apps to assist the faithful in finding Mecca, and ensuring that the timing and content of their obeisance is correct. This would be excellent fodder for Python's surreal humour,if it could be done without offending religious sensibilities.



I fail to see how economic growth proves AK is not striving for Islamic rule. Economic growth in Turkey accelerated under AK because of something the party was not: as incredibly corrupt as all its predecessors.


People who don't live in Turkey have no idea of the changes Erdogan is making. He's controlling the media that is within the country, as well as the media portrayal of Turkey globally.

When you see advertisements geared towards children that give them gifts such as bicycles, phones, videogames for joining Kuran courses and regularly visiting a mosque, you question their priorities as leaders of a nation that was once very progressive under Ataturk's rule.

Connect The Dots

Muhummad never rode a bicycle => so there is no need for a Islamic Bicycle.
When you wear a flowing white tunic, have a foot long beard, and wear leather soled sandals, deal with 120 degree temperatures, and walk around sand dunes => THEN riding a bicycle will only lead to crashes and sand in your teeth.
Men should hang around the desert springs to water their camels, keep a neat tent, cultivate a long healthy beard, and have separate tents for their wives.
Women may be too sexually aroused when they straddle narrow bicycle seats. And what about her periods?
Bicycles are the devil's invention. Camels are far more practical.

Lydia Risi

Turkey is officially a secular state since the arrival in power of Atatürk and for having myself travelled in Turkey I can affirm that it's not because a state is secular that its people is less religious. In Turkey, the culture, the history, the streets, the women and men are Islamic, it's hard to understand for one who have never been in a "muslim" country. Don't take me wrong, there's nothing bad about the place of the religion in their life- in fact it's really impressive, but when religion comes in conflict with science it becomes, in my idea a major problem (and that's applicable for every religion). Religion becomes more than dogmatic and that prevents the country to keep pace with surrounding countries' modernization and let that country caught behind.

As said in the article, Turkey is not affected by the Euro crisis, but if it really wants to integrate the Euro-zone it has to catch up a bit and stop censuring science theories. In fact, it needs to separate religion from science in order to be up to date with european technologies and be able to compete with them.

Dominique II

Dear LiberalTurk, it looked incredible o me too, but do read the article, will you.

"ut Mr Alpar says that an article on Galileo that the agency commissioned him to write was also spiked"

Religious nincompoopery will never cease to amaze. Certainly I would love to see, in my lifetime, Turkey teach manners to its own brand of holy book thumpers and join the secular UE. But I doubt it will, or can, happen.

Gugan Barra in reply to pinotpomeroy

It was in fact a feature of the accession process in Sweden and Finland.

The founders of the EU were Catholic and Catholic Social teaching imbues the whole of the foundation. The single biggest political influence is Christian Democracy, itself inspired by the papal encyclical De Rerum Novarum.

Remember too that Catholicism is the single largest religion in Poland(90%), Germany (30%) and the Netherlands (25%, all Northern European States.

Left and Right. in reply to pinotpomeroy

Indeed living and working in the North of Europe having previously been in Islamic countries for 18 years I can see a distinct split in the success of nations based on faith. The Protestant(though secular)North of Europe has the ultimate cult of personal responsibility, there is no God as the long stop.Their behaviour in the EU illustrates that. The Catholics can alway nip of for a quick confession, absolving their sole responsibility, that is also reflected in their EU behaviour. The poor Muslims are not able to make any decision without involking Allah (Inshallah - which he seldom does!)hence they totally fail and will continue to do so.Bit simple really?

Gugan Barra in reply to Left and Right.

Your comment displays a profound ignorance of the nature of confession, which by the way is also available (at least theologically) to Lutherans and Anglicans.

Personal responsibility is of course key to many of the west's succeses (it is also by the way a feature of Catholic theology)but in taking it to its ultimate conclusion - the cult of personal responsibility - you also absolve yourself of any communal responsibility and what has happened in nordic societies is that individuals have transferred any sense of communal authority to the State and entirely depersonalised human relationships.

Dominique II


The rest of Europe? how can a country where Darwin and Galileo are officially censored be part of Europe? The fact that its economy grows on has nothing to do with being part of Europe. But this will not sway the will of the EU's masters in Washington and London.

Gugan Barra in reply to Fahrettin Tahir

and AKP is at 1433, right? Luther nailed his theses to the cathedral door in 1517, but let us not forget Savonarola who maybe started the ball rolling in the 1490s... Elsewhere and elsetime in this august journal a suggestion was made that the availability of mobile technology will have the same impact on Islam as printing had on western Christianity.

