 
## Global Freemasonry

## Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)

# About the Author

Now writing under the pen-name of HARUN YAHYA, Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara in 1956. Having completed his primary and secondary education in Ankara, he studied fine arts at Istanbul's Mimar Sinan University and philosophy at Istanbul University. Since the 1980s, he has published many books on political, scientific, and faith-related issues. Harun Yahya is well-known as the author of important works disclosing the imposture of evolutionists, their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons between Darwinism and such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism.

Harun Yahya's works, translated into 63 different languages, constitute a collection for a total of more than 55,000 pages with 40,000 illustrations.

His pen-name is a composite of the names Harun (Aaron) and Yahya (John), in memory of the two esteemed Prophets who fought against their peoples' lack of faith. The Prophet's seal on his books' covers is symbolic and is linked to their contents. It represents the Qur'an (the Final Scripture) and Prophet Muhammad (saas), last of the prophets. Under the guidance of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (teachings of the Prophet [saas]), the author makes it his purpose to disprove each fundamental tenet of irreligious ideologies and to have the "last word," so as to completely silence the objections raised against religion. He uses the seal of the final Prophet (saas), who attained ultimate wisdom and moral perfection, as a sign of his intention to offer the last word.

All of Harun Yahya's works share one single goal: to convey the Qur'an's message, encourage readers to consider basic faith-related issues such as Allah's existence and unity and the Hereafter; and to expose irreligious systems' feeble foundations and perverted ideologies.

Harun Yahya enjoys a wide readership in many countries, from India to America, England to Indonesia, Poland to Bosnia, Spain to Brazil, Malaysia to Italy, France to Bulgaria and Russia. Some of his books are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Urdu, Arabic, Albanian, Chinese, Swahili, Hausa, Dhivehi (spoken in Maldives), Russian, Serbo-Croat (Bosnian), Polish, Malay, Uygur Turkish, Indonesian, Bengali, Danish and Swedish.

Greatly appreciated all around the world, these works have been instrumental in many people recovering faith in Allah and gaining deeper insights into their faith. His books' wisdom and sincerity, together with a distinct style that's easy to understand, directly affect anyone who reads them. Those who seriously consider these books, can no longer advocate atheism or any other perverted ideology or materialistic philosophy, since these books are characterized by rapid effectiveness, definite results, and irrefutability. Even if they continue to do so, it will be only a sentimental insistence, since these books refute such ideologies from their very foundations. All contemporary movements of denial are now ideologically defeated, thanks to the books written by Harun Yahya.

This is no doubt a result of the Qur'an's wisdom and lucidity. The author modestly intends to serve as a means in humanity's search for Allah's right path. No material gain is sought in the publication of these works.

Those who encourage others to read these books, to open their minds and hearts and guide them to become more devoted servants of Allah, render an invaluable service.

Meanwhile, it would only be a waste of time and energy to propagate other books that create confusion in people's minds, lead them into ideological confusion, and that clearly have no strong and precise effects in removing the doubts in people's hearts, as also verified from previous experience. It is impossible for books devised to emphasize the author's literary power rather than the noble goal of saving people from loss of faith, to have such a great effect. Those who doubt this can readily see that the sole aim of Harun Yahya's books is to overcome disbelief and to disseminate the Qur'an's moral values. The success and impact of this service are manifested in the readers' conviction.

One point should be kept in mind: the main reason for the continuing cruelty, conflict, and other ordeals endured by the vast majority of people is the ideological prevalence of disbelief. This can be ended only with the ideological defeat of disbelief and by conveying the wonders of creation and Qur'anic morality so that people can live by it. Considering the state of the world today, leading into a downward spiral of violence, corruption and conflict, clearly this service must be provided speedily and effectively, or it may be too late.

In this effort, the books of Harun Yahya assume a leading role. by the will of Allah, these books will be a means through which people in the twenty-first century will attain the peace, justice, and happiness promised in the Qur'an.

Title: GLOBAL FREEMASONRY

Author: HARUN YAHYA

Translated by Ron Evans

Edited by David Livingstone

ISBN 975-6426-00-4

Publisher : GLOBAL PUBLISHING

Talatpaşa Mah. Emirgazi Caddesi

İbrahim Elmas İş Merkezi

A Blok Kat 4 Okmeydanı - İstanbul

Tel: (+90 212) 222 00 88

First English edition published in January, 2003

Second English edition published in November, 2005

Printed by: Seçil Ofset

100. Yıl Mahallesi MAS-SİT Matbaacılar Sitesi

4. Cadde No: 77 Bağcılar-İstanbul

Tel: (+90 212) 629 06 15

All translations from the Qur'an are from

The Noble Qur'an: a New Rendering of its Meaning in English

by Hajj Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley, published by Bookwork,

Norwich, UK. 1420 CE/1999AH.

www.harunyahya.com

www.en.harunyahya.tv

# To the Reader

A special chapter is assigned to the collapse of the theory of evolution because this theory constitutes the basis of all anti-spiritual philosophies. Since Darwinism rejects the fact of creation—and therefore, Allah's existence—over the last 150 years it has caused many people to abandon their faith or fall into doubt. It is therefore an imperative service, a very important duty to show everyone that this theory is a deception. Since some readers may find the opportunity to read only one of our books, we think it appropriate to devote a chapter to summarize this subject.

All the author's books explain faith-related issues in light of Qur'anic verses, and invite readers to learn Allah's words and to live by them. All the subjects concerning Allah's verses are explained so as to leave no doubt or room for questions in the reader's mind. The books' sincere, plain, and fluent style ensures that everyone of every age and from every social group can easily understand them. Thanks to their effective, lucid narrative, they can be read at one sitting. Even those who rigorously reject spirituality are influenced by the facts these books document and cannot refute the truthfulness of their contents.

This and all the other books by the author can be read individually, or discussed in a group. Readers eager to profit from the books will find discussion very useful, letting them relate their reflections and experiences to one another.

In addition, it will be a great service to Islam to contribute to the publication and reading of these books, written solely for the pleasure of Allah. The author's books are all extremely convincing. for this reason, to communicate true religion to others, one of the most effective methods is encouraging them to read these books.

We hope the reader will look through the reviews of his other books at the back of this book. His rich source material on faith-related issues is very useful, and a pleasure to read.

In these books, unlike some other books, you will not find the author's personal views, explanations based on dubious sources, styles that are unobservant of the respect and reverence due to sacred subjects, nor hopeless, pessimistic arguments that create doubts in the mind and deviations in the heart.

# Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. From the Templars to Ancient Egypt

2. The Inside Story on the Kabbalah

3. Humanism Revisited

4. Materialism Revisited

5. The Theory of Evolution Revisited

6. The Masonic War Against Religion

Conclusion

The Evolution Deceit

# Preface

This book examines the foundations of the philosophy of Freemasonry, one of the world's most secret organizations, and reveals what lies behind Masonic rituals, ceremonies and superstitious beliefs. The research shows that the Kabbalah, which occupies an important place in Judaic belief, is also important in Masonic belief and practice. However, as with our other books on the subject, it will be useful to remember one important truth in evaluating the information revealed by statements appearing in Masons' own reference sources, work by historians and investigators, and various documents: Masons' misinterpretation of certain information in the Kabbalah in the light of their own interests stems from their own prejudice and flawed perspective. Judaic belief and practice is not responsible for the false Masonic interpretation. The criticism made when considering the connection between Freemasonry and Kabbalistic teaching is not, therefore, aimed at Judaic belief.

The Kabbalah, which is derived from the Hebrew root meaning "to receive, to accept," is one of the main Judaic texts. According to Judaic belief, in the same way that the Torah teaches the form Jewish life should take, the laws and moral values to be adopted and forbidden actions to be avoided, so the Kabbalah is a means whereby devout Jews acquire a deeper understanding of matters of faith. Only people over the age of 40 and who have already studied the Torah and the Talmud (another Judaic scripture), can receive instruction in the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah contains both elements compatible with the true faith and also interpretations that appear to have gradually been distorted over the course of time.

Certain symbolic descriptions in the Kabbalah have led people throughout the course of history to produce different interpretations of it. The best-known of these is the idea that students of the Kabbalah engage in sorcery. It is true that various people who engaged in magic also took a close interest in the Kabbalah, but this should not give rise to the misconception that the Kabbalah is a book of sorcery. One of the main reasons for the emergence of this claim is that leading rabbis have kept some of the information contained in the Kabbalah secret. This gave rise to suspicion and misinterpretation in other communities. The symbols that dominate the Kabbalah in general also helped reinforce this idea. The Masons acted in the light of this conception that spread among some Jews and made the mistake of thinking that their own false systems could rule the world by the use of the symbols and descriptions in the Kabbalah, assumed to provide secret information.

Naturally, these misconceptions, and the behavior of some Jews and the secret plans of the Masons based on those misconceptions, cannot be laid at the door of Jewish society as a whole. No matter how much some of their beliefs and practices may have been corrupted over the course of time, the Jews are society whom Allah has revealed to be People of the Book, who believe in the Prophets Abraham, Solomon, David, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and all the other blessed prophets sent to them as messengers (peace be upon them all), who believe in Allah and subscribe to moral values also contained in the true faith. The Muslim view of the Jews is based on compassion, affection and understanding, in line with the moral values of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Indeed, Allah reveals in one verse of the Qur'an how Muslims should call to the People of the Book:

Say, "People of the Book! Come to a proposition which is the same for us and you – that we should worship none but Allah and not associate any partners with Him and not take one another as lords besides Allah."... (Surah Al 'Imran: 64)

## An Important Statement about Judaism, Zionism and Freemasonry

The sections of the book that follow consider the actions and plans for the future of certain Jews under the influence of some superstitious traditions or of radical, atheist Zionist ideology. People affected by these superstitious views from time to time also infiltrate the Israeli deep state and are even sometimes able to assume a defining role in Israel's domestic and foreign policy. However, it will be useful to clarify certain issues in order to avoid various misunderstandings because of the information in this book.

The first matter needing to be clarified is that the information in the book does not involve all Jews. The great majority of Jews are unaware of the activities in question, what takes place behind them and their true objectives, and the great majority frequently state that they are opposed to such measures. Therefore, it is not Jewish society as a whole that is criticized in the chapters that follow.

The subject of criticism is superstitious traditions that seek to supposedly legitimize violence and ruthlessness by misinterpreting the Bible and a radical world view that regards other people as second class and considers it perfectly normal to inflict oppression and injustice on them on the basis of those traditions. in other words, it is radical, atheist Zionism, a social Darwinist and occupying ideology. Zionism emerged in the 19th century as an ideology that espoused a homeland for the Jews who were then without one. as time passed, however, Zionism underwent a process of degeneration, as happens with many ideologies, and that legitimate demand turned into a radical and irreligious conception that resorted to violence and terror in practice and formed alliances with extremist forces.

There are two varieties of Zionism today. The first of these is the Zionist conception of the devout Jewish people, who wish to live in peace and security in Israel alongside Muslims, seeking peace and wishing to worship in the lands of their forefathers and engage in business. Muslims are not opposed to Zionism in that sense. for devout Jews to live in peace and security in the lands holy to them, to remember Allah and worship in their synagogues, to occupy themselves with science and business, in short, to live and settle freely in those lands, is not something to alarm any Muslim. Indeed, it is a good thing that Muslims would rejoice at. Throughout the course of history it has always been Muslims who have enabled the Jews to survive the hardships and sufferings they have experienced, and who have sheltered and protected them.

The Zionist belief held by a devout Jew and, as described above, based on the Torah does not conflict with Islam. It is revealed in the Qur'an that Allah has settled the Children of Israel in that region:

**Remember when Moses said to his people, "My people! Remember Allah's blessing to you when He appointed prophets among you and appointed kings for you, and gave you what He had not given to anyone else in all the worlds!** My people! Enter the Holy Land which Allah has ordained for you. **Do not turn back in your tracks and so become transformed into losers." (Surat al-Ma'ida: 20-21)**

Jews therefore have the right to live freely in these lands, but that right also applies to Muslims, and of course Christians, who have also lived in them for hundreds of years and believe in the sacred character of the region. These blessed lands are sufficiently broad, lovely and fertile for all faiths and communities to live together in peace. The right to life of one does not disqualify others from enjoying the same right.

To summarize, it is the "irreligious, Godless Zionism" that we condemn and regard as a threat to all mankind. These atheist Zionists, who do not defend the existence and oneness of Allah, but, on the contrary, encourage a Darwinist, materialist perspective and thus engage in irreligious propaganda, are also a threat to devout Jews and devout Christians. Atheistic Zionism is today engaged in a struggle against peace, security and moral virtue, and constantly produces strife and confusion and the shedding of blood. Muslims and devout Jews and Christians must join forces to oppose this Godless Zionism and encourage belief in Allah.

Relations between sincere and devout Jews and Muslims must exist within a framework of affection, respect and compassion. That is because this is the moral values and behavior that Allah reveals to Muslims in the Noble Qur'an and that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) shows us through his own life.

## The People of the Book in the Qur'an

In the Qur'an, Allah presents Jews and Christians as the People of the Book, as well as explaining to Muslims in detail how their attitude towards them should be. The People of the Book are aware of the lawful and the forbidden, and base their moral practices on Divine inspiration from Allah. According to the morality preached in the Qur'an, and the practices of our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), it is required that Muslims treat believing Jews and Christians with love, care, compassion, and respect. The call of Muslims to Jews and Christians is revealed thus in the Qur'an:

"We believe in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are One and we submit to Him." (Surat al-'Ankabut: 46)

This call makes it very clear what Muslims' point of view towards the People of the Book is: We live according to the moral principles professed in our holy books by respecting the limits set by Allah, by loving and respecting the messengers sent by our Lord, and by having faith in one Allah. Which is why we are beholden to treat each other with care, understanding, respect, and love.

## We All Love and Respect the Same Prophets

Muslims have faith in all of the prophets which have been sent. They believe in the books sent to prophets in the past. This is explained in one verse of the Qur'an as follows:

Say, "We believe in Allah and what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and what Moses and Jesus and all the prophets were given by their Lord. We do not differentiate between any of them. We are Muslims submitted to Him." (Surah Al 'Imran: 84)

The Prophets Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Aaron, David, Solomon, John, Jesus, and Moses (peace be upon them all) are as important to Muslims as they are to Jews and Christians.

The respect of Jews for the Prophet Moses (pbuh), who is also a Prophet of ours, and their close bonds with him over thousands of years are very important to sincere Muslims. The great love of Christians for the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) and their heartfelt attachment to him is of similar importance to Muslims. of course those who feel love and respect for the Prophets Jacob, Isaac, Ishmael, Abraham, Lot, Ayyub, Moses, Jesus and John (peace be upon them all) are people for whom naturally Muslims will feel love and affection, and approach with understanding and compassion. Anything opposing this is not possible.

Allah reveals the moral values of those of the People of the Book who genuinely believe as follows in the Qur'an:

They are not all the same. There is a community among the People of the Book who are upright. They recite Allah's signs throughout the night, and they prostrate. They believe in Allah and the Last Day, enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and compete in doing good. They are among the righteous. (Surah Al 'Imran: 113-114)

The duty of devout Muslims is to embrace people who live by such moral virtues with affection and compassion, and to show them love and understanding. to reiterate, therefore, the Muslim attitude toward the Jews is based on the moral values revealed in the Qur'an and implemented by our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The revelation of the errors of irreligious, Godless Zionism or various superstitious traditions incompatible with the morality of true faith and the criticism of mistaken practices do not alter that fact.

## Not All Masons Should Be Held Responsible for Atheistic Masonic Activities

In the same way that is a violation of good conscience to hold the entire Jewish people responsible for the actions of a few atheist Zionists, so the blame for the actions of atheist freemasons cannot be laid at the door of all masons. There are people within freemasonry who believe in the One Allah, who oppose the oppression implemented by and known to stem from senior masons in certain lodges, and who seek peace and good among all people. These people are trying to turn freemasonry from being an organization that stirs up disorder and acts against religious moral values to being one that strives to spread moral virtue. This work is exceedingly important and essential. and this situation should not be ignored as the negative activities of freemasonry are identified and criticized.

As one reads the pages that follow, it must not be forgotten that it is atheist freemasonry that is being criticized. All these criticisms are aimed at the atheist aspect of freemasonry, ideas opposed to religious moral values and the oppression that this aspect causes. and the aim behind this criticism, as well as to enable people to see where the danger really comes from, is to spur freemasons, who are unaware of this aspect or who wish to change it, into intellectual action. A readjustment from within freemasonry and a movement for change along the lines of religious moral values will be highly effective and beneficial. Atheist freemasonry has been carrying out sinister activities all over the world for hundreds of years and has striven to bring about the global dominion of irreligion. However, the century we are living in is one when the corruption in question from atheist freemasonry over the centuries will finally come to an end and be vanquished. in this century, when Allah illuminates the world with His light, and by His leave, and with help from devout masons who believe in Him, freemasonry will turn into an organization that seeks to serve the spread of religious moral values.

# Introduction

Freemasonry is a subject that has attracted much discussion for several centuries. Some have accused Masonry of fantastic crimes and misdeeds. Instead of trying to understand "the Brotherhood," and criticizing it objectively, critics have been unduly hostile to the organization. for their part, Masons have deepened their traditional reticence in the face of these accusations, preferring to present themselves as an ordinary social club—which they are not.

This book contains a correct exposition of Masonry as a school of thought. The most important unifying influence among Masons is their philosophy—which can be best described according to such terms as "materialism" and "secular humanism." But, it is an errant philosophy based on false suppositions and flawed theories. This is the basic starting-point from which Masonry must be criticized.

It is necessary to point out from the start that such criticism is important, not only to inform non-Masons on the subject, but also to invite Masons themselves to see the truth. of course, Masons, like everyone else, are free to choose for themselves, and can adopt whatever worldview they wish and to live in accordance with it. This is their natural right. But, others also have a right to expose their errors and to criticize them, and this is what this present book attempts to do.

We follow the same approach in our criticisms of other communities as well. Like the Jews for example. This book, in part, also deals with the history of Judaism and offers certain important criticisms. It must be pointed out that these have nothing to do with anti-Semitism or "Judeo-Masonic" conspiracy theories. Indeed, anti-Semitism is alien to a true Muslim. Jews are a people that at one time had been chosen by Allah and to whom He sent many prophets. Throughout history they suffered much cruelty, even being subjected to genocide, but they never abandoned their identity. in the Qur'an, Allah calls them, together with Christians, the People of the Book, and enjoins Muslims to treat them kindly and justly. But, a necessary part of this justice is to criticize the errant beliefs and practices of some of them, to show them the path to true righteousness. but of course, their right to live according to what they believe in and desire is beyond question.

Global Freemasonry sets out from this premise, and investigates critically Masonry's roots, as well as its aims and activities. in this book, the reader will also find a summary of the history of the Masons' struggle against the morality of theistic religions. Freemasons have played an important role in Europe's alienation from religious moral values, and in their place, founding of a new order based on the philosophies of materialism and secular humanism. We will also see how Masonry has been influential in the imposition of these dogmas to non-Western civilizations. Finally, we will discuss the methods Masonry has used to help establish and perpetuate a social order based on these dogmas. Their philosophy and the methods they use to establish this philosophy will be exposed and criticized.

In examining the atheist, Darwinist and materialist philosophy of Freemasonry, quotations from Masons' own reference works have been included. The reason for the inclusion of these expressions, which are incompatible with respect for Allah, the prophets, angels, holy scriptures and religious moral values, is that they represent important evidence revealing the true face of Freemasonry. Surely Allah, His holy messengers, the angels, holy scriptures and all spiritual values are beyond the expressions employed in such extracts.

It is hoped that the important facts related in this book will be a means whereby many, including Masons, will be able to look at the world with better awareness.

After reading this book, the reader will be able to consider many subjects, from schools of philosophy to newspaper headlines, rock songs to political ideologies, with a deeper understanding, and better discern the meaning and aims behind events and factors.

# 1. From the Templars to Ancient Egypt

## The Crusaders

The common perception of the majority of historians of Freemasonry is that the origin of the organization goes back to the Crusades. in fact, though Masonry was only officially established and recognized in England in the early eighteenth century, the roots of the organization do reach back to the Crusades in the twelfth century. at the center of this familiar tale is an order of crusaders called the Knights Templar or the Templars.

