February 03, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 14, 1428

PARIS, Feb 2: France's education ministry has warned schools around the country against `Islamic creationism theories’ after several thousand copies of an anti-Darwinist book from Turkey were mailed to them, an official said on Friday.

The lavishly illustrated `Atlas of Creation’ by Harun Yahya, who runs a large Islamic publishing operation from Istanbul, was sent to schools and universities over the past 10 days in a move that has baffled authorities, she said.

The Turkish original of the 768-page book, which rejects evolution, first appeared in Turkey late last year when it was also sent unsolicited to schools.

It sees Charles Darwin's theory of the `survival of the fittest’ as the root of many of today's ills, including modern terrorism.

The French official, who asked not to be named, said puzzled school rectors had alerted the ministry to the large-format book full of lavish photographs meant to show that current animal species look exactly like the fossils of their ancestors.

“We asked them to be very careful because this book develops theories that are not in harmony with what the pupils learn,” she said. “Our teaching is based on the theory of evolution. These books have no place in our schools.”The book appears to have been mailed from Turkey and Germany to schools all around France. “We have no exact figures but I think they could number several thousand copies,” she said.

“They do not seem to have targeted specific areas,” she added. France's five-million-strong Muslim community, Europe's largest minority, is concentrated in some areas such as the Paris region.—Reuters