Dominique II in reply to Fahrettin Tahir

We all live in the 21st Century. There is no tolerance to extend to those who not only believe otherwise, but presume to rule on the basis of that belief.

I should add I feel the same towards the religion-seeped US political class, but the US is not applying to join the EU, so it is its own business.

Already our own clerics (from all religions, in mellifluous complicity, are taking advantage of our democratic institutions to sneak through references to the EU's religious roots, or to make blasphemy penally punishable. No way we can afford a huge theocracy, however well behaved, to bolster their strength once it has joined the Union.


Saudi Arabia financing Wahabbism with its petro dollars in almost every poor Muslim country is one of the main reasons of stagnation in the Muslim world. The end of the House of Saud could be the begining of the revival of Islam back to reason and tolerance.

San Jose Bear in reply to Ahd1


...or vice-versa. Exactly why the House of Saud is doing everything it can to keep Islamic society firmly rooted in the 8th century.

T Paine in reply to Ahd1

The muslim world has been stagnating since the mongols sacked baghdad in the 13th century. The problems here run deeper than a few petrodollars in the name of modern radicalism.


Whatever faith you belong to, you should clear yourself of every bit of dogma-including the religious ones-when you take on a scientific research. There can be nothing like religously made science, no matter whatever religion it is. Science demands critical thinking not dogmatic rules. The eastern world should look at the mirror and learn from its missing out on science&technology starting by the end of the Middle Age. Islamic -or whatever religion'ic' science makes no sense, IMO. Science is science, totally independent from religion. It is a pity that in Turkey we happened to have a discussion on this.

J Rawlins

Tom Holland's recent book 'In The Shadow Of The Sword'(2012), suggests that Islam may have arisen as a state religion to support and justify the new Arab empire. I wonder whether the decline of the Arab empire can be linked to its gradual Islamisation over the subsequent centuries. Could it be that religious dogmatism slowly extinguished the flames of innovation and discovery until the rump of an Islamic empire was pushed aside by the 'infidels' from the north.


In 1992, Pakistani nuclear scientist Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote a book entitled 'Islam and Science'. This article brought it all back. Mr Hoodbhoy used the tragic story of his native Pakistan (after the 1977 coup that brought in General Zia Al Haq and his Islamization program) to expose the harm done by such people. I distinctly remember one example he gave of a textbook that was re-written along the following lines: 'To say that atoms of hydrogen combine with atoms of oxygen to produce water is un-Islamic, because it implies that God has no role in the process. The Islamic way is this: When atoms of hydrogen meet atoms of oxygen, then, by the grace of God, water is formed!'.
He also related - with barely concealed contempt - efforts by state-appointed 'Islamic scientists' to discover a way to harness the energy of the 'jinns' (in the Koran, these are supernatural creatures which inhabit a parallel universe to humans - loosely analogous to Christianity's angels).
Almost forty years on, look at Pakistan.


I would be happy to see Islam reformed and the ME, and especially Turkey, become a more modern place to live. Yet Islam is so resistant to reform. And there is no central authority in Islam, similar to a Pope, who would dare to reform the religion. Anyone who dares would be declared an apostate by the rest of the ignorant crowd. In my opinion Islam cannot change. There may be modern muslims, which is simply a temporary stage before apostasy, but Islam itself willl remain as it is, in its Medieval form. In future the clash will not be between Westernand Islamic civilizations. It will be within the Islamic civilization. Hardheaded conservative muslims will fight against millions of their own people who will want to simply live a modern life.


One gauge to determine the strength and/or influence of religion in a country is to survey those who believe in evolution vs intelligent design. Interestingly Turkey and US have similar results in such surveys yet because of the role of religion and the fact that Christianity underwent reforms the impact of religion in daily life and education is light years of difference.

Science by definition is modernity and advancement, which is difficult to preach when you are preaching archaic lifestyle and mentality. The Arabian Peninsula, with its almost endless supply of crude oil, is in a way a “wonder of science and evolution” yet totally wasted on the one group who would totally deny both.

Islamci in reply to Islamci

Again science is based on logic, curiosity, reasoning and common sense. Religion is based on blind faith and belief, feelings and emotions. Accepting logic and reasoning would mean the end of a religion. That’s why it is essential to keep religion out of education system and government.

AKP started out by modifying the Higher Education Board and assigning members who supported hijab at the universities. What a nonsense criterium for those who’ll direct the future of higher education in Turkey. One was even reported to have more than one wife.

Islamci in reply to Islamci

Muslims have to stop re-living “the good-old days” of Islamic science and concentrate on the current times.