Six years before this present work, our book, entitled the New Masonic Order, examined the history of the Templars in great detail. for that reason, we will now offer just a summary. For, as we analyze the roots of Masonry, and the influence that it has had on the world, we discover the meaning of "Global Freemasonry."

No matter how much some may insist that the Crusades were military expeditions carried out in the name of the Christian faith, fundamentally, they were undertaken for material gain. in a period when Europe was experiencing great poverty and misery, the prosperity and wealth of the East, especially of the Muslim in the Middle East, attracted the Europeans. This inclination took on a religious facade, and was ornamented with the symbols of Christianity, though, in actuality, the idea of the Crusades was born out of a desire for worldly gain. This was the reason for the sudden change among Christians of Europe from their former pacifist policies, in earlier periods of their history, towards military aggression.

The founder of the Crusades was Pope Urban II. He summoned the Council of Clermont, in 1095, in which the former pacifist doctrine of the Christians was abandoned. A holy war was called for, with the intent to wrest the holy lands from the hands of the Muslims. Following the council, a huge army of Crusaders was formed, composed both of professional soldiers, and tens of thousands of ordinary people.

Historians believe Urban II's venture was prompted by his desire to thwart the candidacy of a rival to the papacy. Furthermore, while European kings, princes, aristocrats and others greeted the pope's call with excitement, their intentions were basically mundane. as Donald Queller of the University of Illinois put it, "the French knights wanted more land. Italian merchants hoped to expand trade in Middle Eastern ports... Large numbers of poor people joined the expeditions simply to escape the hardships of their normal lives."1 Along the way, this greedy mass slaughtered many Muslims, and even Jews, in hopes of finding gold and jewels. The crusaders even cut open the stomachs of those they had killed to find gold and precious stones they may have swallowed before they died. So great was the material greed of the crusaders that they felt no qualms in sacking the Christian city of Constantinople (Istanbul) during the Fourth Crusade, when they stripped off the gold leaf from the Christian frescoes in the Hagia Sophia.

After a long and difficult journey, and much plunder and slaughter of Muslims, this motley band called Crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099. When the city fell after a siege of nearly five weeks, the Crusaders moved in. They carried out a level of savagery the like of which the world has seldom seen. All Muslims and Jews in the city were put to the sword. in the words of one historian, "They killed all the Saracens and the Turks they found... whether male of female."2 One of the Crusaders, Raymond of Aguiles, boasted of this violence:

Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. but these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted ... in the Temple and the porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.3

In two days, the Crusader army killed some 40,000 Muslims in the most barbaric manner.4 the crusaders then made Jerusalem their capital, and founded a Latin Kingdom stretching from the borders of Palestine to Antioch.

Later, the crusaders initiated a struggle to maintain their position in the Middle East. in order to sustain the state they had founded, it was necessary to organize it. to this end, they established military orders, the alike of which had never existed before. Members of these orders came from Europe to Palestine, and lived in a type of monastery where they received military training to fight against Muslims.

One of these orders, in particular, was different from the others. It underwent a transformation that would influence the course of history. This order was the Templars.

## The Templars

The Templars, or, their full name, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, was formed in 1119, that is, some 20 years after the crusaders took Jerusalem. The founders of the order were two French knights, Hugues (Hugh) de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer. at first there were 9 members, but the order steadily grew. The reason they named themselves after the temple of Solomon was because the place they had chosen as a base was the temple mount where the temple the Prophet Solomon (pbuh) had built is believed to have been located. This same location was where the Dome of the Rock (Qubbet as-Sakhrah) stood.

The Templars called themselves "poor soldiers," but within a short time they became very wealthy. Christian pilgrims, coming from Europe to Palestine, were under the complete control of this order, and by whose money they became very rich. in addition, for the first time they set up a cheque and credit system, similar to that of a bank. According to the British authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, they established a kind of Medieval capitalism, and led the way to modern banking through their interest-based transactions, even though it was against their faith.5

It was the Templars who were mainly responsible for the crusaders' attacks of and murder of Muslims. for this reason, the great Islamic commander Saladin, who defeated the crusaders' army in 1187, in the Battle of Hattin, and afterwards rescued Jerusalem, put the Templars to death for the murders they had committed, even though he had otherwise pardoned a large number of Christians. Although they lost Jerusalem, and suffered heavy casualties, the Templars continued to exist. And, despite the continual diminution of the Christian presence in Palestine, they increased their power in Europe and, first in France, and then in other countries, became a state within a state.

There is no doubt that their political power made the monarchs of Europe uneasy. but there was another aspect of the Templars that also made the clergy ill at ease: the order had gradually apostatized from the Christian faith, and while in Jerusalem, had adopted a number of strange mystical doctrines. There were also rumors that they were organizing strange rites to give form to these doctrines.

Finally, in 1307, the French king Philippe le Bel decided to arrest the members of the order. Some of them managed to escape but most of them were caught. Pope Clement V also joined the purge. Following a long period of interrogation and trial, many of the Templars admitted to heretical beliefs, that they had rejected the Christian faith and insulted the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) in their masses. Finally, the leaders of the Templars, who were called "grand masters," beginning with the most important of them, Jacques de Molay, were executed in 1314 by order of the Church and the King. The majority of them were put into prison, and the order dispersed and officially disappeared.

Some historians have a tendency to portray the trial of the Templars as a conspiracy on the part of the King of France, and depict the knights as innocent of the charges. But, this manner of interpretation fails in several aspects. Nesta H. Webster, the famous British historian with a great deal of knowledge on occult history, analyzes these aspects in her book, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements. According to Webster, the tendency to absolve the Templars of the heresies they confessed to during the trial period is unjustified. First, during the interrogations, despite the standard claim, not all the Templars were tortured;

Moreover, do the confessions of the Knights appear to be the outcome of pure imagination such as men under the influence of torture might devise? It is certainly difficult to believe that the accounts of the ceremony of initiation given in detail by men in different countries, all closely resembling each other, yet related in different phraseology, could be pure inventions. Had the victims been driven to invent they would surely have contradicted each other, have cried out in their agony that all kinds of wild and fantastic rites had taken place in order to satisfy the demands of their interlocutors. but no, each appears to be describing the same ceremony more or less completely, with characteristic touches that indicate the personality of the speaker, and in the main all the stories tally.6

Anyhow, the trial of the Templars ended with the termination of the order. But, although the order "officially" ceased to exist, it did not actually disappear. During the sudden arrest in 1307, some Templars escaped, managing to cover their tracks. According to a thesis based on various historical documents, a significant number of them took refuge in the only kingdom in Europe that did not recognize the authority of the Catholic Church in the fourteenth century, Scotland. There, they reorganized under the protection of the Scottish King, Robert the Bruce. Some time later, they found a convenient method of disguise by which to continue their clandestine existence: they infiltrated the most important guild in the medieval British Isles—the wall builders' lodge, and eventually, they fully seized control of these lodges.7

The wall-builders' lodge changed its name, at the beginning of the modern era, calling itself the "Masonic lodge." the Scottish Rite is the oldest branch of Masonry, and dates back to the beginning of the fourteenth century, to those Templars who took refuge in Scotland. And, the names given to the highest degrees in Scottish Rite are titles attributed centuries earlier to knights in the order of Templars. These are still employed to this day.

In short, the Templars did not disappear, but their deviant philosophy, beliefs and rituals still persist under the guise of Freemasonry. This thesis is supported by much historical evidence, and is also accepted today by a large number of Western historians, whether they are Freemasons or not. in our book, the New Masonic Order, we examined this evidence in detail.

The thesis that traces the roots of Masonry to the Templars is often referred to in magazines published by Masons for its own members. Freemasons are very accepting of the idea. One such magazine is called Mimar Sinan (a publication of Turkish Freemasons), which describes the relationship between the Order of the Templars and Freemasonry in these words:

In 1312, when the French king, under pressure from the Church, closed the Order of Templars and gave their possessions to the Knights of St. John in Jerusalem, the activities of the Templars did not cease. The great majority of the Templars took refuge in Freemasonic lodges that were operating in Europe at that time. The leader of the Templars, Mabeignac, with a few other members, found refuge in Scotland under the guise of a wall builder under the name of Mac Benach. The Scottish King, Robert the Bruce, welcomed them and allowed them to exercise great influence over the Masonic lodges in Scotland. as a result, Scottish lodges gained great importance from the point of view of their craft and their ideas.

Today Freemasons use the name Mac Benach with respect. Scottish Masons, who inherited the Templars' heritage, returned it to France many years later and established there the basis of the rite known as the Scottish Rite."8

Again, Mimar Sinan presents a lot of information about the relationship between the Templars and Freemasonry. in an article entitled, "Templars and Freemasons," it states that "the rituals of the initiation ceremony of the Order of Templars are similar to those of present-day Freemasonry."9 According to the same article, as in Masonry, the members of the Order of the Templars called each other "brother."10 Towards the end of the article, we read:

The Order of the Templars and the Masonic organization have influenced each other to a noticeable extent. Even the rituals of the corporations are so similar as to have been copied from the Templars. in this respect, Masons have to a great extent identified themselves with the Templars and it can be said that what is viewed as original Masonic esoterism (secrecy) is to an important extent an inheritance from the Templars. to summarize, as we said in the title of this essay, we can say that the starting point of Freemasonry's royal art and initiatic-esoteric line belonged to Templars and its end-point belonged to Freemasons.11

Finally, we say, it is clear that the roots of Freemasonry stretch back to the Order of Templars, and that the Masons have adopted the philosophy of this order. Masons themselves accept this. but certainly, the important matter for our consideration is the nature of this philosophy. Why did the Templars abandon Christianity and become a heretical order? What led them to this? Why did they undergo such a change in Jerusalem? Through the agency of Masonry, what has been the effect on the world of this philosophy adopted by the Templars?

## The Templars and the Kabbalah

A book written by two Masons, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, entitled the Hiram Key reveals some important facts about the roots of Freemasonry. According to these authors, it is evident that Masonry is a continuation of the Templars. Though, in addition to this, the authors also examined the origins of the Templars.

According to their thesis, the Templars underwent a great change while they were in Jerusalem. in the place of Christianity, they adopted other doctrines. at the root of this lies a secret that they discovered in the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, whose ruins they had set out to investigate. The writers explain that the Templars used their purported role as protectors of Christian pilgrims visiting Palestine as a pretense, but that their real aim was quite different:

... _There is no evidence that these founding Templars ever gave protection to pilgrims, but on the other hand we were soon to find that there is conclusive proof that they did conduct extensive excavations under the ruins of Herod's Temple...12_

The authors of the Hiram Key were not the only ones who found evidences of this. French historian Gaetan Delaforge makes this similar contention:

The real task of the nine knights was to carry out research in the area in order to obtain certain relics and manuscripts which contain the essence of the secret traditions of Judaism and ancient Egypt.13

At the end of the nineteenth century, Charles Wilson of the Royal Engineers, began conducting archeological research in Jerusalem. He arrived at the opinion that the Templars had gone to Jerusalem to study the ruins of the temple. Wilson found traces of digging and excavation under the foundations of the temple, and concluded that these were done by tools that belonged to the Templars. These items are still in the collection of Robert Brydon, who possesses an extensive archive of information concerning the Templars.14

The writers of the Hiram Key argue that these excavations of the Templars were not without result; that the order discovered in Jerusalem certain relics that changed the way they saw the world. in addition, many researchers are of the same opinion. There must have been something that led the Templars, despite the fact that they had previously been Christian and came from a Christian part of the world, to adopt a system of beliefs and a philosophy so completely different from that of Christianity, celebrate heretical masses, and perform rituals of black magic.

According to the common views of many researchers, this "something" was the Kabbalah.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries define the Kabbalah as an esoteric, mystical branch of Jewish religion. According to this definition, the Kabbalah investigates the hidden meaning of the Torah and other Jewish religious writings. But, when we examine the matter more closely, we discover that the facts are quite something else. These facts lead us to the conclusion that teachings rooted in pagan idolatry, that existed before the Torah, and became widespread within Judaism after the Torah was revealed, were included in the Kabbalah.

This interesting fact about the Kabbalah, is explained by just as interesting a source. Murat Ozgen, a Turkish Freemason, maintains the following in his book, Masonluk Nedir ve Nasildir? (What is Freemasonry and What is it Like?):

We don't know clearly where the Kabbalah came from or how it developed. It is the general name for a unique, metaphysically constituted, esoteric and mystical philosophy particularly connected with Jewish religion. It is accepted as Jewish mysticism, but some of the elements it contains show that it was composed much earlier than the Torah.15

The French historian, Gougenot des Mousseaux, explains that some beliefs set out in the Kabbalah are actually much older than Judaism.16

The Jewish historian, Theodore Reinach, says that the Kabbalah is "a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it."17 Salomon Reinach defines the Kabbalah as "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind."18

The reason for Reinach's contention that the Kabbalah is "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind" is that some of its doctrine is used by some people connected with magic. for thousands of years, the Kabbalah has been one of the foundation-stones of every kind of magic ritual. It is believed that some rabbis who study the Kabbalah possess great magical power. Also, many non-Jews have been influenced by the Kabbalah, and have tried to practice magic by employing its doctrines. The esoteric tendencies that took hold in Europe during the late Middle Ages, especially as practiced by alchemists, have their roots, to a great extent, in the Kabbalah.

The strange thing is that Judaism is a monotheistic religion, incepted with the revelation of the Torah to the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him). but some have attempted to include in this religion a system that adopts the basic practices of magic which are in fact opposed to religious morality. This substantiates what we have presented above, and demonstrates that some statements in the Kabbalah are actually elements that have entered Judaism from the outside.

But, what is the source of this element?

The Jewish historian Fabre d'Olivet says that it came from Ancient Egypt. According to this writer, the roots of some statements in the Kabbalah stretch back to Ancient Egypt. Some part of the Kabbalah's teaching is a tradition learned by some of the leaders of the Israelites in Ancient Egypt, and passed down as a tradition by word of mouth from generation to generation.19

For this reason, we must look to Ancient Egypt in order to find the basic origins of the Kabbalah-Templars-Freemasonry chain.

##   
The Magicians of Ancient Egypt

The Ancient Egypt of the pharaohs was one of the most ancient civilizations of the world. It was also one of the most oppressive. The magnificent monuments that still remain from Ancient Egypt—the pyramids, sphinxes and obelisks—were constructed by hundreds of thousands of slaves, worked to the point of death, under the whip and threat of starvation. The pharaohs, the absolute rulers of Egypt, wanted themselves to be represented as supposed deities and to be worshipped by the people. (Surely Allah is beyond that.)

One of our sources of knowledge about Ancient Egypt is their own inscriptions. These were discovered in the nineteenth century and, after intense labor, the Egyptian alphabet was deciphered, bringing to light much information about the country. But, because these inscriptions were written by official state historians, they are filled with biased accounts designed to praise the state.

For us, of course, the best source of knowledge about this matter is the Qur'an.

In the Qur'an, in the story of the Prophet Moses (pbuh), we are given important information about the Egyptian system. The verses reveal that there were two important focal points of power in Egypt: pharaoh and his inner-council. This council tended to exercise an important influence over pharaoh; Pharaoh would often consult them and, from time to time, follow their suggestions. The verses quoted below show the influence that this council had on Pharaoh and Allah knows the truth:

Moses said, "Pharaoh! I am truly a Messenger from the Lord of all the worlds, duty bound to say nothing about Allah except the truth. I have come to you with a Clear Sign from your Lord. So send the tribe of Israel away with me."

He said, "If you have come with a Clear Sign produce it if you are telling the truth."

So he threw down his staff and there it was, unmistakably a snake.

And he drew out his hand and there it was, pure white to those who looked.

The ruling circle of Pharaoh's people said, "This is certainly a skilled magician who desires to expel you from your land, so what do you recommend?"

They said, "Detain him and his brother and send out marshals to the cities,

to bring you all the skilled magicians." (Surat al-A'raf: 104-112)

It should be noticed that mention here is made of a council that advises Pharaoh, that incites him against the Prophet Moses (pbuh), and recommends to him certain methods. If we look at the records of Egyptian history, we see that the two basic components of this council were the Egyptian army of the time and the priests.

The position occupied by the priesthood, one of these two main power blocs, in the social order of Egypt at the time is of great importance. We should look more closely at the role of the priests. The priests of Ancient Egypt were a class referred to in the Qur'an as magicians. They represented the cult which supported the regime. It was believed that they had special powers and possessed secret knowledge. by this authority they influenced the Egyptian people, and ensured their position within the administration of the pharaohs. This class, known from Egyptian records as the "Priests of Amon," focused their attention on practicing magic and administering their pagan cult; in addition, they also studied various sciences such as astronomy, mathematics and geometry.

This class of priests was a closed order possessed (so they thought) of a special knowledge. Such orders are commonly known as esoteric organizations. in a magazine called Mason Dergisi (Masonic Journal), a publication distributed among Turkish Masons, the roots of Freemasonry are stated as going back to this kind of esoteric order, and special mention is made of the Ancient Egyptian priests:

As thought develops in human beings, science advances and as science advances, the number of secrets increases within the lore of an esoteric system. in this development, this esoteric enterprise, which began first in the East, in China and Tibet, and then spread to India, Mesopotamia and Egypt, formed the basis of a priestly knowledge that had been practiced for thousands of years and formed the basis of the power of the priests in Egypt.20

How can there be a relationship between the esoteric philosophy of the priests of Ancient Egypt and present-day Freemasons? Ancient Egypt—a classic example in the Qur'an of a godless political system—disappeared thousands of years ago. Can it have any influence today?

To find the answer to these questions, we must look at the Ancient Egyptian priests' beliefs with regards to the origin of the Universe and of life.

## The Ancient Egyptian Belief in Materialist Evolution

In their book the Hiram Key, the English Masonic authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas argue that Ancient Egypt has a very important place in regards to the origins of Masonry. According to these authors, the most important idea that has transpired to modern Masonry, from Ancient Egypt, is the mistaken idea of a universe existing by and of itself, and evolving by chance. The false Egyptian belief is described as follows in that book:

The Egyptians believed that matter had always existed; to them it was illogical to think of a god making something out of absolutely nothing. Their view was that the world began when order came out of chaos, and that ever since there has been a battle between the forces of organization and disorder...This chaotic state was called Nun, and like the Sumerian...description..., all was a dark, sunless watery abyss with a power, a creative force within it that commanded order to begin. This latent power which was within the substance of the chaos did not know it existed; it was a probability, a potential that was intertwined within the randomness of disorder.21

It will be noticed that the beliefs described here are in harmony with the erroneous assertions of the present-day materialist establishment, which are promoted by the agenda of the scientific community with such terms as "the theory of evolution," "chaos theory," and the "essential organization of matter." Knight and Lomas continue their foregoing discussion by saying:

Amazingly, this description of creation perfectly describes the view held by modern science, particularly "chaos theory" which has shown intricate designs which evolve and mathematically repeat within completely unstructured events.22

Knight and Lomas claim that there is a harmony between Ancient Egyptian false beliefs and modern science, but what they mean by modern science is mistaken materialist concepts, such as the theory of evolution or chaos theory. Despite the fact that these erroneous theories have no scientific basis, they have been forcibly imposed on the field of science over the past two centuries, and are presented as scientifically justified. (In the following sections we will examine those who have imposed these theories on the scientific world.)

Now, we have come to an important point in this stage of the book. Let us summarize what we have discovered so far:

1. We began the discussion by discussing the Order of Templars which is thought to be the origin of Masonry. We have seen that, although the Templars were founded as a Christian order, they were affected by some secret doctrines that they discovered in Jerusalem, totally abandoned Christianity and became an anti-religious organization practicing heretical rites.

2. When we asked what this doctrine was that influenced the Templars, we found that it was basically the Kabbalah.

3. When we examined the Kabbalah, we found proof that, however much it may resemble Jewish mysticism, it contained traces of a pagan doctrines older than Judaism, that later entered the religion, and that their true roots are found in Ancient Egypt.

4. Ancient Egypt was governed by the pagan system of Pharaoh, and there we found an erroneous idea that forms the basis of the modern atheistic philosophy: that of a universe existing of its own accord, and evolving by chance.

All this surely paints an interesting picture. Is it by chance that the philosophy of the priests of Ancient Egypt still thrives, and that there exist traces of a chain (Kabbalah-Templars-Masonry) that has been responsible for maintaining the supremacy of this philosophy to the present day?

