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Eyüp Fatih Şağban #god-complex hurriyetdailynews.com

The 58-year-old cult leader, arrested for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl, confessed his crime in his testimony to the Public Prosecution Office in the northwestern province of Sakarya.

“I made a mistake but it is not a big deal. We did not go further. I am remorseful,” said Eyüp Fatih Şağban, the leader of Uşşaki cult to the prosecutors, according to daily Hürriyet.

Some phone call records that took place between Şağban and the girl’s father and another follower of the cult were added by the officials to the file.

In the records, Şağban wanted from the girl’s father to cover-up the incident. “If people hear this, I either commit suicide or leave from here. I may have made a mistake, but we did not go further,” said the cult leader to the father adding that he is important for the cult.

“If I go away, the cult will be finished. All of our missions will be down.”

He openly asked the father not to be a complainant while finishing the dialogue.

Carrying out his activities based in Istanbul, Şağban also had a summer house used as a dergah in Sakarya’s Akyazı district, where he accepted his guests and followers, according to the investigation file at the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Şağban abused the 12-year-old girl more than once, who was staying at the dergah with her parents and were his followers, stated the file.

The girl said Şağban abused her while she was taking tea and other times when they were alone.

She was also abused during her sleep, but she was not able to tell about it until now because of her fear, according to her testimony.

Following the testimony at the prosecutor’s office, Şağban was arrested by court order and was sent to the Ferizli Prison in Sakarya on Sept. 3.

Yavuz Örnek #fundie hurriyetdailynews.com

Turkish academic claims Prophet Noah used cell phone to call his son before flood

A Turkish academic claimed on Jan. 6 that the Prophet Noah called his son via cell phone shortly before the famous flood, the story of which is recounted in both the Quran and the Old Testament.

Speaking on state-run channel TRT 1 on Jan. 6, Yavuz Örnek, a lecturer at the Marine Sciences Faculty of Istanbul University, said Noah communicated with his son via cell phone as they were a long way from each other.

“There were huge 300 to 400-meter high waves and his [the Prophet Noah’s] son was many kilometers away. The Quran says Noah spoke with his son. But how did they manage to communicate? Was it a miracle? It could be. But we believe he communicated with his son via cell phone,” Örnek said.

He also claimed that Noah himself built the ship made of steel plates and this ship used nuclear energy.

“I am a scientist, I speak for science” Örnek added.

Nevsah Fidan Karamehmet #fundie hurriyetdailynews.com

Atheists do not know how to breathe properly: Turkish therapist

ISTANBUL

Atheists do not believe God exists because they do not know how to breathe correctly, a Turkish breathing therapist has claimed.
Speaking on the private broadcaster CNN TÜRK on Dec. 18, Nevsah Fidan Karamehmet, a self-claimed breathing therapist, suggested atheists had no breath in their rib cages for a reason related to “magnetic fields” there.
“Radical atheists come to my seminars. There are many serious researches conducted to find the relations between breathing and thinking. For example, atheists’ abdominal breathing is perfect but there is no breath in here,” she said, pointing at her rib cage. “There is a bulge in the rib cage. It is like there’s a stone in there.”
She claimed that hundreds of thousands of atheists who she conducted breathing exercises on in the end had said they found God.
“During our exercises, we focus especially on the body part that has difficulties breathing. When we fix the breathing problem, the mind has a revival. I know many who said in tears at the end of the seminars that they found God,” she said.
Karamehmet’s remarks have caused uproar on social media.

Numan Kurtulmus #fundie hurriyetdailynews.com

The theory of evolution is an “archaic and decayed” theory, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus has claimed, as debate continues over evolution’s lessened significance in Turkey’s new draft national curriculum.

“Scientifically, the theory of evolution is already an archaic and disproven theory. There is no such rule that this theory must be taught. Perhaps it might be brought to the agenda as one of the theories,” Kurtulmus said in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk on Jan. 29.

“The opinion that those who believe in and know about the theory of evolution are modern and progressive people, while those who oppose it are reactionary and outdated, is actually an outdated opinion itself. The theory of evolution is one of the opinions that was also discussed through the ancient history, so I do not find discussions about it right,” he added.

The Education Ministry on Jan. 13 published the draft national education curriculum to the public, after which it was seen that the evolution chapter had been lifted from senior biology high-school students’ lessons.