Reform of Islam is long overdue. It’s time to concentrate on Koran verses such as 20:114 (O my Rabb! Increase me in knowledge) and to minimize the Sharia and Jihad verses.

EliottWinthorpe in reply to Islamci

The good old days is not quite accurate. Much of what is termed "Islamic Science" is actually Greek, Indian and Persian Sassanian learning. The founder of algebra was in fact diophantus and not as often claimed, al-Kwarizmi, though his contribution in developing the discipline is warranted.

Gugan Barra in reply to Islamci

I would dare to suggest that your experience of religion is rather singular and I would point to Roger Bacon, Robert Grossteste, even Thomas Aquinas, as instigators of the scientific method, to the establishment of universities as centres of truth seeking, to the work of Copernicus and Mendel as clear eveidence that faith and science are not mutually exclusive. I would go further and say science without some form of morality, which may be grounded in religion or some other "non-scientific" belief system, is a recipe for disaster.

Were we to follow a purely scientific approach to human existence we would speed up evolution by killing off unfit babies, allowing only those with a decreed minimum intelligence to breed, destroying those who offer no value to society etc etc...

But still bicycles have no religion, and oxygen combines with hydrogen whether or not God wills it...

I think what is more worrying is that there are not more scientists like Akyol prepared to challenge and instead these leche-cul feel obliged to demonstrate their islamist credentials...


Turkey has long been held up as a model of how Islam can reconcile with Modernity. It will now be seen as a model for how Islamic political parties can get elected and slowly re-islamicize vis a vis the AKP method.

Perhaps Samuel Huntington was right - Turkey may indeed reassume its elevated status as chief interlocutor for Islamic civilization with the rest of the world, particulary the West.

In that case, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) will prove to have been the "Father of the Turks" for only about 3 generations - he and his Turkey will have been an anomaly. His Turkey may be seen to have been a failed experiment.
His Turkey was a short-lived exception to the rule that Muhammeds conciousness be imprinted upon and exert itself so powerfully upon Islamic nations- and such is the power of Muhammed's consciousness that it exerts itself even across a time span of millenia.

Hence, after long centuries (and China finally reemerging onto the world scene) Turkey has arrived with its Islamic Bicycle.
Let the world rejoice.


Some R&D about the 'successful' policies of AKP;

The Turk state has made some decisions to protect the rapists and ban abortion to increase the population for future. PM Erdogan asks for 5 kids from each family now and claims the state would look after them!

1286 girls become mother under the age of 18 since 2010 in Eastern Turkey, which creates depression and stress. Where is the state? It is easy to tell to bring up kids to the public.

According to the World Health Organisation, the Turkish youth are the unhappiest amongst the 34 countries.

In 1982 coup case, only 2 people over 70 or 80 is being investigated, it should be the the whole state to be more democratic. The prisoner Tahir Canan is still in prison due to the dated 1982 laws even after 30 years. AKP does not even consider changing the laws on freedom of speech and thought after 7 proposals by the opposition parties.

The ministers discuss about who is going to become the next president and the PM in the current stock. My advice is; quit all, retire or whatever. Stop gossiping and watching Fenerbahce and Besiktas football games in the state departments. Leave the jobs to young population who would not die in the mountains. Go to coffee houses in Kasimpasa/Kayseri/Ordu and everyone would be happy.

Hazmataz in reply to Gugan Barra

Gugan Barra, there is no local and regional and social services for the public including the single or young mothers in Eastern Turkey. There is discrimination between the Turks and the ethnic Kurds as well. Here is an ethnic Kurd local village guard Jirki tribe leader's recent statement in Hakkari;

'We gave all our votes to AKP in 2011. But it is getting worse. Because we feel humiliated and deceitful and blamed for being 'Zoroastrian'. It is not helping. We are not separatists, neither want another state. We have fought together in Canakkale for this country, so why should we? There are ethnic Kurds everywhere in Istanbul, Izmir so you can not separate us. We just want our existence as Kurds, mother tongue education, a common citizenship, lowering 10% barrier for the parliament, updating counter-terrorism laws, empowering local governance, continuing Oslo period and a general amnesty. We get 800 TL per month and have 8-10 kids. We can not meet the ends. If the state does all these, we as public would help disarm the PKK. Everyone's going to the mountains lately and they choose the suicide. I know 7 young ethnic Kurds personally. The youth is very angry and we can not control them. The population of the town is 6000 and we have 1 fire brigade service van. We have been waiting for the agriculture sector to pick up, but nothing there. We used to get by from smuggling goods from Iraq and Iran. I did it as well. We did not have other choice. I hope the state would hear our voice' Turkish Press.


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