Is it possible Masons, who have made their mark on the world's history since the eighteenth century, fomenting revolutions, promoting philosophies and political systems, can be the inheritors of the magicians of Ancient Egypt?

In order to make the answer to this question clearer, we must first examine more closely the historical events that we have now only briefly outlined.

# 2. The Inside Story on the Kabbalah

Exodus" is the title of the second book of the Torah. This book describes how the Israelites, under the leadership of the Prophet Moses (pbuh), left Egypt and escaped the tyranny of Pharaoh. Pharaoh made the Israelites work as slaves and would not consent to set them free. But, when confronted by the miracles Allah performed through the Prophet Moses (pbuh), and the disasters He inflicted on his people, Pharaoh relented. and so, one night the Israelites gathered en masse, and began their emigration from Egypt. Later, Pharaoh attacked the Israelites, but Allah saved them through a further miracle He performed through the Prophet Moses (pbuh).

But, it is in the Qur'an that we find the most accurate account of the exodus from Egypt, because the Torah underwent much textual corruption after it was originally revealed to the Prophet Moses (pbuh). An important proof of this is that in the five books of the Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—there are many contradictions. The fact that the book of Deuteronomy ends with an account of the death and burial of the Prophet Moses (pbuh) is indisputable proof that this portion would have to have been added after the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) death.

In the Qur'an, the account of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is recounted in detail and most accurately. as with all other stories related in the Qur'an, Allah reveals much wisdom and many secrets in the course of what is related. for this reason, when believers examine these stories closely, they can extract a number of lessons from them.

## The Golden Calf

One of the important facts concerning the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, as related in the Qur'an, is that some of them rebelled against the religion revealed to them by Allah in spite of the fact that Allah had rescued them through the Prophet Moses (pbuh) from the tyranny of Pharaoh. Some of the Israelites were not able to comprehend the monotheism that the Prophet Moses (pbuh) communicated to them, but tended continually toward idolatry.

The Qur'an describes this immoral tendency here:

We conveyed the tribe of Israel across the sea and they came upon some people who were devoting themselves to some idols which they had. They said, "Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods." He said, "You are indeed an ignorant people.

What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless." (Surat al-A'raf: 138-139)

Despite the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) warnings, some Israelites continued in such perversion, and when the Prophet Moses (pbuh) left them, to ascend to Mt. Sinai, it manifested itself fully. Taking advantage of the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) absence, a man by the name of Samiri came forth. He fanned the sparks of some Israelites' inclination towards idolatry, and persuaded them to fabricate the statue of a calf and worship it.

Moses returned to his people in anger and great sorrow. He said, "My people, did not your Lord make you a handsome promise? Did the fulfillment of the contract seem too long to you or did you want to unleash your Lord's anger upon yourselves, so you broke your promise to me?"

They said, "We did not break our promise to you of our own volition. but we were weighed down with the heavy loads of the people's jewelry and we threw them in, for that is what the Samaritan did."

Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound. So they said, "This is your god—and Moses' god as well, but he forgot." (Surah Ta Ha: 86-88)

Why was there such a deviant tendency among some Israelites to erect idols and worship them? What was the source of this inclination?

Clearly, a society that had never before believed in idols would not suddenly adopt such inane behavior as to construct an idol and begin to worship it. Only those for whom idolatry was natural inclination could have believed in such nonsense.

However, the Israelites were a people that had believed in one Allah since the days of their ancestor the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). The name "Israelites" or "the Sons of Israel" was given first to the sons of the Prophet Jacob, the Prophet Abraham's grandson (peace be upon them both), and afterwards to the whole Jewish people who derived from him. The Israelites had safeguarded the monotheistic faith that they had inherited from their ancestors the Prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, peace be upon them. Together with Joseph, peace be upon him, they went into Egypt and preserved their monotheism for a long period of time, despite the fact that they had lived amidst Egyptian idolatry. It is clear from the stories related in the Qur'an that, when the Prophet Moses (pbuh) came to them, the Israelites were a people that believed in one Allah.

The only explanation for this is that although the Israelites adhered to a monotheistic belief, some of them were influenced by the pagan peoples among whom them lived, and began to imitate them, replacing the religion chosen for them by Allah with the idolatry of foreign nations.

When we investigate this matter in light of historical records, we see that the pagan cult that influenced the Israelites was that of Ancient Egypt. An important evidence in support of this conclusion is that the golden calf the Israelites worshipped, while the Prophet Moses (pbuh) was on Mt. Sinai, was actually a replica of the Egyptian idols Hathor and Aphis. in his book, Too Long in the Sun, the Christian author Richard Rives writes:

Hathor and Aphis, the cow and bull gods of Egypt, were representatives of sun worship. Their worship was just one stage in the long Egyptian history of solar veneration. The golden calf at Mount Sinai is more than sufficient evidence to prove that the feast proclaimed was related to sun worship...23

The influence of the Egyptian pagan religion on some Israelites occurred in many different stages. as soon as they had encountered a pagan people, this leaning towards heretical belief appeared and, as the verse maintains, they said "Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods." (Surat al-A'raf: 138) What they unwisely said to their Prophet, "Moses, we will not believe in you until we see Allah with our own eyes." (Surat al-Baqara: 55) reveals that they were inclined to worship a material being that they could see, as their pagan religion provided the Egyptians with.

The tendency of some Israelites to the paganism of Ancient Egypt, that we have here outlined, is important to understand and gives us some insight into the corruption of the text of the Torah and the origins of the Kabbalah. When we consider these two topics carefully, we will see that, at their source, is found Ancient Egyptian paganism and the materialist philosophy.

## From Ancient Egypt to the Kabbalah

While the Prophet Moses (pbuh) was still alive, some Israelites began to create likenesses of the idols they had seen in Egypt and to worship them. After the Prophet Moses (pbuh) died, some among them backslid farther into perversity. of course, the same thing cannot be said of all Jews, but some of them did adopt Egyptian paganism. Indeed, they carried on the false doctrines of Pharaoh's magicians, that lay at the foundation of that society's beliefs, and corrupted their own faith by introducing these doctrines into it.

The false doctrine that was introduced into Judaism from Ancient Egypt was also introduced into the Kabbalah. Like the system of the Egyptian priests, it was an esoteric system, and its basis was the practice of magic. Interestingly, the Kabbalah provides an account of creation quite perverted from that found in the Torah. It is a materialist account, based on the Ancient Egyptian mistaken idea of the eternal existence of matter. Murat Ozgen, a Turkish Freemason, has this to say on this topic:

It is evident that the Kabbalah was composed many years before the Torah came into existence. The most important section of the Kabbalah is a theory about the formation of the universe. This theory is very different from the story of creation accepted by theist religions. According to the Kabbalah, at the beginning of creation, things called Sefiroth, meaning "circles" or "orbits," with both material and spiritual characteristics came into being. The total number of these things was 32. The first ten represented the solar system and the others represented the masses of stars in space. This particularity of the Kabbalah shows that it is closely connected to ancient astrological systems of belief... So, the Kabbalah is far removed from Jewish religion and much more closely related to the ancient mystery religions of the East.24

The Jews, by adopting these Ancient Egyptian materialist and esoteric doctrines that were founded on magic, ignored the related prohibitions in the Torah. They took on the magic rituals of other pagan peoples, and thus, the Kabbalah became a mystical doctrine within Judaism, but contrary to the Torah. in her book entitled Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, the English writer Nesta H. Webster says:

Sorcery, as we know, had been practised by the Canaanites before the occupation of Palestine by the Israelites; Egypt, India, and Greece also had their soothsayers and diviners. in spite of the imprecations against sorcery contained in the Law of Moses, the Jews, disregarding these warnings, caught the contagion and mingled the sacred tradition they had inherited with magical ideas partly borrowed from other races partly of their own devising. at the same time the speculative side of the Jewish Cabala borrowed from the philosophy of the Persian Magi, of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Neo-Pythagoreans. There is, then, some justification for the anti-Cabalists' contention that what we know to-day as the Cabala is not of purely Jewish origin.25

There is a verse in the Qur'an that refers to this topic. Allah says that some Israelites learned satanic sorcery rituals from sources outside their own religion:

They follow what the satans recited in the reign of Solomon. Solomon did not become unbeliever, but the satans did, teaching people sorcery and what had been sent down to Harut and Marut, the two angels in Babylon, who taught no one without first saying to him, "We are merely a trial and temptation, so do not become unbeliever." People learned from them how to separate a man and his wife but they cannot harm anyone by it, except with Allah's permission. They have learned what will harm them and will not benefit them. They know that any who deal in it will have no share in the hereafter. What an evil thing they have sold themselves for if they only knew! (Surat al-Baqara: 102)

This verse maintains that certain Jews, although they knew that they would lose out in the hereafter, learned and adopted the practices of magic. Thus, they strayed away from the Law that Allah had sent them and, having sold their own souls, fell into paganism (magic doctrines). "They have sold themselves" for an evil thing, in other words, they abandoned their faith.

The facts related in this verse demonstrate the main features of an important conflict in Jewish history. This struggle was, on the one hand, between the prophets that Allah sent to the Jews and those believing Jews who obeyed them, and on the other hand, those perverse Jews who rebelled against Allah's commandments, imitated the pagan culture of the peoples around them, and followed their cultural practices rather than the Law of Allah.

## Pagan Doctrines Added to the Torah

The errors of those Jews departing from the true path are often reported in the holy book of the Jews itself—the Old Testament. in the book of Nehemiah, a kind of history book within the Old Testament, the Jews confess their sins and repent:

Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. and they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God [for one-fourth] of the day; and [for another] fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God. Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

...[They said:] "...they [our fathers] were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets, who testified against them to turn them to Yourself; and they worked great provocations. Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them; and in the time of their trouble, when they cried to You, You heard from heaven; and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.But after they had rest, They again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; Yet when they returned and cried out to You, You heard from heaven; and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies, and testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. and they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear.

...Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You [are] God, gracious and merciful.

Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God, ...You [are] just in all that has befallen us; for You have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers, have kept Your law, nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies, with which You testified against them. for they have not served You in their kingdom, or in the many good [things] that You gave them, or in the large and rich land which You set before them; nor did they turn from their wicked works." (Nehemiah 9: 2-4, 26-29, 31-35)

This passage expresses the desire that a number of Jews had in returning to their faith in Allah, but in the course of Jewish history sometimes a different segment gained strength, and came to dominate the Jews and later partly altered the religion itself. for this reason, in the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament, there are elements that derive from heretical pagan doctrines, as well as those mentioned above which accord with the true religion. for example (Allah is surely beyond all these expressions):

• In the first book of the Torah, it is said that Allah created the entire universe in six days from nothing. This is correct and derives from the original revelation. But, then it maintains that Allah rested on the seventh day, though it is a completely fabricated assertion. It is a perverse idea derived from paganism which attributes human qualities to Allah. in a verse of the Qur'an, Allah says:

We created the heavens and the earth and all between them in six days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us. (Surah Qaf: 38)

• In other parts of the Torah, there is a style of writing that is not respectful of the honor of Allah, especially in those places where human weakness is falsely attributed to Him. (Allah is surely beyond that) These anthropomorphisms are made to resemble the human weaknesses that pagans applied to their own fictitious gods.

• One such blasphemous assertion is another that claims that Jacob, ancestor of the Israelites, wrestled with Allah, and won. This is clearly a story invented to confer the Israelites with racial superiority, in emulation of the racial feelings widespread among pagan peoples. (or, in the words of the Qur'an: "fanatical rage")

• There is a tendency in the Old Testament to present Allah as a national deity—that He is God of the Isrealites only. However, Allah is the Lord and God of the universe and of all human beings. This notion of national religion, in the Old Testament, corresponds to tendencies of paganism, in which every tribe worships its own god.

• In some books of the Old Testament (for example, Joshua) commandments are given to commit horrible violence against non-Jewish peoples. Mass murder is commanded, with no regard for women, children or the elderly. This merciless savagery is totally against Allah's justice, and recalls the barbarism of pagan cultures, who worshipped a mythical god of war.

These pagan ideas that were introduced into the Torah must have an origin. There must have been Jews who adopted, honored and cherished a tradition foreign to the Torah, and changed the latter by adding into it ideas derived from the tradition they espoused. The origin of this tradition stretches back to the priests of Ancient Egypt (the magicians of Pharaoh's regime). It is, in fact, the Kabbalah which was passed on from there by a number of Jews. The Kabbalah assumed a form that enabled Ancient Egyptian and other pagan doctrines to insinuate themselves into Judaism and develop within it. Kabbalists, of course, assert that the Kabbalah simply explains in more detail the hidden secrets of the Torah, but, in reality, as Jewish historian of the Kabbalah, Theodore Reinach, says, the Kabbalah contains "a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it."26

It is possible, then, to find in the Kabbalah clear traces of the materialist ideology of the Ancient Egyptians.

## The Kabbalah's False Doctrine

## That Ignores the Fact of Creation

Allah reveals in the Qur'an that the original Torah is a Divine book that was sent as a light to humanity:

We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light, and the Prophets who had submitted themselves gave judgment by it for the Jews—as did their scholars and their rabbis—by what they had been allowed to preserve of Allah's Book to which they were witnesses...(Surat al-Ma'ida: 44)

Therefore, the Torah, like the Qur'an, contains knowledge and commands related to such topics as the existence of Allah, His unity, His qualities, the Creation of the universe, the purpose of human creation, and Allah's moral laws for humanity. (But, the original Torah is not extant today. What we possess today is an altered and corrupted version of the Torah.)

There is an important point that both the true Torah and the Qur'an share in common: Allah is recognized as Creator. Allah is absolute, and has existed since the beginning of time. Everything other than Allah is His creation, created by Him from nothing. He has created and formed the whole universe, the heavenly bodies, lifeless matter, human beings and all living things. Allah is One; He exists alone.

While this is the truth, there is a quite different interpretation found in the Kabbalah, that "subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it." Its doctrine of Allah is totally opposed to the "fact of Creation," found in the real Torah and the Qur'an. in one of his works on the Kabbalah, the American researcher, Lance S. Owens, presents his view on the possible origins of this doctrine (Allah is surely beyond all the expressions in the extract below):

Kabbalistic experience engendered several perceptions about the Divine, many of which departured from the orthodox view. The most central tenet of Israel's faith had been the proclamation that "our God is One." but Kabbalah asserted that while God exists in highest form as a totally ineffable unity—called by Kabbalah Ein Sof, the infinite—this unknowable singularity had necessarily emanated into a great number of Divine forms: a plurality of Gods. These the Kabbalist called Sefiroth, the vessels or faces of God. The manner by which God descended from incomprehensible unity into plurality was a mystery to which Kabbalists devoted a great deal of meditation and speculation. Obviously, this multifaceted God image admits to accusations of being polytheistic, a charge which was vehemently, if never entirely successfully, rebutted by the Kabbalists.

Not only was the Divine plural in Kabbalistic theosophy, but in its first subtle emanation from unknowable unity God had taken on a dual form as Male and Female; a supernal Father and Mother, Hokhmah and Binah, were God's first emanated forms. Kabbalists used frankly sexual metaphors to explain how the creative intercourse of Hokhmah and Binah generated further creation...27

An interesting feature of this mystical theology is that, according to it, human beings are not created, but are in some way divine. Owens describes this myth:

The complex Divine image...was also visualized by Kabbalah as having a unitary, anthropomorphic form. God was, by one Kabbalistic recension, Adam Kadmon: the first primordial or archetypal Man. Man shared with God both an intrinsic, uncreated divine spark and a complex, organic form. This strange equation of Adam as God was supported by a Kabbalistic cipher: the numerical value in Hebrew of the names Adam and Jehovah (the Tetragrammaton, Yod he vav he) was both 45. Thus in Kabbalistic exegesis Jehovah equaled Adam: Adam was God. With this affirmation went the assertion that all humankind in highest realization was like God.28

This perverted theology comprises of a mythology of paganism, and formed the basis of the degeneration of Judaism. Some Jewish Kabbalists breached the limits of common sense to such an extent that they even tried to make human beings into supposed deities. in addition, according to this false theology, not only was humanity divine, but it consisted only of Jews; other races were not considered human. as a result, faith in the one Almighty Allah and serving Him began to be replaced by pagan beliefs and practices. These false beliefs then led to the corruption of the Torah and the inclusion within it of various ideas incompatible with true religious moral values.

Another interesting point about the corrupt doctrines in the Kabbalah is its similarity to the pagan ideas of Ancient Egypt. as we have discussed in earlier pages, the Ancient Egyptians erroneously believed that matter had always existed; in other words, they rejected the idea that matter was created from nothing. Some sections of the Kabbalah assert the same thing in relation to human beings; it falsely claims that human beings were not created, and that they are responsible for their own existence.

To state it in modern terms: the Ancient Egyptians were materialists, and the doctrine of some sections in the Kabbalah can be called secular humanism.

It is interesting to note that these two erroneous concepts—materialism and secular humanism—describe the ideology that has dominated the majority of the world over the last two centuries.

## It is tempting to ask if there are forces who have carried the doctrines of Ancient Egypt and the Kabbalah from the midst of ancient history to the present day.From the Templars to the Masons

When we mentioned the Templars earlier, we noted that this peculiar order of crusaders was affected by a "secret" found in Jerusalem, as a result of which they abandoned Christianity and began to practice magic rites. We said that many researchers had reached the opinion that this secret was related to the Kabbalah. for example, in his book Histoire de la Magie (The History of Magic) the French writer, Eliphas Lévi, presents detailed evidence that the Templars were initiated into the mysterious doctrines of the Kabbalah, that is, they were secretly trained in this doctrine.29 Therefore, a doctrine with its roots in Ancient Egypt was transmitted to the Templars through the Kabbalah.

In Foucault's Pendulum, the Italian novelist, Umberto Eco, relates these facts in the course of the plot. Throughout the novel, he relates, through the mouths of its protagonists, how the Templars were influenced by the Kabbalah and that the Kabbalists possessed a secret that could be traced back to the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs. According to Eco, some prominent Jews learned certain secrets taken from the Ancient Egyptians, and later inserted these into the first five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch). But, this secret, which was transmitted secretly, could be understood only by the Kabbalists. (The Zohar, written later in Spain, and forming the fundamental book of the Kabbalah, deals with the secrets of these five books) After stating that the Kabbalists read this Ancient Egyptian secret also in the geometric measurements of the temple of Solomon, Eco writes that the Templars learned it from the Kabbalist rabbis in Jerusalem:

The secret—what the Temple already said in full—is suspected only by a small group of rabbis who remained in Palestine... and from them the Templars learn it.30

When the Templars adopted this ancient Egyptian-Kabbalist doctrine, naturally, they came into conflict with the Christian establishment that dominated Europe. This was a conflict they shared with another important force—certain Jews. After the Templars were arrested, by joint order of the king of France and the Pope in 1307, the order went underground, but its influence continued, and in a more radical and determined way.

As we said earlier, a significant number of Templars escaped arrest and appealed to the king of Scotland, the only European kingdom at that time that had not accepted the authority of the Pope. in Scotland, they infiltrated the wall-builders' guild and, in time, took it over. The guilds adopted the traditions of the Templars, and thus, the Masonic seed was planted in Scotland. Still, to this day, the mainline of Masonry is the "Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite."

As we investigated in detail in the New Masonic Order, from the beginnings of the fourteenth century it is possible to detect traces of the Templars—and some Jews associated with them—at various stages of European history. Without going into detail, here are some of the headings under which we examined this topic:

• in Provence, in France, there was an important Templar refuge. During the arrests, very many hid here. Another important feature of the area is that it is the most well known center of Kabbalism in Europe. Provence is the place where the oral tradition of the Kabbalah was made into a book.

• The Peasants Revolt in England, in 1381, was, according to some historians, fanned to flame by a secret organization. Those experts who study the history of Masonry agree that this secret organization was the Templars. It was more than a mere civil uprising, it was a planned assault on the Catholic Church. 31

• Half a century after this revolt, a clergyman in Bohemia by the name of John Huss started an uprising in opposition to the Catholic Church. Behind the scenes of this uprising were again the Templars. Moreover, Huss was very interested in the Kabbalah. Avigdor Ben Isaac Kara was one of the most important names that he was influenced by in the development of his doctrines. Kara was a rabbi of the Jewish community in Prague and a Kabbalist. 32

Examples such as these are signs that the alliance between the Templars and the Kabbalists was directed at a change in the social order of Europe. This change involved an alteration in the basic Christian culture of Europe, and its replacement by a culture based on pagan doctrines, like the Kabbalah. And, after this cultural change, political changes would follow. The French and Italian revolutions, for example...

