Creationism is a religious doctrine that claims that the world is God's creation. "Scientific creationism" is a theory according to which the study of the origins of the natural and social worlds proves that they are not the product of evolution but of divine work. This theory has taken variegated forms which are function of the religious contexts of their formulation, among other things. Most of these forms share reject Darwinism, often understood in its truncated vulgate and its abusive social extension, but are not limited to this anti-evolutionist stance. The ambition of some of them is to prove that science, far from contradicting and opposing religion, actually confirms it. This is especially true in the case of Muslim creationism and its claim to Qur'an foreknowledge. In this perspective, creationism adopts a syllogistic type: divine revelation is truth; good science confirms truth; divine revelation is henceforth scientifically proven. Two truth orders are simultaneously mobilized and their convergence leads to their reciprocal reinforcement. Adnan Oktar, alias Harun Yahya, is a prominent Muslim "creationist" figure, a predicate justified by his publication in 2006 of an Atlas of Creation, which was largely distributed in Europe and North America, and was condemned by the scientific and educational communities. His website hosts many texts and documentary films dealing with varied topics, stretching from natural sciences to social issues, via history and archeology. Among the documentary films, one finds "Evidence of the true faith in historical sources", which is the object of our analysis. 2 This is a small audiovisual production which, starting from some
Islamic fundamentalism is a way to oppose the counter-narrative of an exclusive Islamic civilization to the universalist master-narrative of history’s pluralistic heritage. Two methods of reading the past collide here. One is a genealogical method, which values anything that relates the present to its historical roots. The other is a fundamentalist method, which relies on sacred scriptures in order to identify a founding age it arrogates to itself and to condemn anything that does not correspond to it. These two perspectives function in a conflicting yet interdependent manner. This article aims to describe the operating modes of these two narratives. First, it examines how the concept of heritage acquired new meanings and transformed into an evaluation table with which to assess past, present, and future collective identities. Second, it describes some audiovisual productions relating to the antique city of Hatra, to the destruction of its statues by Islamic State’s fighters, and to its symbolism. On this basis, it analyzes these productions in terms of heritage master- and counter-narratives. Third, it addresses, in relation to the issue of heritage, the fundamentalist discursive structure, its grammar, the entrenchment of its rules, and the demarcation it implies between the community of believers and everyone else.
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