The draft also drew harsh criticisms for its suggested coverage of a number of key topics for Turkish students, with classes on history, life sciences, Kemalism and positive sciences at the heart of the debates.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan #fundie hurriyetdailynews.com

A woman who abstains from maternity out of a desire to work is deficient, no matter how successful she is, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said June 5.

“A woman who abstains from maternity by saying ‘I am working’ means that she is actually denying her femininity. This is my sincere thought. A woman who refuses maternity and gives up housekeeping faces the threats of losing her freedom. She is lacking and is a half [a person] no matter how successful she is in the business world,” Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) in Istanbul.

Erdogan also added that producing and being in all fields of life do not obstruct maternity, noting that the government had made significant regulations to encourage maternity during his prime ministry.

“I certainly do not accept the business world becoming an alternative for maternity,” the president said.

Ismail Kahraman #fundie hurriyetdailynews.com

Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman sparked outrage late on April 25 by suggesting that the principle of secularism “must be removed” from Turkey’s constitution, as even members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) voiced disagreement.

“As a Muslim country, why should we be in a situation where we are retreating from religion? We are a Muslim country. So we must have a religious constitution,” Kahraman said in a conference titled “New Turkey and New Constitution” in Istanbul, stressing that “as a Muslim country” Turkey’s constitution should be religious.

“A description of secularism shouldn’t be in the new constitution. France, Ireland and Turkey have constitutions that include a description of secularism. But everyone interprets it the way they want to. That shouldn’t be the case,” he added, suggesting that the charter should “cohere with society.”

However, the next day Kahraman stepped back from his remarks, saying he had “expressed his personal opinions on the new constitution” and stressing the need to provide a “clear definition of secularism” in the new constitution.

Mücahid Cihad Han #fundie hurriyetdailynews.com

After claiming that a man would meet his masturbating hand “pregnant in the afterlife” and “asking for its rights,” a Muslim televangelist has set Turkish social media aflame.

Self-styled televangelist Mücahid Cihad Han dived into some delicate matters on May 24 when he answered his viewers’ questions on private television station 2000 TV, Turkish media has reported. Han initially looked puzzled when a viewer said he “kept masturbating, although he was married, and even during the Umrah,” a pilgrimage to Mecca performed by Muslims which can be undertaken at any time of the year, in contrast to the Hajj.

After repeating the question a few times, Han claimed that Islam strictly prohibits masturbation as a “haram” (forbidden) act. “Moreover, one hadith states that those who have sexual intercourse with their hands will find their hands pregnant in the afterlife, complaining against them to God over its rights,” he said, referring to what he claimed to be a saying of Prophet Muhammad.

“If our viewer was single, I could recommend he marry, but what can I say now?” the televangelist added, advising the viewer to “resist Satan’s temptations.”

Bülent Arinç #fundie #sexist hurriyetdailynews.com

Women should not laugh out loud in public, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç has said while complaining about ‘moral corruption’ in Turkey.

Speaking during an Eid el-Fitr meeting on July 28, Arinç described his ideal of the chaste man or woman, saying they should both have a sense of shame and honor.

“Chastity is so important. It is not only a name. It is an ornament for both women and men. [She] will have chasteness. Man will have it, too. He will not be a womanizer. He will be bound to his wife. He will love his children. [The woman] will know what is haram and not haram. She will not laugh in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness,” Arinç said, adding that people had abandoned their values today.

People needs to discover the Quran once again, Arinç said, adding that there had been a regression on moral grounds.

“Where are our girls, who slightly blush, lower their heads and turn their eyes away when we look at their face, becoming the symbol of chastity?” he said.

He said some TV series geared toward young people had because teenagers to grow up only as ‘sex addicts,’ accusing those who abuse the excitement of youths with publications on TV, the web, newspapers, or in educational places, especially in universities.

Arinç also complained about high consumption, referring to the number of cars and mobile phones that individuals have.

Targeting women once more, Arinç said women talk about unnecessary things on the phone.

“Women give each other meal recipes while speaking on the mobile phone. ‘What else is going on?’ ‘What happened to Ayse’s daughter?’ ‘When is the wedding?’ Talk about this face to face,” he said.