In the coming sections, we will look at some important turning-points in the history of Europe. at every stage the fact that will confront us is that there existed a force that wanted to alienate Europe from its Christian heritage, replace it with a secular ideology and, with this program in mind, to alienate people from religious morality. This force attempted to cause Europe to accept a doctrine that had been handed down from Ancient Egypt through the Kabbalah. as we pointed out earlier, at the basis of this doctrine were two important concepts: humanism and materialism.

First, let us look at humanism.

# 3. Humanism Revisited

Humanism" is considered a positive idea by the majority of people. It brings to mind notions such as love of humanity, peace and brotherhood. But, the philosophical meaning of humanism is much more significant: humanism is a way of thinking that posits the concept of humanity as its focus and only goal. in other words, it calls human beings to turn away from Allah our Creator, and concern themselves with their own existence and identity. A common dictionary defines humanism as: "a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be best in human beings, rather than on any supernatural authority."33

The clearest definition of humanism, however, has been put forward by those who espoused it. One of the most prominent modern spokesmen for humanism is Corliss Lamont. in his book the Philosophy of Humanism, the author writes:

[In sum] humanism believes that nature ... constitutes the sum total of reality, that matter-energy and not mind is the foundation stuff of the universe and that supernatural entities simply do not exist. This nonreality of the supernatural means, on the human level, that men do not possess supernatural and immortal souls; and, on the level of the universe as a whole, that our cosmos does not possess a supernatural and eternal God.34

As we can see, humanism is almost identical to atheism. These atheist claims consist of errors and deception contradicted by science too.

There were two important manifestos published by humanists in the last century. The first was published in 1933, and was signed by some important individuals of that time. Forty years later, in 1973, a second humanist manifesto was published which confirmed the first, but contained some additions relative to some developments that had occurred in the meantime. Many thinkers, scientists, writers and members of the media signed the second manifesto, which is supported by the American Humanist Association.

When we examine the manifestos, we find one basic foundation in each of them: the atheist dogma and erroneous ideas such as that the universe and human beings were not created but exist independently, that human beings are not responsible to any other authority besides themselves, and that belief in Allah has retarded the development of individuals and societies. for example, the first six articles of the first Humanist Manifesto are as follows:

First: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

Second: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as the result of a continuous process.

Third: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

Fourth: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

Fifth: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values...

Sixth: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought."35

In the above articles, we see the expression of a common false philosophy that manifests itself under such names as materialism, Darwinism, atheism and agnosticism. in the first article, the materialist dogma of the eternal existence of the universe is put forward. The second article states, as the theory of evolution does, that human beings were not created. The third article denies the existence of the human soul claiming that human beings are composed of matter. The fourth article proposes a "cultural evolution" and denies the existence of a Divinely ordained human nature (a special human nature given in creation). The fifth article rejects Allah's sovereignty over the universe and humanity, and the sixth states that it is time to reject "theism," that is belief in Allah.

It will be noticed that these claims are stereotypical deceptions, typical of those circles that are hostile to true religious morality. The reason for this is that humanism is the main foundation of anti-religious sentiment. This is because humanism is an expression of "man's reckoning that he will be left to go on unchecked," which has been one of the primary bases, throughout history, for the denial of Allah. in one verse of the Qur'an, Allah says:

Does man reckon he will be left to go on unchecked?

Was he not a drop of ejaculated sperm,

then a blood-clot which He created and shaped,

making from it both sexes, male and female?

Is He Who does this not able to bring the dead to life? (Surat al-Qiyama: 36-40)

Allah says that people are not to be "left to go on unchecked," and reminds them immediately afterwards that they are His creation. This is because, when a person realizes that he is a creation of Allah, he understands that he is not "unchecked" but responsible before Allah. for this reason, the mistaken idea that human beings are not created has become the basic doctrine of humanist philosophy. The first two articles of the first Humanist Manifesto give an expression to this doctrine. Moreover, humanists maintain that science supports these claims.

However, they are wrong. Since the first Humanist Manifesto was published, the two premises that humanists have presented as supposedly scientific have collapsed:

1. The erroneous idea that the universe is eternal was invalidated by a series of astronomical discoveries made when the first Humanist Manifesto was being written. Discoveries such as the fact that the universe is expanding, of cosmic background radiation and the calculation of the ratio of hydrogen to helium, have shown that the universe had a beginning, and that it came to be from nothing some 15-17 billion years ago in a giant explosion called the "Big Bang." Although those who espouse the humanist and materialist philosophy were unwilling to accept the Big Bang theory, they were eventually won over. as a result of the scientific evidence that has come to light, the scientific community has finally accepted the Big Bang theory, that is, that the universe had a beginning, and therefore humanists have no argument. Thus, in the words of the British philosopher Antony Flew:

... _the Stratonician atheist has to be embarrassed by the contemporary cosmological consensus. for it seems that the cosmologists are providing a scientific proof of what St. Thomas contended could not be proved philosophically; namely, that the universe had a beginning...36_

2. The theory of evolution, the so-called scientific justification behind the first Humanist Manifesto, started to lose ground in the decades after it was written. It is known today that the scenario proposed for the origin of life by atheist (and no doubt humanist) evolutionists, such as A. I. Oparin and J. B. S. Haldane in the 1930's, has no scientific validity; living things cannot be generated spontaneously from non-living matter as proposed by this scenario. The fossil record demonstrates that living things did not develop through a process of small cumulative changes, but appeared abruptly with their distinct characteristics, and this fact has been accepted by evolutionist paleontologists themselves since the 1970's. Modern biology has demonstrated that living things are not the result of chance and natural laws, but that there are in each organism complex systems that are evidence for Creation. (For details refer to Harun Yahya, Darwinism Refuted: How the Theory of Evolution Breaks Down in the Light of Modern Science)

Moreover, the erroneous claim that religious belief was the factor that prevented humanity from progressing and drew it into conflict has been disproved by historical experience. Humanists have claimed that the removal of religious belief would make people happy and at ease, however, the opposite has proved to be the case. Six years after the first Humanist Manifesto was published, the Second World War broke out, a record of the calamity brought upon the world by the secular fascist ideology. The humanist ideology of communism wreaked, first on the people of the Soviet Union, then on the citizens of China, Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and various African and Latin American countries, unparalleled savagery. A total of 120 million people were killed by communist regimes or organizations. It is also evident that the Western brand of humanism (capitalist systems) has not succeeded in bringing peace and happiness to their own societies or to other areas of the world.

The collapse of humanism's argument on religion has also been manifested in the field of psychology. The Freudian myth, a corner-stone of the atheist dogma since early twentieth century, has been invalidated by empirical data. Patrick Glynn, of the George Washington University, explains this fact in his book titled God: the Evidence, the Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World :

The last quarter of the twentieth century has not been kind to the psychoanalytic vision. Most significant has been the exposure of Freud's views of religion (not to mention a host of other matters) as entirely fallacious. Ironically enough, scientific research in psychology over the past twenty-five years has demonstrated that, far from being a neurosis or source of neuroses as Freud and his disciples claimed, religious belief is one of the most consistent correlates of overall mental health and happiness. Study after study has shown a powerful relationship between religious belief and practice, on the one hand, and healthy behaviors with regard to such problems as suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, depression, even, perhaps surprisingly, levels of sexual satisfaction in marriage, on the other hand. 37

In short, the supposed scientific justification behind humanism has been proven invalid and its promises vain. Nevertheless, humanists have not abandoned their philosophy, but rather, in fact, have tried to spread it throughout the world through methods of mass propaganda. Especially in the post-war period there has been intense humanist propaganda in the fields of science, philosophy, music, literature, art and cinema. The attractive but hollow messages created by humanist ideologues have been insistently imposed upon the masses. The song "Imagine," by John Lennon, soloist of one of the most popular music group of all times, the Beatles, is an example of this (Surely Allah is beyond that):

Imagine there's no heavenIt's easy if you tryNo hell below usAbove us only skyImagine all the peopleLiving for today... Imagine there's no countriesIt isn't hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion too... You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only oneI hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will be as one

This song is a good indication of the sentimentality with which humanism, lacking any scientific or rational foundation, is imposed on the masses. Humanism produces, and can produce, no rational objection to religion or the truths it teaches, but attempts to employ suggestive methods such as these, which it regards as efficacious.

When the promises of the 1933 I. Humanist Manifesto proved vain, forty years passed after which humanists presented a second draft. at the beginning of the text was an attempt to explain why the first promises had come to nothing. Despite the fact that this explanation was extremely weak, it demonstrated the enduring attachment of humanists to their atheist philosophy.

The most obvious characteristic of the manifesto was its preservation of the anti-religious line of the 1933 manifesto: (Surely Allah is beyond the expressions in the extract below.)

As in 1933, humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to live and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith... We believe ...that traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species... as nontheists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity.38

These statements consist of humanist nonsense and represent a very superficial explanation. in order to understand religion, one first needs the intelligence and understanding to be able to grasp profound ideas. The predisposition must be sincerity and the avoidance of prejudice. Instead, humanism is nothing more than the attempt of some individuals, who are passionately atheistic and antireligious from the outset, to portray this prejudice as being, in their own eyes, rational. and these endeavors are doomed never to bear fruit.

However, humanists' irrational and illogical claims regarding faith in Allah and monotheistic religions are nothing new; they are a restatement of a mistaken claim that has been made for thousands of years by those who reject Allah. in the Qur'an, Allah explains this age-old argument propounded by the unbelievers:

Your God is One God. as for those who do not believe in the hereafter, their hearts are in denial and they are puffed up with pride.

There is no doubt that Allah knows what they keep secret and what they make public. He does not love people puffed up with pride.

When they are asked, "What has your Lord sent down?" they say, "Myths and legends of previous peoples." (Surat an-Nahl: 22-24)

As revealed in these verses, the real reason for the unbelievers' rejection of religion is the arrogance hidden in their hearts. The philosophy called humanism is merely the outward manner by which this age rejects Allah. in other words, humanism is not a new way of thinking, as those who espouse it claim; it is an age-old, antiquated world-view common to those who reject Allah out of arrogance.

When we look at the progress of humanism in European history, we will discover many solid proofs for this assertion.

## The Roots of Humanism in the Kabbalah

We have seen that certain terms in the Kabbalah contain a false doctrine that dates back to Ancient Egypt, and that was later included into the true religion Allah revealed to the Israelites. We have also seen that its foundation rests upon a perverse way of understanding that regards human beings as uncreated though divine creatures that have existed for eternity.

Humanism entered Europe from this source. Christian belief was based on the existence of Allah, and the belief that human beings were His dependent servants created by Him. But, with the spread of the Templar tradition throughout Europe, the Kabbalah began to attract a number of philosophers. So, in the fifteenth century, a current of humanism began that left an indelible mark on the European world of ideas.

This connection between humanism and the Kabbalah has been emphasized in several sources. One of these sources is the book of the famous author Malachi Martin entitled the Keys of This Blood. Martin is professor of history at the Vatican's Pontifical Bible Institute. He says that the influence of the Kabbalah can be clearly observed among the humanists:

In this unaccustomed climate of uncertainty and challenge that came to mark early-Renaissance Italy, there arose a network of Humanist associations with aspirations to escape the overall control of that established order. Given aspirations like that, these associations had to exist in the protection of secrecy, at least at their beginnings. but aside from secrecy, these humanist groups were marked by two other main characteristics.

The first was that they were in revolt against the traditional interpretation of the Bible as maintained by the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, and against the philosophical and theological underpinnings provided by the Church for civil and political life...

Not surprisingly given such an animus, these associations had their own conception of the original message of the Bible and of God's revelation. They latched onto what they considered to be an ultrasecret body of knowledge, a gnosis, which they based in part on cultic and occultist strains deriving from North Africa—notably, Egypt—and, in part, on the classical Jewish Kabbala....

Italian humanists bowdlerized the idea of Kabbala almost beyond recognition. They reconstructed the concept of gnosis, and transferred it to a thoroughly this-wordly plane. The special gnosis they sought was a secret knowledge of how to master the blind forces of nature for a sociopolitical purpose.39

In short, the humanist societies formed in that period wanted to replace the Catholic culture of Europe with a new culture that had its roots in the Kabbalah. They aimed to create a sociopolitical change to bring this about. It is interesting that, besides the Kabbalah, at the source of this new culture were the doctrines of Ancient Egypt. Prof. Martin writes:

Initiates of those early humanist associations were devotees of the Great Force—the Great Architect of the Cosmos—which they represented under the form of the Sacred Tetragrammaton, YHWH....[humanists] borrowed other symbols—the Pyramid and the All Seeing Eye—mainly from Egyptian sources.40

It is quite interesting that humanists make use of the concept of "the Great Architect of the Universe," a term still used by Masons today. This indicates that there must be a relationship between humanists and Masons. Prof. Martin writes:

In other northern climes, meanwhile, a far more important union took place, with the humanists. A union that no one could have expected.

In the 1300s, during the time that the cabalist-humanist associations were beginning to find their bearings, there already existed—particularly in England, Scotland and France—medieval guilds of men...

No one alive in the 1300s could have predicted a merger of minds between freemason guilds and the Italian humanists....

The new Masonry shifted away from all allegiance to Roman ecclesiastical Christianity. and again, as for the Italian occultist humanists, the secrecy guaranteed by the tradition of the Lodge was essential in the circumstances.

The two groups had more in common than secrecy, however. From the writings and records of speculative Masonry, it is clear that the central religious tenet became a belief in the Great Architect of the Universe—a figure familiar by now from the influence of Italian humanists...The Great Architect was immanent to and essentially a part of the material cosmos, a product of the "enlightened" mind.

There was no conceptual basis by which such a belief could be reconciled with Christianity. for precluded were all such ideas as sin, Hell for punishment and Heaven for reward, and eternally perpetual Sacrifice of the Mass, saints and angels, priest and pope.41

In short, in Europe, in the fourteenth century, a humanist and Masonic organization was born that had its roots in the Kabbalah. And, this organization did not regard Allah as the Jews, Christians and Muslims did: the Creator and Ruler of the whole universe and the only Lord and God of humanity. Instead, they used a different concept, such as the "Great Architect of the Universe," which they perceived as being "part of the material universe."

In other words, this secret organization, that appeared in Europe in the fourteenth century, rejected Allah, but, under the concept of "the Great Architect of the Universe," accepted the material universe as a supposed divinity (Surely Allah is beyond that).

For a clearer definition of this corrupt belief, we can jump forward to the twentieth century and look at Masonic literature. for example, one of Turkey's most senior Masons, Selami Isindag, has a book entitled Masonluktan Esinlenmeler (Inspirations from Freemasonry). The purpose of this book is to train young Masons. Concerning the Masons' belief in the "Great Architect of the Universe," he has this to say:

Masonry is not godless. but the concept of God they have adopted is different from that of religion. The god of Masonry is an exalted principle. It is at the apex of the evolution. by criticizing our inner being, knowing ourselves and deliberately walking in the path of science, intelligence and virtue, we can lessen the angle between him and us. Then, this god does not possess the good and bad characteristics of human beings. It is not personified. It is not thought of as the guide of nature or humanity. It is the architect of the great working of the universe, of its unity and harmony. It is the totality of all the creatures in the universe, a total power encompassing everything, an energy. Despite all this, it cannot be accepted that it is a beginning... this is a great mystery.42

In the same book, it is clear that when Freemasons speak of the "Great Architect of the Universe," they mean nature, or, that they worship nature:

Apart from nature there can be no power responsible for our thought or our activities...The principles and doctrines of Masonry are scientific facts based on science and intelligence. God is the evolution. An element of it is the power of nature. So the absolute reality is the evolution itself and the energy that encompasses it.43

The magazine Mimar Sinan, a publishing organization especially for Turkish Freemasons also gives expression to the same Masonic philosophy:

The Great Architect of the Universe is a leaning toward eternity. It is an entering into eternity. for us, it is an approach. It entails the on-going search for absolute perfection in eternity. It forms a distance between the current moment and the Thinking Freemason, or, consciousness.44

This is the belief the Masons mean when they say, "we believe in Allah, we absolutely do not accept atheists among us." According to Masonry's perverted beliefs, it is not Allah, but naturalist and humanist concepts such as nature, evolution and humanity regarded as supposedly divine.

When we look briefly at Masonic literature, we may begin to see that this organization is nothing more than organized humanism, as well as recognize that its aim is to create throughout the whole world a secular, humanist order. These ideas were born among the humanists of fourteenth century Europe; present-day Masons still propose and defend them.

## Masonic Humanism: The Worship of Humanity

The internal publications of the Masons describe in detail the humanist philosophy of the organization and their hostility to monotheism. There are countless explanations, interpretations, quotations and allegories offered on this subject in Masonic publications.

As we said at the beginning, humanism has turned its face from the Creator of humanity and makes the mistake of regarding man as "the highest form of being in the universe." in fact, this implies the worship of humanity. This belief, that began with the Kabbalist humanists in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, continues so irrationally today in modern Masonry.

One of the fourteenth century's most famous humanists was Pico della Mirandola. His work entitled Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalisticae, et theologicae was condemned by Pope Innocent VIII in 1489 as containing heretical ideas. Mirandola wrote that there is nothing in the world higher than the glory of mankind. The Church saw this as a heretical idea that was nothing less than the worship of humanity. Indeed, this was a heretical idea because there is no other being to be glorified except Allah. Humanity is merely His creation.

Today, Masons proclaim Mirandola's heretical idea of the worship of humanity much more openly. for example, in a local Masonic booklet, it says:

Primitive societies were weak and, because of this weakness, they divinized the power and phenomena around them. but Masonry divinizes only humanity.45

In the Lost Keys of Freemasonry, Manly P. Hall explains that this Masonic humanist doctrine goes back to Ancient Egypt:

Man is a god in the making, and as in the mystic myths of Egypt, on the potter's wheel, he is being molded. When his light shines out to lift and preserve all things, he receives the triple crown of godhood, and joins that throng of Master Masons, who in their robe of Blue and Gold, are seeking to dispel the darkness of night with the triple light of the Masonic Lodge.46

According to the false belief of Masonry, human beings are gods, but only a grand master reaches the fullness of this divinity (Surely Allah is beyond that). The way to become a grand master is to fully reject the belief in Allah and the fact that human beings are His servants. Another writer, J.D. Buck, touches on this in his book Mystic Masonry:

The only personal God Freemasonry accepts is humanity in toto . . . Humanity therefore is the only personal god that there is.47

Evidently, Masonry is a kind of religion. But, it is not a monotheistic religion; it is a humanist religion and, therefore, a false religion. It is a perversion that enjoins the worship of humanity, not of Allah. Masonic writings insist on this point. in an article in the magazine Turk Mason (The Turkish Mason), it says, "We always acknowledge that the high ideal of Masonry lies in 'Humanism' doctrine."48

Another Turkish publication explains that humanism is a religion:

Far from dry sermons on religious dogmas, but a genuine religion. and our humanism in which the meaning of life takes root, will satisfy the longings that youth are not aware of.49

How do the Masons serve this false religion they believe in? to see this, we must look a little more closely at the messages that they disseminate to society.

## Humanist Moral Theory

Today, Masons in many countries are engaged in an effort to introduce themselves to the rest of society. Using press conferences, Internet sites, newspaper advertisements and statements, they describe themselves as an organization solely dedicated to the good of society. in some countries there are even charitable organizations supported by Masons.

The same thing is said by the Rotary and Lion's Club organizations, which are "light" versions of Masonry. All of these organizations insist that they are working for the good of society.

Certainly, to work for the good of society is not an undertaking to be discouraged, and we have no objection to it. But, behind their claim there is a deceptive message. Masons claim that there can be morality without religion, and that a moral world can be established without religion. And, the intention behind all their charitable work is to spread this message in society.

