Atlas Of Creation: The Book That Has Stunned European Librarians

In its 9 February, 2008, issue the Belgian French-language daily Le Soir discussed the history of one of the country’s royal libraries and turned its attention to the section where those books that are deemed should not fall into people’s hands were burned. Criticising this former policy of the library, it then stated that censorship was still, to a greater or lesser extent, around today. The article went on to refer to the Atlas of Creation, which has been banned in the country:  

The question of how appropriate it is for a library to have a section in which books are burned has returned again today, like a historic boomerang… A short while ago the Atlas of Creation was offered to schools and universities as well as large national libraries. European libraries were stunned by this large, illustrated book written by a Turk called Harun Yahya with the aim of refuting the theory of evolution. In contrast to many educational institutions in America that immediately placed these books in the scientific books section, they are unsure what to do with works of this kind.

The report in Le Soir went on to say: “A book being sent to the section for burning means that it has shocking subject-matter.”

Atlas of Creation has very clearly had just such a shock impact on Europeans. The Atlas of Creation, which has spurred Europeans who claim to espouse democracy and freedom of ideas and belief to adopt contradictory policies such as book banning, is still the subject of debate. And, what is more, the shock waves from it are spreading ever wider.