We will see shortly why this claim is so deceitful. But, before that, it will be useful to consider the views of Masons on this subject. on the Masons' Internet site, the possibility of "morality without religion" is described in this way:

What is human? Where does he come from and where is he going?... How does a person live? How does he have to live? Religions try to answer these questions with the help of moral principles that they have set. However they relate their principles with metaphysical concepts like God, heaven, hell, worship. and people have to find their principles of life without being involved in metaphysical problems, which they need to believe in without comprehending. Freemasonry has been declaring these principles for centuries as freedom, equality, brotherhood, the love of working and peace, democracy, etc. These release a person totally from the religious creeds but still give a principle of life. They search their bases not in metaphysical concepts but inside a mature person living on this earth.50

Masons who think in this way are totally opposed to a person believing in Allah and performing acts of charity to gain His approval. for them, everything must be done only for the sake of humanity. We can clearly discern this way of thinking in a book published by the Turkish lodges:

Masonic morality is based on love for humanity. It totally rejects being good through hope for the future, a benefit, a reward, and paradise, out of fear of another person, a religious or political institution, unknown supernatural powers... It only espouses and exalts being good in relation to the love for family, country, human beings and humanity. This is one of the most significant aims of Freemasonic evolution. to love people and to be good without expecting something in return and to reach this level are the great evolution.51

The claims in the above quotation are highly misleading. Without the moral discipline of religion there can be no sense of self-sacrifice for the rest of society. And, where this would appear to be accomplished, relationships are merely superficial. Those who have no sense of religious morality have no fear of Allah or respect for Him, and in those places where there is no fear of Allah, human beings are concerned only for their own gain. When people think that their personal interests are at stake, they cannot express true love, loyalty or affection. They show love and respect only to those who may be of benefit to them. This is because, according to this misconception of theirs, they are in this world only once and, therefore, will take as much from it as they can. Moreover, according to this false belief, there is no retribution for any dishonesty or evil they commit in the world.

Masonic literature is full of moral sermons which try to obfuscate this fact. But, actually, this morality without religion is nothing but sham rhetoric. History is full of examples to show that, without the self-discipline that religion confers upon the human spirit, and without Divine law, true morality cannot in any way be established.

A striking example of this was the great French Revolution of 1789. The Masons, who fomented the revolution, came forth with slogans shouting the moral ideals of "liberty, equality and fraternity." Yet, tens of thousands of innocent people were sent to the guillotine, and the country soaked in blood. Even the leaders of the revolution themselves could not escape this savagery, but were sent to the guillotine, one after the other.

In the nineteenth century, communism was born from the error of the possibility of morality without religion, and with even more disastrous results. Communism supposedly demanded a just, equal society in which there was no exploitation and, to this end, proposed the abolition of religion. However, in the twentieth century, in places such as the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, China, Indo-China, several countries in Africa and Central America, it subjected people to dreadful misery. Communist regimes murdered an incredible number of people; the total number nears about 120 million.52 Moreover, contrary to what has been claimed, justice and equality have never been established in any communist regime; the communist leaders in charge of the state comprised a class of elites. (In his classic book entitled the New Class, the Yugoslavian thinker Milovan Djilas, explains that the communist leaders, known as "nomenklatura," formed a "privileged class" contrary to the claims of communism.)

Also today, when we look within Masonry itself, which is constantly pronouncing its ideas of "service to society" and "sacrifice for humanity," we do not find a very clean record. in many countries, Masonry has been the focus of relationships for ill-gotten material gain. in the P2 Masonic Lodge scandal of Italy in the 1980's, it came to light that the Masons maintained a close relationship with the mafia, and that the directors of the lodge were engaged in activities such as arms-smuggling, the drug trade or money laundering. It was also revealed that they arranged assaults on their rivals and on those who had betrayed them. in the "Great Eastern Lodge Scandal" of France in 1992, and in the "Clean Hands" operation in England, reported in the English press in 1995, the activities of Masonic lodges in the interests of illegal profit became clear. The Masons' idea of "humanist morality" is only a sham.

That such a thing should happen is inevitable, because, as we said at the beginning, morality is only established in society by the moral discipline of religion. at the basis of morality lies the absence of arrogance and selfishness, and the only ones who can achieve this state are those who realize their responsibility to Allah. in the Qur'an, after Allah tells of believers' self-sacrifice, He commands "...It is the people who are safe-guarded from the avarice of their own selves who are successful." (Surat al-Hashr: 9). This is the true basis of morality.

In the Sura Furqan of the Qur'an, the nature of the morality of true believers is described in this way:

The servants of the All-Merciful are those who walk lightly on the earth and, who, when the ignorant speak to them, say, "Peace";

those who pass the night prostrating and standing before their Lord...

those who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor mean, but take a stance mid way between the two;

those who do not call on any other god together with Allah and do not kill anyone Allah has made inviolate, except with the right to do so, and do not fornicate...

those who do not bear false witness and who, when they pass by worthless talk, pass by with dignity;

those who, when they are reminded of the Signs of their Lord, do not turn their backs, deaf and blind to them. (Surat al-Furqan: 63-73)

That is, the basic duty of believers is to submit to Allah in humility, "not to turn their backs, as if they were deaf and blind when they are reminded of His signs." Because of this duty, a person is saved from the selfishness of the ego, worldly passions, ambitions, and the concern to make himself liked by others. The kind of morality mentioned in the verses above is attained by these means alone. for this reason, in a society lacking in love and fear of Allah and faith in Him, there is no morality. Since nothing can be determined absolutely, each determines what is right and wrong according to his own desires.

Actually, the primary aim of Masonry's secular-humanist moral philosophy is, not to establish a moral world, but to establish a secular world. in other words, Masons do not espouse the philosophy of humanism because they grant a high importance to morality, but only to transmit to society their notion that religion is not necessary.

## The Masonic Goal: to Establish a Humanist World

As we have already seen, Masons are tied to humanist philosophy. That is why they reject faith in Allah, and the worship of human beings, or the veneration of "humanity" in His place (Surely Allah is beyond that). But, this raises an important question: do Masons reserve this belief for themselves only, or do they wish it to be adopted by others as well?

When we look at Masonic writings, we can clearly see the answer to this question: the goal of this organization is to spread the humanist philosophy throughout the world, and to eradicate the monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism).

For example, in an article published in the Masonic magazine Mimar Sinan, it says, "Masons do not search for the origin of the ideas of evil, justice and honesty beyond the physical world, they believe that these things arise from a person's social conditions, social relationships and what he strives for in his life." and adds, "Masonry is trying to spread this idea throughout the whole world."53

Selami Isindag, a senior Turkish Mason, writes:

According to Masonry, in order to rescue humanity from a morality of the supernatural based on religious sources, it is necessary to establish a morality that is based on love for humanity which is not relative. in its traditional moral principles, Masonry has taken into account the tendencies of the human organism, its needs and their satisfaction, the rules of social life and their organization, conscience, freedom of thought and speech and, finally, all the things that go into the formation of natural life. Because of this, its goal is to establish and foster human morality in all societies.54

What Master Mason Isindag means by "rescuing human beings from a morality based on religious sources" is the alienation of all people from religion. in the same book, Isindag explains this goal and its supposed "principles for the establishment of an advanced civilization":

Masonry's positive principles are necessary and sufficient for the establishment of an advanced civilization. They are:

-The acceptance that the impersonal God (the Great Architect of the Universe) is evolution itself.

-The rejection of the belief in revelation, mysticism and empty beliefs.

-The superiority of rational humanism and labor.

The first of the three articles above entails the rejection of the existence of Allah. (Masons do not believe in Allah, but in the Great Architect of the Universe, and the above quotation shows that with this term, they mean evolution.) the second article rejects revelation from Allah and religious knowledge based on it. (Isindag himself defines this as "empty beliefs.") and the third article ignorantly exalts humanism and the humanist concept of "labor" (as in Communism).

If we consider how entrenched these perverted ideas have become in the world today, we can appreciate the influence of Masonry in it.

There is another important thing to take note of here: how has Masonry put into motion its mission against religion? When we look at Masonic writings, we see that they imagine they can destroy religion, especially on the societal level, by means of mass "propaganda." Master Mason Selami Isindag throws a lot of light on this matter in this passage from his book:

... _Even overly repressive regimes have not been successful in their attempts to destroy the institution of religion. Indeed, the harsh excesses of political methods, in their attempt to enlighten society by rescuing people from empty religious faith and dogmas produced an adverse reaction: the places of worship they wanted close are today fuller than ever, and the faith and dogmas that that they outlawed have even more adherents. in another lecture we pointed out that in such a matter that touches heart and emotion, prohibition and force have no effect. The only way to bring people from darkness to enlightenment is positive science and the principles of logic and wisdom. If people are educated according to this way, they will respect the humanist and positive sides of religion but save themselves from its vain beliefs and dogmas.55_

In order to understand what is meant here, we have to analyze it carefully. Isindag says that repression of religion will make religious people more highly motivated and will strengthen religion. Therefore, in order to prevent religion from being strengthened, Isindag thinks Masons should destroy religion on the intellectual level. What he means by "positive science and principles of logic and wisdom" is not really science, logic or wisdom. What he means is merely a humanist, materialist philosophy that uses these catch-phrases as camouflage, as in the case of Darwinism. Isindag asserts that, when these ideas are disseminated in society, "only the humanist elements in religion will gain respect," that is, what will be left of religion will be only those elements approved by the humanist philosophy. in other words, they want to reject the basic truths that lie at the foundation of monotheistic religion (Isindag calls them vain beliefs and dogmas). These truths are the ultimate realities such as that man is created by Allah and is responsible to Him.

It is clear that Isindag and the Masons who share his ideas are in a state of serious error.

In short, Masons aim at destroying the elements of faith that constitute the essence of religion. They want to reduce the role of religion as merely a cultural element that in their view should express its ideas on a number of general moral questions. The way to accomplish this, according to the Masons, is to impose atheism on the society in the guise of supposed positive science and reason. Ultimately though, their goal is to remove religion from its position as even a cultural element, and establish a totally atheist world.

In an article by Isindag, in the magazine Mason, entitled "Positive Science–The Obstacles of Mind and Masonry," he says:

As a result of all this, I want to say that the most important humanistic and Masonic duty of us all is not to turn away from science and reason, to acknowledge that this is the best and only way according to evolution, to spread this faith of ours among people and to educate the people in positive science. The words of Ernest Renan are very important: "If the people are educated and enlightened by positive science and reason, the vain beliefs of religion will collapse by themselves." Lessing's words support this view: "If human beings are educated and enlightened by positive science and reason, one day there will be no need for religion."56

This is Masonry's ultimate goal. They want to destroy religion completely, and establish a humanist world based on the "sacredness" of humanity. That is, they want to establish a new order of ignorance, in which people reject Allah Who created them, and consider themselves Divine... This goal is the purpose for the existence of Masonry. in the Masonic magazine called Ayna (Mirror), this is called a "Temple of Ideas":

Modern Masons have changed the goal of the old Masons to build a physical temple into the idea of building a "Temple of Ideas." the construction of a Temple of Ideas will be possible when Masonic principles and virtues are established and such wise people increase on the earth.57

To further this goal, Masons work tirelessly in many countries of the world. The Masonic organization is influential in universities, other educational institutions, in the media, in the world of art and ideas. It never ceases in its efforts to disseminate its humanist philosophy in society and to discredit the truths of the faith that is the basis of religion. We will see later that the theory of evolution is one of Masons' principal means of propaganda. Moreover, they aim to build a society that does not mention even the name of Allah or religion, but caters only to human pleasure, desires and worldly ambition. This will be a society formed by people who have "made (Allah) into something to cast disdainfully behind their backs" (Surah Hud: 92), similar to the people of Madyan mentioned in the Qur'an. in this culture of ignorance there is no room for the fear or love of Allah, doing His will, performing acts of worship, nor is there any thought for the hereafter. in fact, these ideas are thought to be old-fashioned and characteristic of uneducated people. This deceptive message is being constantly used for indoctrination in films, comic strips and novels.

In this great enterprise of deception, the Masons continually play a leadership role. But, there are also many other groups and individuals engaged in the same work. Masons accept them as "honorary Masons," and count them as their allies because they are all one in their shared humanist philosophy. Selami Isindag writes:

Masonry also accepts this fact: in the outside world there are wise people who, although they are not Masons, espouse Masonic ideology. This is because this ideology is wholly an ideology of human beings and of humanity.58

This persistent battle against religion relies on two basic arguments or justifications: the materialist philosophy and Darwin's theory of evolution.

# In the following chapters we will examine these two justifications, their origin and their relationship to Masonry. Then, we will be able to understand more clearly the behind-the-scenes of these lies that have influenced the world since the nineteenth century  
4. Materialism Revisited

In the first chapter of this book, we looked at the regime of Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt and came to some important conclusions about its philosophical underpinnings. The most interesting feature of Ancient Egyptian thought, as we said, is that it was materialist, that is, posited the belief that matter is eternal and uncreated. in their book the Hiram Key, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas have some important things to say on this matter that are worth repeating:

The Egyptians believed that matter had always existed; to them it was illogical to think of a god making something out of absolutely nothing. Their view was that the world began when order came out of chaos, and that ever since there has been a battle between the forces of organization and disorder...This chaotic state was called Nun, and like the Sumerian...descriptions..., all was a dark, sunless watery abyss with a power, a creative force within it that commanded order to begin. This latent power which was within the substance of the chaos did not know it existed; it was a probability, a potential that was intertwined within the randomness of disorder.59

There is a striking similarity between the myths of Ancient Egypt and modern materialist thinking. A hidden reason for this interesting fact is that, there is a modern organization that has adopted these Ancient Egyptian beliefs, and aims to establish them throughout the world. This organization is Masonry...

## Masons and Ancient Egypt

The Ancient Egyptian materialist philosophy continued to exist after this civilization disappeared. It was adopted by certain Jews and kept alive within Kabbalist doctrine. on the other hand, a number of Greek thinkers adopted the same philosophy, and reinterpreted it and perpetuated it as the school of thought known as "Hermeticism."

The word Hermeticism comes from the name of Hermes, the Greek counterpart for the Ancient Egyptian god "Thoth." in other words, Hermeticism is the Ancient Greek version of Ancient Egyptian philosophy.

Master Mason Selami Isindag explains the origins of this philosophy and its place in modern Masonry:

In Ancient Egypt there was a religious society that bequeathed a system of thought and belief to Hermeticism. Masonry held something similar to this. for example, those who had come to a certain level attended ceremonies of the society, revealed their spiritual thoughts and feelings and trained those who were at a lower level. Pythagoras was a Hermeticist trained among them. Again, the organization and the philosophical systems of the Alexandrian school and of Neoplatonism had their origins in Ancient Egypt and there are some significant similarities between them and Masonic rites.60

Isindag is much more overt about the influence of Ancient Egypt on the origins of Masonry when he declares, "Freemasonry is a social and ritual organization whose beginnings go back to Ancient Egypt."61

Many other Masonic authorities maintain that the origins of Masonry go back to secret societies of ancient pagan cultures, such as those of Ancient Egypt and Greece. A senior Turkish Mason, Celil Layiktez, stated in an article in Mimar Sinan magazine entitled, "The Masonic Secret: What is Secrecy and What is Not?":

In Ancient Greek, Egyptian and Roman civilizations there were mystery schools (écoles de mystères) which met in the context of a particular science, gnosis or secret knowledge. Members of these mystery schools were accepted only after a long period of study and initiation ceremonies. Among these schools, the first is thought to have been the school of "Osiris" based on the events of this god's birth, youth, struggle against darkness, death and resurrection. These themes were ritually dramatized in ceremonies performed by clergy and in this way the rituals and symbols being presented were much more effective because of the actual participation...

Years later, these rites formed the first circles of a series of initiated brotherhoods that would continue under the name of Masonry. Such brotherhoods always established the same ideals and, when under oppression, were able to lead their lives secretly. They were able to survive to the present-day because they continually changed their names and their forms. but they remained faithful to ancient symbolism and their particular character and passed their ideas on to each other as a legacy. in order to mitigate against the possibility that their established ideas may threaten the establishment, they established secret laws among themselves. in order to protect themselves from the wrath of ignorant people, they took refuge in Operative Masonry which contained the discreet rules of their own trade. They inseminated this with their ideas which later influenced the formation of the modern Speculative Masonry we know today.62

In the above quotation, Layiktez praises the societies that were the origin of Masonry, and claims they kept themselves hidden to protect themselves from "ignorant people." If we can leave aside this subjective claim for a moment, we can understand from the quotation above that Masonry is a present-day representation of societies that were founded in the ancient pagan civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome. of these three civilizations, the oldest is Egypt; it is possible, therefore, to say that the main source of Masonry is Ancient Egypt. (We saw earlier that basic connection between this pagan tradition and modern Masons is the Templars.)

It is necessary to recall at this point that Ancient Egypt was one of the most referred to examples of a godless system as revealed by Allah in the Qur'an. It is the true archetype of an evil system. Many verses relate to us of the pharaohs that governed Egypt and their inner-circles, their cruelty, injustice, wickedness and excesses. Moreover, the Egyptians were a perverse people, that acquiesced to the system of their pharaohs, and believed in their false gods.

Despite this, Masons maintain that their origins lie in Ancient Egypt, and regard that civilization as praiseworthy. An article published in Mimar Sinan praises the temples of Ancient Egypt as the "source of Masonic craft":

... _The Egyptians founded Heliopolis (the Sun City) and Memphis and according to Masonic legend, these two cities were the source of knowledge and science, that is, as the Masons would say "Great Light." Pythagoras, who visited Heliopolis, had much to say about the temple. The Memphis temple where he had been trained has historical significance. in the city of Thebes there were advanced schools. Pythagoras, Plato and Cicero were initiated into Masonry in these cities.63_

Masonic writings do not laud Ancient Egypt merely in broad terms; they express praise and sympathy for the pharaohs who governed that cruel system. in another article from Mimar Sinan magazine it is stated:

The basic duty of the pharaoh was to find Light. to exalt Hidden Light in a much more vivid and powerful way....As we Masons are trying to construct the Temple of Solomon, so did the Ancient Egyptians try to build Ehram, or the House of Light. The ceremonies performed in the temples of Ancient Egypt were divided into several degrees. These degrees had two sections, small and great. The small degree was divided into one, two and three; after these the Great degrees began.64

It can be seen from this that the "light" which the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and Masons search for is the same . This can also be interpreted as suggesting that Masonry is a modern representative of the philosophy of the Egyptian pharaohs. The nature of this philosophy is revealed by Allah in the Qur'an in the judgment He passed over Pharaoh and his people: "They are a people of deviators." (Surat an-Naml: 12)

In other verses, the godless system of Egypt is described in this way:

Pharaoh called to his people, saying, "My people, does the kingdom of Egypt not belong to me? Do not all these rivers flow under my control? Do you not then see?" (Surat az-Zukhruf: 51)

In that way he swayed his people and they succumbed to him. They were a people of deviators. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 54)

## Ancient Egyptian Symbols in Masonic Lodges

One of the most important things that establishes the relation between Ancient Egypt and the Masons is their symbols.

Symbols are very important in Masonry. Masons reveal the true meaning of their philosophy to their members through allegory. A Mason, who advances stage by stage through the 33 degrees of the Masonic hierarchy, learns new meanings for each symbol at every stage. in this way, members descend step by step into the depths of Masonic philosophy.

An article in Mimar Sinan magazine describes this function of their symbols:

We all know that Masonry expresses its ideas and ideals by means of symbols and stories, that is, allegories. These stories go back to the first ages of history. We can even say that they stretch back to legends of prehistory. in this way, Masonry has shown the antiquity of its ideals and has gained a rich source of symbols.65

The conceptions of the Ancient Egyptians are the most prominent of these symbols and legends, that stretch back to the first ages of history. Everywhere in Masonic lodges, and frequently in Masonic publications, drawings of pyramids and sphinxes and hieroglyphs can be found. in an article in Mimar Sinan magazine, about the ancient sources of Masonry, it states:

If we choose Ancient Egypt as the "most ancient" I don't think we will be mistaken. Moreover, the fact that the ceremonies, degrees and philosophy found in Ancient Egypt are most similar to those in Masonry draws our attention there first.66

Again, an article in Mimar Sinan entitled "The Social Origins and Aims of Freemasonry" says:

In ancient times in Egypt, the initiation ceremonies in the temple of Memphis lasted a long time, were performed with the greatest attention and splendor, and showed many similarities to Masonic ceremonies.67

Let us examine a few examples of the relationship between Ancient Egypt and Masonry:

## The Pyramid Under the Eye

The most well known Masonic symbol is found on the seal of the United States of America, also found on the one-dollar bill. on this seal there is a half pyramid above which sits an eye within a triangle. This eye within the triangle is a symbol constantly found in Masonic lodges and all Masonic publications. A great number of the writings that deal with the subject of Masonry stress this fact.

## The pyramid below the eye in the triangle attracts relatively little notice. However, this pyramid is extremely meaningful and enlightening for the understanding of the philosophy of Masonry. An American author, Robert Hieronimus, wrote a doctoral thesis on the United States' seal in which he provided some very important information. The title of Hieronimus' thesis was "An Historic Analysis of the Reverse of the American Great Seal and Its Relationship to the Ideology of Humanist Psychology." His thesis shows that the founders of America, who originally adopted the seal, had been Masons, and that they, therefore, espoused the humanist philosophy. The connection of this philosophy with Ancient Egypt is symbolized by the pyramid placed in the center of the seal. This pyramid is a representation of the Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of the Pharaoh's tombs.68  
The Masonic Meaning of the Six Pointed Star

Another well-known symbol of Masonry is the six pointed star, formed by the imposition of one triangle over another. This is also a traditional symbol of the Jews, and today appears on the flag of Israel. It is known that the Prophet Solomon (pbuh) used it as a seal for the first time. Therefore the six-pointed star is a seal of a prophet, a Divine symbol.

But, Masons have a different conception. They do not accept the six-pointed star as a symbol of the Prophet Solomon (pbuh), but as a symbol of Ancient Egyptian paganism. An article in Mimar Sinan entitled "Allegory and Symbols in our Rituals" relates a number of interesting facts about this matter:

An equilateral triangle with three points equidistant from one another show that these values are equivalent. This symbol adopted by the Masons is known as the Star of David; it is a hexagram formed by the imposition of one equilateral triangle on another. Today it is known as the symbol of Judaism and appears on the flag of Israel. but actually, the origin of this symbol is in Ancient Egypt....This emblem was first created by the Templar Knights which they began to use as symbolism in wall decoration in their churches. This is because they were the first ones to discover in Jerusalem some important facts about Christianity. After the Templars were disposed of, this emblem began to be used in synagogues. but in Masonry, we no doubt use this symbol in the universal sense that it had in Ancient Egypt. in this sense, we have combined two important forces together. If you erase the upper and lower bases of the two equilateral triangles, you will find this rare symbol that you know very well.69

Actually, we must interpret all Masonic symbols in relation to Solomon's Temple in this way. as revealed in the Qur'an, like other prophets, the Prophet Solomon (pbuh) was a blessed prophet who some wished to slander. in a verse of the Qur'an, Allah says, "They follow what the satans recited in the reign of Solomon. Solomon did not become unbeliever, but the satans did..." (Surat al-Baqara: 102)

Masons have adopted this corrupt idea mistakenly attributed to the Prophet Solomon (pbuh). for this reason, they afford him an important place in their doctrines. in his book the Occult Conspiracy, the American historian Michael Howard says that, since the Middle Ages, the Prophet Solomon (pbuh) (Allah forbid) has been regarded by various ignorant people as a magician and as one who introduced some pagan ideas into Judaism.70 Howard explains that the Masons regard the Temple of Solomon as being in their eyes a "pagan temple," and as important for this reason.71

This false image fabricated against the Prophet Solomon (pbuh), who was a devout and obedient servant of Allah, shows the true origins of Masonry.

## The Double Column

An indispensable part of the décor of a Masonic lodge is the double column in the entrance. The words "Jachin" and "Boaz" are inscribed on them, in imitation of the two columns at the entrance to Solomon's Temple. but actually, the Masons do not intend these columns as a memorial to the Prophet Solomon (pbuh); they are an expression of those corrupt insinuations against the Prophet Solomon (pbuh). The origins of these columns again go back to Ancient Egypt. in the article entitled "Allegory and Symbols in our Rituals," Mimar Sinan magazine states:

For example, in Egypt, Horus and Set were twin architects and supports of the heavens. Even Bacchus in Thebes was one too. The two columns in our lodges have their origin in Ancient Egypt. One of these columns was in the south of Egypt in the city of Thebes; the other was in the north in Heliopolis. in the entrance to the Amenta temple dedicated to Ptah, the chief god of Egypt, there were two columns as in the temple of Solomon. in the oldest myths associated with the sun, two columns are mentioned, named intelligence and power, erected in front of the gate of the entrance to eternity.72

## The Egyptian Terminology of the Lodges

In their book, the Hiram Key, two British Masonic authors, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, drew attention to the Ancient Egyptian roots of Masonry. One interesting point they reveal is that the words used in the ceremony in which a Mason is made to rise to the degree of Master Mason are:

Ma'at-neb-men-aa, Ma'at-ba-aa'.73

Knight and Lomas explain that these words are used most of the time without any thought to their meaning, but they are Ancient Egyptian words and mean,

"Great is the established Master of Freemasonry, Great is the Spirit of Freemasonry."74

The authors state that the word "Ma'at" means the skill of wall building, and that the nearest translation is "Masonry." This means that modern Masons, thousands of years later, still conserve the language of Ancient Egypt in their lodges.

##   
Mozart's Magic Flute

One of the more interesting products of Masonry is the Magic Flute, an opera by the famous composer, Mozart. Mozart was a Mason, and it is an acknowledged fact that many parts of this opera contain Masonic messages. The interesting matter is that these Masonic messages are closely related to Ancient Egyptian paganism. Mimar Sinan explains it in this way:

It is known that there is a clear connection between Ancient Egyptian and Masonic rituals. No matter how much those who attempted to interpret the Magic Flute as "a story about the Far East," at its foundation are Egyptian rituals. It is the gods and goddesses of the Egyptian temples that influenced the creation of the characters of the Magic Flute.75

## Obelisks

Another important symbol of Masonry is what was once an important element in Ancient Egyptian architecture—the obelisk. An obelisk is a tall, vertical tower with a pyramid as its peak. Obelisks were inscribed with Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and lay buried for centuries under the ground until they were discovered in the nineteenth century, and removed to Western cities such as New York, London and Paris. The largest obelisk was sent to the USA. This exportation was arranged by Masons. This was because obelisks, as well as the Ancient Egyptian figures inscribed on them, are claimed by Masons as being really their own symbols. Mimar Sinan avers this about the 21-meter high obelisk in New York:

The most striking instance of the symbolic use of architecture is the monument called Cleopatra's needle, given to the US as a gift in 1878 by the Egyptian Governer Ismail. This monument is now in Central Park. Its surface is covered with Masonic emblems. This monument was originally erected in the 16th century BC at the entrance to a temple of the Sun god, an initiation center in Heliopolis.76

## The Legend of Isis—The Widow

An important symbolic idea in Masonry is that of the widow. Masons call themselves the children of the widow, and pictures of widows often appear in their publications. What is the origin of this idea? Who is this widow?

When we examine Masonic sources, we find that the symbol of the widow derives originally from an Egyptian legend. This legend is one of Ancient Egypt's most important myths—the story of Osiris and Isis. Osiris was an imaginary fertility god and Isis was his wife. According to the legend, Osiris died as a result of a crime of passion by which Isis became a widow. So, the Masonic widow is Isis. An article in Mimar Sinan explains the matter in the following way:

The Osiris-Isis legend is the topic of many articles and lectures and is the closest of the Ancient Egyptian myths to Masonry. The test to become a priest of the temple of Isis is the Masonic initiation itself. It would be tedious to have to repeat it. There, light was one of the most important elements; in order to be buried in the darkness of the East, the morning sun begins to descend after noon and takes on Osiris' duty every day, just like Horus who more brilliantly took the place of his murdered father. So, the "widow" whose children we are is none other than Osiris' widow Isis.77

We see that Masonry, which portrays itself as being founded on reason and science, is actually a mythological doctrine full of superstitious beliefs.

## The Compass and Square

Among the most familiar symbols of Masonry is the compass superimposed over a square. If Masons are asked, they explain that this symbol represents the concepts of science, geometric order and rational thinking. However, the compass and square actually has quite a different meaning.

We can learn this from a book written by one of the greatest Masons of all time. in his book Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike wrote the following about the compass and square:

The square... is a natural and appropriate Symbol of this earth... The hermaphroditic figure is the symbol of the double nature anciently assigned to the Deity, as Generator and Producer, as Brahm and Maya among the Arians, Osiris and Isis among the Egyptians. as the Sun was male, so the Moon was female.78

This means that the compass and square, the most well known symbol of Masonry, is a symbol of Arian paganism and which dates back to Ancient Egypt or before the advent of Christianity. The moon and the sun, in the passage quoted from Pike, are important symbols in Masonic lodges, and are none other than a reflection of the false beliefs of those ancient pagan societies that worshipped the moon and the sun.

## Masonry's Pagan Philosophy

So far, we have learned that Masonry's origins lie in a pagan doctrine that stretches back to Ancient Egypt, and that it is there that the true meaning of its concepts and symbols are hidden. for this reason, Masonry is in conflict with the monotheistic religions. It is humanist, materialist and evolutionist. The American historian Michael Howard describes this secret that is only completely revealed to those Masons of the highest degree:

Why should Christians be so critical of Freemasonry...?...[T]he answer to this question lies in the "secrets" of Freemasonry. If these secrets were readily available to the general public it is doubtful if their meaning would be understood to those who were not versed in the doctrines of occultism and ancient religion. in fact it is doubtful if many of the ordinary lodge members understand what its secrets represent. in the inner circle of Masonry, among those who have obtained higher degrees of initiation, there are Masons who understand that they are the inheritors of an ancient and pre-Christian tradition handed down from pagan times.79

When we look at the writing of Turkish Masonry, we see that Masons of the highest degree are in possession of knowledge that they keep hidden from the other brothers. The Master Mason Necdet Egeran describes what higher degree Masons think about this matter:

Some Masons even understand Masonry as only a kind of half religion, half charitable fraternal institution where they can establish pleasant social relationships and treat it accordingly. Others think that the purpose of Masonry is only to make good people better. Still others think that Masonry is a place to build character. in short, those who do not know how to read or write the sacred language of Masonry understand the meaning of its symbols and allegories in this way or some such similar way. but for a few Masons who are able to go deeply into it, Masonry and its goals are quite different. Masonry means a revealed knowledge, an initiation and a new beginning. It means leaving an old way of life and entering a new and still nobler life....Behind Masonry's elementary and basic symbolism there is a series of revelations that helps us to enter a higher inner life and to learn the secrets of our existence. So, it is in this inner life and the entrance into it that it is possible to reach the Enlightenment of Masonry. Only then does it become possible to learn the nature and conditions of progress and evolution.80

This quotation underlines that though a few Masons of lower degree think that Masonry is a charitable and social organization, it is actually about the secrets of human existence. That is, the outward appearance of Masonry as charitable or social organization is actually a guise to hide the philosophy of the organization. in reality, Masonry is an organization that aims to systematically impose a specific philosophy on its members as on the rest of society.

As we said at the beginning, the fundamental element of this philosophy, one which has transpired to Masonry from pagan cultures, especially that of Ancient Egypt, is materialism.

## Materialism in Masonic Sources

### I. The Absolute Matter Error

Today's Masons, as did the pharaohs, priests and other classes of Ancient Egypt, believe in the eternity and uncreatedness of matter, and that out of this lifeless matter living things came to be by chance. in Masonic writings we can read detailed accounts of these basic errors of materialist philosophy.

in his book, Masonluktan Esinlenmeler (Inspirations from Freemasonry), Master Mason Selami Isindag writes about Masonry's pure materialist philosophy:

All space, the atmosphere, the stars, nature, all animate and inanimate things are composed of atoms. Human beings are nothing more than a spontaneously occurring collection of atoms. A balance in the flow of electricity among atoms assures the survival of living things. When this balance is destroyed (not the electricity in the atoms), we die, return to the earth and are dispersed into atoms. That is, we have come from matter and energy and we will return to matter and energy. Plants make use of our atoms, and all living things including us make use of plants. Everything is made of the same substance. but because our brains are most highly evolved of all animals, consciousness appeared. If we look at the results of experimental psychology, we see that our three-fold psychic experience of emotion-mind-will is the result of the balanced functioning of the cells in the brain's cortex and hormones... Positivist science accepts that nothing came into existence from nothing, and nothing will be destroyed. as a result, it can be concluded that human beings feel grateful and obliged to no power. The universe is a totality of energy with no beginning or end. Everything is born from this totality of energy, evolving and dying, but never totally disappearing. Things change and are transformed. There is really no such thing as death or loss; there is continuous change, transformation and formation. but it is not possible to explain this great question and universal secret by means of scientific laws. but extra-scientific explanations are imaginary descriptions, dogma and vain belief. According to positivist science and reason, there is no spirit apart from the body.81

You will find views identical to those above in the books of materialist thinkers such as K. Marx, F. Engels, V .I. Lenin, G. Politzer, C. Sagan, and J. Monod. They all accept the basic materialist myth that the universe has existed for ever, matter is the one absolute existent entity, human beings are composed of matter and are without spirit, matter evolved in and out of itself, and life appeared as a result of chance. It is right to use the term myth because, contrary to Isindag's claim that "these processes are the result of positivist science and reason," all these views have been invalidated by scientific discoveries in the second half of the twentieth century. for example, the Big Bang theory, accepted in scientific circles as proven, shows scientifically that the universe was created from nothing millions of years ago. The Laws of Thermodynamics show that matter does not have the ability to organize itself and that the balance and order in the universe is the result therefore of a conscious Creation. by demonstrating the extraordinary structure of living things, biology proves the existence of a Creator, in other words Allah, Who made them all. (For detailed information, see Harun Yahya's the Creation of the Universe, Darwinism Refuted, the Evolution Deceit)

In his article, Isindag continues to explain that Masons are, in fact, materialists and, therefore, atheists, and that they use the concept of the "Great Architect of the Universe" in reference to a material evolution:

I want very briefly to touch on some principles, thoughts adopted by Masons: According to Masonry, life begins from a single cell, changes, is transformed and evolves into a human being. The nature, cause or purpose or conditions of this beginning cannot be known. Life comes from a combination of matter and energy and returns to it. If we accept the Great Architect of the Universe as a sublime principle, an endless horizon of goodness and beauty, the apex of the evolution, its highest stage and the ideal towards which human beings strive, and if we do not personalize it, we may be rescued from dogmatism.82

As we see, one of the most basic principles of Masonic philosophy is that things come from matter and go back to matter. An interesting aspect of this view is that Masons do not regard this philosophy as particular to just themselves; they want to disseminate these ideas to the whole of society. Isindag continues:

A mason trained with these principles and doctrines accepts the duty to educate people... and to edify them by teaching them the principles of reason and positivist science. in this way, Masonry is addressed to people. It works on behalf of people despite the people.83

These words show two aspects of Masonry's perceived role in society;

1. Under the guise of positivist science and reason, Masonry attempts to impose on the rest of society the materialist philosophy it believes in (that is, Ancient Egyptian myth).

2. They intend to do this despite the people. That is, even if a society believes in Allah and has no desire to accept a materialist philosophy, Masonry will be dogged in their attempt to change people's world view without their consent.

There is an important matter that we must take notice of here: the terminology that Masons use is deceptive. in their writings, especially those directed at the rest of society, they employ language designed to show their philosophy as harmless, intelligent and tolerant. An example of this can be seen in the quotation above, in the notion of "edifying people by teaching them the principles of reason and positivist science." Indeed, Masonic philosophy has nothing to do with "science and reason"; it has to do with an outmoded myth that flies in the face of science. It is not Masonry's goal to edify people; their deliberate intention is to impose their philosophy on people. When they maintain that they are determined to do this despite the people, we see that they are not tolerant, but in possession of a totalitarian world-view.

### II Denial of the Existence of Spirit and of the Hereafter

As a part of their materialist beliefs, Masons do not accept the existence of the human spirit and completely reject the idea of the hereafter. in spite of this, Masonic writings sometimes say of the dead that they "passed over into eternity" or other such spiritual expressions. This may appear contradictory, but it is not, actually, because all of Masonry's references to the immortality of the spirit are symbolic. Mimar Sinan deals with this topic in an article entitled, "After Death in Freemasonry":

In the myth of Master Hiram, Masons accept resurrection after death in a symbolic manner. This resurrection shows that truth always prevails over death and darkness. Masonry does not give any importance to the existence of a spirit apart from the body. in Masonry, resurrection after death is to leave some spiritual or material work as a legacy to human beings. These make a human being immortal. Those who have been able to have their names immortalized in this deceptively short human life are those who have become successful. We regard those who have had their names immortalized as persons who have spent all their efforts, either for their contemporaries or for those generations that follow them, to make people happy and to ensure for them a more humane world. Their aim is to exalt the humane impulses that influence the lives of living people... Human beings who have sought immortality throughout the centuries can achieve it through the work they do, the services they perform and the ideas they produce, and this will give their lives meaning. as Tolstoy explained, "Paradise will then have been established here on earth and people will attain the highest possible good."84

On the same topic, Master Mason Isindag writes:

THE SUBSTANCE of EVERYTHING: Masonry understands this as energy and matter. They say that everything changes stage by stage and will return again to matter. Scientifically, this is defined as death. Mysticism on this matter, that is, the belief that, of the two forces of which a person is composed—spirit and body—the body will die and the spirit will not; that spirits pass away to the world of spirits, continue their existence there and come back into another body when God commands, does not fit in with the change-transformation ideas accepted by Masonry. The ideas of Masonry on this matter can be expressed in this way: "After your death, the only things that will be left of you, and not die, are the memories of your maturity and what you have accomplished." This idea is a kind of philosophical way of thinking based on the principles of positivist science and reason. The religious belief in the immortality of the spirit and resurrection after death does not agree with positivist principles. Masonry has taken its principles of thought from positivist and rationalist philosophical systems. So, in this philosophical question, it is connected to a different way of thinking and explanation than that of religion.85

To reject resurrection after death and to search for immortality in worldly legacy... Even if Masons present this idea as being in conformity with modern science, it is, in fact, a myth that has been believed by godless people since the early ages of history. It is stated in the Qur'an that godless people "constructed fine buildings hoping to live forever." the Prophet Hud (peace be upon him), one of the past prophets, warned the people of 'Ad against this mode of ignorance, as stated below:

When their brother Hud said to them, "Will you not do your duty?

I am a faithful Messenger to you, so heed Allah and obey me.

I do not ask you for any wage for it. My wage is the responsibility of no one but the Lord of all the worlds.

Do you build a tower on every hilltop, just to amuse yourselves,

and construct fine buildings, hoping to live for ever,

and when you attack, attack as tyrants do?

So heed Allah and obey me." (Surat ash-Shu'ara': 124-131)

The mistake these godless people committed was not the construction of fine buildings. Muslims also give importance to art; by producing it, they try to beautify the world. The difference lies in intention. A Muslim is interested in art to the extent that it expresses the beauty and esthetic notions that Allah has given to human beings. Godless people are mistaken in regarding art as a way to immortality.

## The Scientific Incongruity of Denying the Soul

The Masons' denial of the existence of spirit, and their claim that human consciousness is composed of matter, are not in accord with science. on the contrary, modern scientific discoveries demonstrate that human consciousness cannot be reduced to matter, and that consciousness cannot be explained in terms of the functions of the brain.

A look at the relevant literature shows that scientists have reached no conclusion as a result of their efforts, spurred on by materialist belief, to reduce consciousness to the brain, and many have ultimately given up. Today, many researchers are of the opinion that human consciousness comes from an unknown source beyond the neurons in the brain and the molecules and atoms that form them.

After years of study, one of these researchers, Wilder Penfield, reached the conclusion that the existence of spirit is an undeniable fact:

After years of striving to explain the mind on the basis of brain-action alone, I have come to the conclusion that it is simpler (and far easier to be logical) if one adopts the hypothesis that our being does consist of two fundamental elements [brain and mind (or soul)]....Because it seems to be certain that it will always be quite impossible to explain the mind on the basis of neuronal action within the brain... I am forced to choose the proposition that our being is to be explained on the basis of two fundamental elements." [brain and mind, or body and soul] 86

What leads scientists to this conclusion is the fact that consciousness can never be described in terms of material factors alone. The human brain is like a marvelous computer, in which information from our five senses are collected and processed. But, this computer does not have a sense of "self"; it cannot conceive, feel or think about the sensations that it receives. The prominent English physicist, Roger Penrose, in his book the Emperor's New Mind, writes:

What is it that gives a particular person his individual identity? Is it, to some extent, the very atoms that compose his body? Is his identity dependent upon the particular choice of electrons, protons, and other particles that compose those atoms? There are at least two reasons why this cannot be so. in the first place, there is a continual turnover in the material of any living person's body. This applies in particular to the cells in a person's brain, despite the fact that no new actual brain cells are produced after birth. The vast majority of atoms in each living cell (including each brain cell)—and, indeed, virtually the entire material of our bodies—has been replaced many times since birth. The second reason comes from quantum physics...If an electron in a person's brain were to be exchanged with an electron in a brick, then the state of the system would be exactly the same state as it was before, not merely indistinguishable from it! the same holds for protons and for any other kind of particle, and for whole atoms, molecules, etc. If the entire material content of a person were to be exchanged with corresponding particles in the bricks of his house then, in a strong sense, nothing would have happened whatsoever.87

Penrose clearly says that, even if all human atoms were exchanged with brick atoms, the qualities that make a human being conscious would remain completely the same. or we could think of it conversely. If we exchanged the particles of the atoms in the brain with the atoms in bricks, the bricks would not become conscious.

In short, what makes human beings human is not a material quality; it is a spiritual one, and it is clear that its source is an entity apart from matter. in the conclusion of his book, Penrose comments:

Consciousness seems to me to be such an important phenomenon that I simply cannot believe that it is something just "accidentally" conjured up by a complicated computation. It is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.88

What is materialism's standpoint, then, in light of these findings? How can materialists claim that human beings are composed only of matter, and that a human being with intelligence, feelings, thoughts, memory and senses, could come to be by the chance composition of lifeless, unconscious atoms? How can they possibly think that such a process is possible?

These questions concern all materialists. But, on these topics, Masonic writings contain ideas still more curious than anything found among the writings of materialists. When we look at these writings, we see clearly that behind the materialist philosophy lies the "worship of matter."

## Masonic Materialism: The Divinization of Matter

It is necessary to understand clearly what the materialist philosophy is: Those who espouse this philosophy believe that the great order and balance of the universe, and the millions of species of living things in the world, including human beings, came about only by the activity of the atoms that comprise matter. in other words, they think that lifeless and unconscious atoms are creators (Surely Allah is beyond that).

No matter how modern this idea may seem, it is, in fact, a reemergence of a corrupt belief that has existed since the earliest ages of history: Idolatry. Those who worshipped idols believed that the statues and totems they worshipped had spirit and power. in other words, they attributed consciousness and great power to lifeless, unconscious matter. Surely, this is obviously nonsensical. in the Qur'an, Allah refers to the irrationality of paganism. in the stories of the Prophets, the spuriousness of pagan beliefs is especially emphasized. for example, it is revealed in a Qur'anic verse that the Prophet Abraham (pbuh) asked his father, "Father, why do you worship what can neither hear nor see and is not of any use to you at all?" (Surah Maryam: 42) It is clear that, to attribute divinity to lifeless matter, that cannot hear or see, and has no power, is evidently very foolish.

Materialists are modern examples of idolaters. They do not worship statues and totems made of wood and stone, but believe in the idea that matter constitutes, not only these, but all bodies, and think that this matter has limitless power, intelligence and knowledge. Masonic writings have some interesting things to say about this, because Masons openly confess this pagan belief, which is the essence of materialism. An article in Mimar Sinan magazine declares:

In order for a material object to come to be, atoms come together in a certain order. The force that causes this organization is the spirit possessed by each atom. Because every spirit is a consciousness, every created thing is an intelligent consciousness. and every created thing is intelligent to the same degree. A human being, an animal, a bacterium and a molecule are all intelligent to the same degree.89

We notice that it is claimed here that every atom has intelligence and consciousness. The Masonic writer making this claim proposes that every thing has consciousness because of the atoms it possesses and, because he rejects the existence of the human spirit, he regards a human being as a mass of atoms, just like an animal or lifeless molecules.

However, the fact is this: lifeless matter (atoms) has no spirit, consciousness or intelligence. This is a fact proved to us by both observation and experiment. Only living things have consciousness, which is the result of the "soul" that Allah has given to them. of all living things, human beings are benefited with the highest degree of consciousness because they possess a unique spirit that Allah has given to them.

In other words, consciousness is not found in lifeless matter, as the Masons believe, but in beings that have spirit. But, in order not to accept the existence of Allah, Masons resort to the foolish belief that attributes "spirit" to atoms.

This materialist belief espoused by Masons is a new expression of a pagan belief called "animism," which supposes that every material thing in nature (rocks, mountains, winds, water, etc.) has its own spirit and consciousness. The Greek philosopher Aristotle combined this belief with materialism (the belief that matter is uncreated and is the only absolute) and even today, the attribution of consciousness to lifeless things—being the essence of materialism—has become a kind of contemporary paganism.

Masonic writings are full of interesting accounts of this belief. An article in Mimar Sinan entitled "The Way of Truth" maintains:

If we accept the animist hierarchy that spirit exists in an atom, that a molecule directs the spirit in an atom, that a cell directs the spirit in a molecule, that an organ directs the spirit in a cell, is not the main spirit that directs the whole body the god of these lesser spirits?90

This false and primitive doctrine leads Masons to believe that the balance and order in the universe is effected by lifeless matter. Again, in Mimar Sinan, an article has appeared about the world's geological development. It states:

This surface deterioration occurs so subtly that we can say that the present state of life has been attained as a result of this hidden intelligence in magma. If this were not so, water would not collect in hollows and the earth would be completely covered by water.91

Another article in the magazine Mimar Sinan claims that the first living cells, and those that multiplied from them, were conscious, formed a plan and implemented it:

The beginning of life on earth happened when a single cell came to be. This single cell immediately began to move and, under a vital and truly rebellious impulse, divided in two and continued along this path of infinite division. but these separated cells perceive no purpose to their wandering and, as if fearing this wandering and under a powerful instinctive drive of self-preservation, these separated cells co-operate among themselves, come together and work in a total democratic harmony and self-sacrifice in the creation of those organs critical for life.92

But, contrary to what is asserted in this quotation, there is no consciousness in a living cell. to believe this is nothing but superstition. Again, as we see in the above quotation, in order to deny the existence and creative activity of Allah, they attribute farcical attributes to atoms, molecules and cells, such as intelligence, the ability to plan, self-sacrifice and even "democratic harmony." Just as it is nonsense to say of the creation of an oil painting that "the paints ordered themselves together according to a plan, and proceeded democratically and in harmony," so the Masons' claim about the origin of life is nonsense.

Another common expression of the superstitious tenets of Masonry and its materialism is the notion of "Mother Nature." We encounter this expression in documentary films, books, magazines and even commercials; it is used to express the belief that the lifeless matter that composes nature (nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, etc.) has a conscious power, and that it has by itself created human beings and all living things. This myth is not based on observation or logical reasoning, but is intended to win people over by means of mass indoctrination. The purpose is for people to forget Allah, the real Creator, turning instead to paganism, in which "nature" is regarded as the creator.

Masonry strives to give shape to this creed, strengthen and disseminate it, and supports all social forces that it regards as being its allies. An article in Mimar Sinan, entitled "Thoughts about the Concept and the Evolution of Solidarity from the Scientific Point of View," speaks of the "mysterious harmony that mother nature has ordered" and states that this is the basis of Masonry's humanist philosophy. It further states that Masonry will support those movements that espouse this philosophy:

When it considers from the point of view of the material give and take in the world of living things, that beneficial microbes which live on the earth and within us, all plants, animals and human beings exist in a mysterious harmony ordered by mother nature, and that they are continually engaged in an organic solidarity, I want to affirm once again that Masonry will regard every kind of psycho-social movement dedicated to well-being, peace, security and happiness, in short, every movement that is on the road to humanism and the universal unity of humanity, as means and actions that advance its own ideals.93

The most important of those "means and actions" which "advance the ideals of Masonry" is the purportedly scientifically based theory of evolution, the modern support for materialism and humanism.

In the next chapter we will take a closer look to the theory of evolution from Darwin's time to modern evolutionist propaganda, and we will discover the secret relationship of Masonry to this greatest scientific error of all time.

# 5. The Theory of Evolution Revisited

It is 1832.

HMS Beagle is making its way across the vast Atlantic. The ship looks like any ordinary cargo or passenger ship, but its journey is a journey of discovery, and one that will last many years. Setting out from England, it will cross the entire ocean and reach the shores of South America.

The Beagle, a ship that had been of little known importance until that time, was setting out on a 5 year voyage.

That which would ultimately make that ship famous was its passenger, Charles Robert Darwin, a 22 year-old naturalist. He had not actually studied biology but had been a student of theology at the University of Cambridge.

Though this young man's education in theology was extensive, the times in which he lived were deeply influenced by materialist thought. Indeed, one year before embarking on his journey on the Beagle, he had renounced a number of basic tenets of Christianity.

The young Darwin interpreted all the discoveries made in the course of his voyage in terms of materialist thought, and sought to explain the living things he investigated without reference to Divine Creation. He developed groundless these ideas over the ensuing years, refined them, and ultimately published his theory. His theory was proposed in 1859, in a book entitled Origin of the Species, which was not well received by the intellectual world of the nineteenth century, though which would finally provide the so-called scientific basis that atheism had been seeking to find for centuries.

Was the theory of evolution an original discovery of Darwin? Did he alone develop a theory that opened the way to one of the greatest deceits in the history of the world?

Actually, Darwin did nothing other than to retouch a superstitious idea whose foundations had been established earlier.

## The Evolutionary Myth, From Ancient Greece to Modern Europe

The essence of Darwin's theory of evolution is the so-called claim that, under purely natural conditions, lifeless matter spontaneously brought forth the first living things, and that from them, again under these same conditions, all other species developed merely by chance. in other words, the theory of evolution proposes the existence of a self-contained system, that has organized itself without a creator, and spontaneously brings living things into being. This false idea, that nature organizes itself without a Creator, is called "naturalism."

The theory of naturalism is as absurd as the idea that a library could create itself without writers. But, since the earliest ages of history, this idea has been defended by numerous thinkers based merely on their philosophical and ideological whims, and been adopted by a number of civilizations.

Naturalism was born and flourished in pagan societies such as Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. But, with the spread of Christianity, this pagan philosophy was largely abandoned, and the idea that Allah created the whole of nature and the universe came to dominate. in a similar manner, as Islam spread throughout the East, naturalist ideas, and pagan beliefs, such as Zoroastrianism and Shamanism, were eradicated, and the fact of Creation was accepted.

Nevertheless, the naturalist philosophy persisted underground. It was preserved by secret societies and emerged again under more suitable circumstances. in the Christian world, as we mentioned at the beginning of this book, naturalism was preserved by the Masons, and other secret societies who followed their lead. A Turkish magazine, named Mason, published for distribution to members of the order, provides the following interesting information:

Those who arrived at new discoveries in the world of natural phenomena and events without taking gods into account were forced to keep their discoveries to themselves. Research was done secretly and even those who were engaged in similar research had to keep their relationship hidden. This secrecy required the use of several signs and symbols in the course of projects which were undertaken.94

What is meant here by "new discoveries" is an understanding of science aligned to naturalism, a theory that does not accept the existence of Allah. This distorted approach to scientific study was developed secretly in esoteric societies that needed to use signs and symbols for this purpose, and so the roots of Masonry were established.

One of these so-called secret societies, responsible for planting the roots of Masonry, was the Rose-Cross (Rosicrucian) order, a sort of meeting point between the Templars and Masons. This order, first heard of in the fifteenth century, created a fury of interest in alchemy, especially in Europe, of which its members were said to possess secret knowledge. but the most important legacy of the Rose Cross order today is the naturalist philosophy, and the idea of evolution, of which it is a part. The Mason declares that the roots of Masonry go back to the Templars and the Rosicrucians, stressing the evolutionist philosophy of the latter:

Speculative Masonry or the contemporary organization of Masonry is founded on Medieval construction guilds we refer to as Operative Masonry. But, those who brought the basic speculative elements to this foundation were members of certain organizations that studied pre-historic esoteric systems and the knowledge they contained. The most important of these organizations were the Templars and the Rosicrucians...

It is unknown where and how the Rosicrucian order was established. The first traces of it come from fifteenth century Europe, but it is clear that the order is much older. as distinct from the Templars, the basic interest of the Rosicrucians was scientific. Its members were widely engaged in alchemy....The most important characteristic of its members was the fact that they believed that every stage of development was a stage in the process of evolution. for this reason, they placed naturalism at the basis of their philosophies and became known the "naturalists."95

Another Masonic organization to have developed the idea of evolution was not in the West but it was another Masonic order founded in the East. Grand Master Selami Isindag provides the following information, in an article entitled "Masonry and Us From Its Foundation Until Today":

In the Islamic world there was a counterpart of Masonry called the Ikhwan as-Safa' [The Brethren of Purity]. This society was founded in Basra in the time of the Abbasids and published an encyclopedia composed of 54 large volumes. 17 of these dealt with natural science and it contained scientific explanations that closely resembled those of Darwin. These found their way even to Spain and had an influence on Western thought.96

Though it developed in the Islamic world, this society distanced itself from basic Islamic tenets. It was influenced by Ancient Greek philosophy, which it expressed by means of an esoteric symbolism. Selami Isindag continues:

This society originated in the Ismaili sect and its basic purpose was to make religious dogmas intelligible by allegorical and symbolic explanations. Its philosophy was influenced by Pythagoras and Plato. to enter this secret society, a person was first enticed by mystical instruction and later purged of vain religious beliefs and dogmas. Later he was familiarized with philosophical and symbolic methods. Such an initiate who passed through his apprenticeship was sometimes put through training in neo-platonic ideas, and then he could begin chemistry, astrology and numerology, the science of the significance of numbers. but all this knowledge was kept secret and was given only to those deemed worthy to receive it. So, the origins of Masonry is based on these foundations. Some of the symbolic meanings of these elements were not contrary to science and logic and so survive in various places in our rituals today.97

The words quoted above, "purged of vain religious beliefs and dogmas" mean that initiates were made to reject religion at all. That is how the Mason Isindag defines religion. However, as we examined in earlier sections, "vain belief and dogma" is a euphemism particular to Masonic philosophy. It must be recognized that Masonry, or any other materialist group, express such anti-religious ideas without logical justification; they rely only on propaganda and suggestion. Because they cannot denounce religion rationally, they resort to these methods of suggestion and words selected to create a particular psychological effect.

From the quotation above, we learn that the Ikhwan as-Safa', a parallel society of Freemasonry in the Islamic world, carried on activities much like those of the modern Masons. Their method was to espouse a pagan philosophy contrary to true religion, to express that philosophy by means of symbols, and to introduce this secret philosophy to its members gradually.

In the history of Islam there have been various thinkers who in this way distanced themselves from Islam, and were influenced by the Ancient Greeks' materialist and evolutionist myths. The fact that this school of thought, that the great Islamic scholar Ghazali so loathed and refuted in his works, has a Masonic character to it surely casts some important light on the matter. in his work entitled Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance From Error), Ghazali directly criticized the Ikhwan as-Safa' society, explaining that it espoused a corrupt philosophy influenced by the ideas of the Ancient Greeks. And, in his work entitled Fedaih-ul-Batinniyye, he demonstrated the perversity of the teachings of the Ismaili sect, to which the Ikhwan as-Safa' belonged.

## Enlightenment and the Advent of the Myth of Evolution

The materialist and evolutionist ideas adopted by Masonic organizations such as the Rosicrucians or the Ikhwan as-Safa', expressed secretly, but most often symbolically, became more open as the Catholic Church's social power weakened in Europe. as a result, these pagan teachings, which had gone underground for about 1,000 years because of the political and intellectual dominance of Christianity, came into vogue again among thinkers in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe.

That period in which materialist and evolutionist ideas gained widespread acceptance in European society, and influenced it in distancing itself from religion, is known as the Enlightenment. Surely, those who selected this word (that is those who characterized this change of ideas positively as a move into the light) were the leaders of this deviation. They described the earlier period as the "Dark Age" and blamed religion for it, claiming that Europe became enlightened when it was secularized and held religion at a distance. This biased and false perspective is still today one of the basic propaganda mechanisms of those who oppose religion.

It is true that Medieval Christianity was partially "dark" with superstitions and bigotry and most of these have been cleared in the post- Medieval age. in fact, the Enlightenment did not bring much positive results to the West either. The most important result of the Enlightenment, which occurred in France, was the French Revolution, that turned the country into a sea of blood. Today Enlightenment influenced literature praises the French Revolution; however, the Revolution cost France much and contributed to social conflicts that were to last into the twentieth century. The analysis of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment by the famous British thinker, Edmund Burke, is very telling. in his famous book, Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in 1790, he criticized both the idea of the Enlightenment and its fruit, the French Revolution; in his opinion, that movement destroyed the basic values that held society together, such as religion, morality and family structure, and paved the way towards terror and anarchy. Finally, he regarded the Enlightenment, as one interpreter put it, as a "destructive movement of the human intellect."98

The leaders of this destructive movement were Masons. Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, and other anti-religious thinkers who prepared the way for the Revolution, were all Masons. The Masons were intimate with the Jacobins who were the leaders of the Revolution. This had led some historians to the opinion that it is difficult to distinguish between Jacobinism and Masonry in France of this period. (See Harun Yahya's New Masonic Order)

During the French Revolution, much hostility was evinced toward religion. Many clergymen were sent to the guillotine, churches were destroyed, and, moreover, there were those who wanted to eradicate Christianity totally and replace it with a deviant, pagan, symbolic religion called "the Religion of Reason." the leaders of the Revolution also became casualties of this madness, every one of them finally losing their heads on the guillotine, to which they themselves had condemned so many people. Even today, many Frenchmen continue to question whether or not the revolution was a good thing.

The anti-religious sentiments of the French Revolution spread throughout Europe and, as a result, the nineteenth century became one of the boldest and most aggressive periods of anti-religious propaganda.

Therefore, this process allowed the possibility for materialist and evolutionist ideas, that had been operating underground for centuries through the use of symbols, to come forth into the public. Materialists, such as Diderot and Baron d'Holbach, sought to raise the anti-religious banner, and the Ancient Greek myth of evolution was introduced into the scientific community.

## Erasmus Darwin

Those generally thought to be the founders of the theory of evolution are the French biologist Jean Lamarck and the English biologist Charles Darwin. According to the classic story, Lamarck first proposed the theory of evolution, but he made the mistake of basing it on the "inheritance of acquired traits." Later, Darwin proposed a second theory based on natural selection.

Though, here we must mention the name of another theoretician who played an important role in the origins of the theory of evolution: Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather.

Erasmus Darwin was an eighteenth century contemporary of Lamarck. A physicist, psychologist and poet, he was recognized as an authority. His biographer, Desmond King-Hele even called him the greatest Englishman of the eighteenth century.99 But, Erasmus Darwin had a very dark private life.100

Erasmus Darwin is mainly noted as one of England's most prominent naturalists. as we said at the beginning, naturalism is a view that does not accept that Allah created living things. Actually, this view, which is close to materialism, was the starting point of Erasmus Darwin's theory of evolution.

In the 1780's and 90's, Erasmus Darwin developed the main outlines of theory of evolution, according to which all living things came from a single common ancestor by chance and according to the laws of nature. He did his research in an eight acre botanic garden he had prepared, and sought evidence that would prove his idea. He explained his theory in two books, entitled Temple of Nature and Zoonomia. Moreover, in 1784 he founded a society to manage the dissemination of his ideas, known as the Philosophical Society.

Years later, Charles Darwin would inherit his grandfather's ideas and the basic outlines for the proposal of his theory of evolution. Charles Darwin's theory elaborated upon the structure established by his grandfather, while the Philosophical Society became one of the greatest and most passionate supporters of his theory.101

In short, Erasmus Darwin was the true pioneer of the theory we know of as the theory of evolution that has been propagandized throughout the world over the past 150 years.

Where did Erasmus Darwin discover the idea of evolution? Where did his interest in this subject come from?

After a thorough search for the answer to this question, we discover the interesting fact that Erasmus Darwin was a Mason. Though, Erasmus Darwin was no ordinary Mason, he was one of the highest ranking masters in the organization.

He was the master of the famous Canongate lodge in Edinburgh, Scotland.102 Moreover, he had close ties with the Jacobin Masons who were the organizers of the revolution in France at the time, and with the Illuminati, whose prime cause was fostering hostility to religion.103 That is, Erasmus Darwin was an important name in European Masonic anti-religious organizations.

Erasmus educated his son Robert (Charles Darwin's father), who too had been and made a member of the Masonic lodge.104 for this reason, Charles Darwin received the inheritance of Masonic teachings from both his father and his grandfather.

Erasmus Darwin hoped to have his son Robert develop and publish his theory, but it would be his grandson Charles who would undertake the enterprise. Although it came some time later, Erasmus Darwin's Temple of Nature was finally revised by Charles Darwin. Darwin's views did not have the weight of a scientific theory; it was merely the expression of a naturalist doctrine that accepts that nature has creative power.

## Masons and the Naturalist Philosophy

As for the theory of natural selection that we supposed to be Darwin's one particular contribution, it too was merely a theory put forward earlier by a number of scientists. But, the scientists before Darwin's time did not apply the theory of natural selection as an argument against Creation; on the contrary, they saw it as a mechanism generated by the Creator to protect the species from a hereditary distortion. Just like Karl Marx took the idealist Hegel's concept of "dialectics," and bent it to fit his own philosophy, so did Darwin take the theory of natural selection from Creationist scientists and used it in a way so as to fit the idea of naturalism.

Therefore, Darwin's personal contribution in the formulation of Darwinism must not be overstated. The philosophical concepts he used were invented by earlier philosophers of naturalism. If Darwin had not proposed the theory of evolution, someone else would have. in fact, a theory very similar to his was proposed at the same period by another English natural scientist by the name of Alfred Russell Wallace; it was for this reason that Darwin was hasty to publish the Origin of the Species.

Finally, Darwin appeared at a stage when the long struggle had begun in Europe to supposedly destroy faith in Allah and religion, replace it with the naturalist philosophy and a humanist model for human life. The most significant force behind this struggle was not this or that thinker, but the Masonic organization, of which so many thinkers, ideologues and political leaders were members.

This fact was recognized and expressed by several Christians of the time. Pope Leo XIII, the leader of the world's Catholics, issued a famous bull in 1884, entitled Humanum Genus in which he made many important statements about Masonry and its activities. He wrote:

At this period, however, the partisans of evil seems to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself.

...For, from what We have above most clearly shown, that which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into view—namely, the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of "new state of things in accordance with their ideas which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism."105

The important fact that Leo XIII stated in the above quotation is of the attempt to destroy completely the moral values provided by religion. What Masonry tried to do with the help of Darwinism was to produce a morally degenerate society that recognized no Divine law, had no fear of Allah, and was susceptible to commit every kind of crime. What was meant above by "new state of things in accordance with their ideas which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism" is this kind of social model.

Masons, thinking that Darwinism could serve their goals, played a great role in its dissemination among the masses. as soon as Darwin's theory was published, a group of volunteer propagandists formed around it the most famous of whom was Thomas Huxley who was called Darwin's "bulldog." Huxley, "whose ardent advocacy of Darwinism was the single factor most responsible for its rapid acceptance"106 brought the world's attention to the theory of evolution in the Debate at the Oxford University Museum in which he entered into on June 30, 1860 with the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce.

Huxley's great dedication to spreading the idea of evolution, together with his establishment connections, is brought into further light according to the following fact: Huxley was a member the Royal Society, of one of England's most prestigious scientific institutions and, like nearly all the other members of this institution, was a senior Mason.107 Other members of the Royal Society lent Darwin significant support, both before and after the book was published.108 This Masonic society accepted Darwin and Darwinism to such an extent that, as with the Nobel Prize, Darwin's medal was awarded annually to a scientist deemed worthy of the honor.

In short, Darwin wasn't acting alone; from the moment his theory was proposed, he received the support that came from the social classes and groups whose nucleus was made up of Masons. in his book, Marxism and Darwinism, the Marxist thinker Anton Pannekoek writes about this important fact and describes the support lent to Darwin by the "bourgeoisie," that is, the wealthy European capitalist class.:

That Marxism owes its importance and position only to the role it takes in the proletarian class struggle, is known to all... Yet it is not hard to see that in reality Darwinism had to undergo the same experiences as Marxism. Darwinism is not a mere abstract theory which was adopted by the scientific world after discussing and testing it in a mere objective manner. No, immediately after Darwinism made its appearance, it had its enthusiastic advocates and passionate opponents. ...Darwinism, too, played a role in the class-struggle, and it is owing to this role that it spread so rapidly and had enthusiastic advocates and venomous opponents.

Darwinism served as a tool to the bourgeoisie in their struggle against the feudal class, against the nobility, clergy-rights and feudal lords...What the bourgeoisie wanted was to get rid of the old ruling powers standing in their way... With the aid of religion the priests held the great mass in subjection and ready to oppose the demands of the bourgeoisie...

Natural science became a weapon in the opposition to belief and tradition; science and the newly discovered natural laws were put forward; it was with these weapons that the bourgeoisie fought...

Darwinism came at the desired time; Darwin' s theory that man is the descendant of a lower animal destroyed the entire foundation of Christian dogma. It is for this reason that as soon as Darwinism made its appearance, the bourgeoisie grasped it with great zeal.

...Under these circumstances, even the scientific discussions were carried on with the zeal and passion of a class struggle. The writings that appeared pro and con on Darwin have therefore the character of social polemics, despite the fact that they bear the names of scientific authors...109

Though Anton Pannekoek, because he thinks in terms of Marxist class analysis, defines the force that spread Darwinism and put into effect an organized struggle against religion as "bourgeoisie," when we examine the matter in light of more historical evidence, we see that there was an organization within the bourgeoisie that used Darwinism to pursue their war against religion. That organization was Masonry.

This fact is clear both from historical evidence as well as Masonic sources. One of these sources is an article by Master Mason Selami Isindag, entitled "Obstacles to the Development of Knowledge and Masonry," that appeared in the 1962 Annual Bulletin of the Turkish Great Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. at the beginning of this article, Isindag repeats the classical Masonic claim that religion is a myth invented by human beings, and that monotheism is contrary to reason and science. Later, he describes the true instigator of the war against religion carried out under the guise of "science":

It will be noticed that in this struggle for the spread of knowledge, Masons are known to have participated at every level. The reason for this is that Masonry, in every period, has been guided always by logic, knowledge and maturity, that is, by wisdom. Since it was founded, it had fought against superstition and myth.110

However, in reality, "superstition and myth" is not, as the Masons claim, religion; it is, rather, the basis of the materialist, naturalist and evolutionist beliefs they espouse. The clearest proof of this fact is that it is their outmoded ideas, their repetitions of the empty beliefs of the ancient pagan civilizations of Egypt and Greece, that have been invalidated by the discoveries of modern science.

A comparison of the scientific facts relevant to the origins of life and Masonic beliefs about it will be enough to let us form a conclusion as to this fact.

## The Masonic Theory of the Origins of Life

As we stated at the beginning, the theory of evolution rests on the claim that living things were not created, but arose and developed due to chance and natural laws. in order to test this theory scientifically, it is necessary to look at every stage of this supposed process, and to examine whether or not such a process occurred in the past and whether such a process could have been possible.

The first step in this process is a hypothetical condition within which lifeless matter could engender a living organism.

Before looking at this condition, we must recall a law that has been recognized in biology since the time of Pasteur: "Life comes from life." That is, a living organism can be generated only from another living organism. for example, mammals are born from their mothers. in many other species of animals the young are born from eggs that had been laid by the mothers. Plants grow out of seeds. Single-cell organisms such as bacteria divide and multiply.

Nothing has ever been observed to the contrary. Throughout the history of the world no one has ever witnessed lifeless matter giving birth to a living being. of course, there were those in Ancient Egypt, Greece and the Middle Ages who thought they had observed such an outcome; the Egyptians believed that frogs sprang from the mud of the Nile, a belief also sustained by Ancient Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle. in the Middle Ages it was believed that mice were begotten from the wheat of granaries. However, all these beliefs proved to be out of ignorance, and finally, in his famous experiments in the 1860's, Pasteur proved that even bacteria, the most basic form of life, did not come to be without a predecessor, that is, it is not possible for lifeless things to produce life.

But, the theory of evolution is dependent on this impossibility because it claims that living things were born and developed without the involvement of a Creator, and this requires that, at the first stage of this proposed scenario, living things be generated by chance.

Darwin attempted to describe the origins of life, about which he knew little, in a short sentence, wherein he stated that life must have first appeared "some warm little pond,"111 but evolutionists that followed him became concerned about elaborating on this matter. However, efforts made throughout the twentieth century to produce an evolutionist explanation of the origins of life resulted only in deepening the impasse in which evolutionists had found themselves. Apart from the fact that evolutionists have not been able to give the slightest scientific proof that life can be generated from lifeless matter, they have also not been able to provide even a theoretical explanation. This is because the structure of the most basic single-celled living organism is highly complex. It is mathematically impossible that even a cell's basic constituents—proteins, DNA or RNA—could have come to be by chance, much less the cell itself.

The fact that the probability of life generating by chance is zero alone proves the existence of order, in other words the fact of Creation. on this matter, the famous English astronomer and mathematician, Fred Hoyle, makes this comment:

Indeed, such a theory (that life was assembled by an intelligence) is so obvious that one wonders why it is not widely accepted as being self-evident. The reasons are psychological rather than scientific.112

This "psychological reason" that Hoyle mentions is the evolutionists' disposition by which they insist on rejecting, in advance, every result that should lead them to accept the existence of Allah and their conditioning themselves for this.

In our other works focusing on the invalidity of the theory of evolution, we cited many admissions of this fact by the evolutionists and we examined the irrational hypotheses that evolutionists have blindly proposed merely in order to not accept the existence of Allah. at this point though, we will focus our attention on the Masonic lodges to see their view on this matter. While it is so clearly evident that "life was brought into being by an intelligent Creator," what do the Masons think about the question?

Master Mason, Selami Isindag, in his book intended for Mason audience, entitled Evrim Yolu (The Way of Evolution), explains the matter in this way:

The most important characteristic of our school of morality is that we do not depart from the principles of logic and we do not enter the unknowns of theism, secret meanings or dogmas. on this basis we assert that the first appearance of life began in crystals under conditions that we cannot know or discover today. Living things were born according to the law of evolution and slowly spread over the earth. as a result of evolution, today's human beings came to be and advanced beyond other animals both in consciousness and intelligence.113

It is important to notice the connection between cause and effect suggested in the above quotation: Isindag stresses that the most important characteristic of Masonry is that it rejects theism, that is, belief in Allah. and immediately afterwards, he claims "on this basis" that life arose spontaneously from lifeless matter, and later underwent evolution that resulted in the appearance of human beings.

It will be noticed that Isindag brings no scientific evidence to bear on the theory of evolution. (The fact that there is no scientific evidence is presupposed by the obtuse words these are facts "that we cannot know or discover today"). The only support that Isindag supplies for the theory of evolution is the Masonic non-acceptance of theism.

In other words, Masons are evolutionists because they do not accept the existence of Allah. This is the only reason for their being evolutionists.

In the constitution of the "Great Council of Turkey" organized by Turkish Masons of the 33rd degree, the evolution scenario was once again restated, and the Masons' rejection of the Creationist explanation expressed in these words:

In a very early age and according to an inorganic process, organic life came to be. in order to produce cellular organisms cells came together in groups. Later, intelligence sprang forth and human beings were born. but from where? We keep asking ourselves this question. Was it from God's breathing over formless mud? We reject the explanation of an abnormal kind of creation; a kind of creation that excludes man. Since life and its genealogy exist, we must follow the philogenetic line and feel, understand and acknowledge that a wheel exists that explains this great deed, that is the act of "leap." We must believe that there was a phase of development in which there was a great rush of activity that caused life to pass at a particular moment from that phase to another.114

It is possible here to recognize Masonic fanaticism. When the writer says that they "reject a kind of creation that excludes man," he is repeating the basic dogma of humanism, that "a human being is the highest creature that exists," and announcing that Masons reject any other explanation. When he says, "an abnormal kind of creation," he means Allah's intervention in the creation of living beings, rejecting this possibility a priori. (However, what is truly abnormal is that Masons accept, without observation or experiment, the illogical belief that lifeless matter came to life by chance and formed life on earth, including human beings.) It will be noticed that according to the Masonic explanation there is no suggestion of scientific proof. Masons do not say, "There is proof for evolution and therefore we reject Creation." They are only blinded by a philosophical fanaticism.

Masonic publications insist on this tenet. Master Mason Selami Isindag claims that "apart from nature there is no force that guides us, and is responsible for our thoughts and actions." He immediately adds, "life began from one cell and reached its present stage as a result of various changes and evolutions."115 Later he summarizes what the theory of evolution means for Masons:

From the point of view of evolution, human beings are no different from animals. for the formation of man and his evolution there are no special forces other than those to which animals are subjected.116

This assertion shows clearly why Masons attach such importance to the theory of evolution. Their aim is to defend the idea that human beings were not created and to present their own humanist materialist philosophy as tenable. And, the only method that can be used to reject the idea that human beings were created is the theory of evolution. So, it is for this reason that Masons, to whatever extent, believe in the theory of evolution and seek to disseminate it throughout society.

This shows that Masons, who are constantly accusing those who believe in Allah of being dogmatic, are themselves dogmatic.

## Masonic Dogmatism and Traditionalism

Dogmatism means to blindly and insistently support a view, for whose validity there is no proof, because of a certain psychological predisposition. A dogmatic person does not investigate or reconsider something he believes in whether or not there is any proof for it. He accepts it totally and sticks to it adamantly.

Masons and other anti-religious groups regularly use the term "dogmatic" to refer to those who believe in Allah. We encounter this accusation frequently today. for example, in a debate about the theory of evolution, the evolutionist side will probably accuse those who do not accept the theory as dogmatic, and declare themselves scientific by maintaining that science has no interest in "dogmas."

However, this accusation is false. Belief in the existence of Allah, and that He created all beings, is a fact proven by much rational and scientific evidence. There is great balance, order and organization in nature, and it is clear that this was established intelligently and with deliberate purpose.

It is for this reason that the Qur'an calls human beings to discover the signs of Allah, and invites them to consider this balance, order and organization, and in many verses commands them to think about the proofs in the heavens and on earth of the existence of Allah. Those proofs pointed out in the Qur'an are such phenomena as, not only the balance and order in the universe, but the suitability of the world to human life, the structure of plants and animals, the miraculous features of the human body, and the spiritual qualities of human beings, all of which has been substantiated by modern science. (For details, see Harun Yahya's Allah is Known Through Reason, the Creation of the Universe, Darwinism Refuted, for Men of Understanding, Design in Nature)

Rather, dogmatism is a quality of those who refuse to consider these things, and reject Allah while continuing to defend the view that the universe exists by its own accord and that living things came to be by chance. Masons are a true example of such an outlook. Despite the fact that the proofs for Allah's existence are evident, they prefer to ignore and reject them in favor of the humanist and materialist philosophy.

In the Qur'an, Allah refers to of those of such a mentality:

Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you everything in the heavens and earth and has showered His blessings upon you, both outwardly and inwardly? Yet there are people who argue about Allah without knowledge or guidance or any illuminating Book.

When they are told: "Follow what Allah has sent down," they say, "No, we will follow what we found our fathers doing." What! Even if satan is calling them to the punishment of the Blazing Fire? (Surah Luqman: 20-21)

These verses show that the godless, despite the fact that they see the proofs for Allah, "argue about Allah," that is, they engage in a war against His religion. The reason for this is that these godless people follow what they found their fathers doing, that is, they are mired in a blind traditionalism.

Evidently, traditionalism defines very well the history and philosophy of Masonry as we have been examining it from the beginning of this book.

Indeed, traditionalism is a word that describes Masonry very well because Masonry is nothing other than an "organization of traditions," whose roots go back thousands of years to earlier pagan societies. It blindly follows the traditions of Ancient Egypt, of the pharaohs and their magicians, Ancient Greek materialist philosophers, Hermeticists, Kabbalists, Templars, Rosicrucians and of Masons before them.

It is important to recognize this traditionalism. in modern Masonic lodges, legends, symbols and words that are thousands of years old, are still used. Despite the fact that nearly all Masons have a high level of education, and occupy some of the highest positions in society, they organize ceremonies in which they take gilt swords and skulls into their hands, murmur words in Ancient Egyptian, stand before columns modeled on Ancient Egyptian temples in silver aprons, white gloves and even more strange costumes and make profound oaths. If a person who knows nothing about Masonry is brought into one of their lodges, he will probably think that he is visiting a comedy film-set, and perhaps not be able to stop himself from laughing when he sees Masons in the course of the initiation ceremony, with their eyes blindfolded, ropes around their necks, and walking around with one bare foot. But, Masons, living in their secret world, regard these strange ceremonies as very normal, and find psychological satisfaction in the mystical atmosphere of their lodges. After these ceremonies, they sit and talk with one another about their beliefs that "atoms have spirits and come together to form living things," that "the world attained its balance because of the hidden intelligence in magma," or that Mother Nature has created us very well" and other myths. This whole charade is staged only to preserve tradition, and is so clearly devoid of reason that it is amazing that such a system of ideas could still survive and be defended.

The Masons' blind attachment to their traditions clearly shows the great importance they give to the idea of the "landmark." a landmark is a place or object that symbolizes something that has historical importance or meaning. in Masonic language, landmarks are the rules that have been passed down unchanged since the foundation of the organization. Why did they not change? the Masons offer an interesting answer to this question. An article published in Mimar Sinan in 1992 says:

Masonry's Landmarks are very old laws that have been passed on from age to age and generation to generation. No one knows when they appeared and no one has the right to change them or cancel them. They are written and unwritten laws of the society. The unwritten laws can be learned only from the rituals and rites of the lodge. There are six written laws that can be found under the title "The Obligations of a Freemason" first published in the English Constitution in 1723. 117

Let us examine these words closely: an organization called Masonry exists. The members of this organization have for centuries followed a number of laws whose origins are unknown. Moreover, they are quite determined that no one alter these laws. Not one of them comes forward to ask why they follow them!... And, for the sake of following these laws, they readily ignore the discoveries of science and their logical conclusions. Can it be that such a society is following the path of "reason" and "science"?

Another part of the article quoted above, states literally that a Mason must obey the laws without questioning:

In my opinion, a landmark is such an old part of Masonry that I have never been curious about their origins neither in the lodge nor in my activities as a freemason. I cannot help analyzing why I should feel this way but I feel that if the structure of Freemasonry is not altered it will last.....I live with it without exerting any special effort.118

How can an organization comprised of followers who believe and abide by laws about whose origins they are not curious be regarded as reasonable?...

Surely, Masonry's claim to be reasonable and scientific is completely hollow. Like other materialists, they too, despite the fact that they continually use the terms of reason and science, insistently defend a philosophy that has no logical or scientific support, and turn away from the facts that science has discovered. Essentially, what has led Masons into such error, or indeed spellbound them, is their blind attachment to their traditions.

This shows that the teaching of Masonry is deceptive. It alienated people from their belief in Allah, making them fall into superstition by following empty laws, myths and legends. What is revealed in the Qur'an about the pagans of Saba, who abandoned Allah to prostrate themselves before the Sun, is valid also for Masonry: "Satan has made their actions seem good to them and debarred them from the Way so they are not guided" (Surat an-Naml: 24). Masons reject the religion of Allah in favor of an outmoded doctrine that they elaborate upon with gilt symbols and mystical elements.

Moreover, not content with rejecting Allah, they fight against religious moral values, a struggle they have been engaged in a very long time.

# 6. The Masonic War Against Religion

The existence of Masonry was first officially announced in England in 1717. Before this date, it had already spread first in England, then in France and the rest of Europe, and became a primary meeting-place for the opponents of religion. Many European Masons met in their lodges, announcing themselves as "free thinkers," by which they meant that they did not recognize Divine religions. An article entitled "The First Periods of Masonry" in Mimar Sinan, says, "The place where Masons gathered to seek truth outside the churches became a refuge."119

This group though, that sought truth outside religion, also harbored great animosity toward religion. for this reason, the organization quickly became a center of power that made the Church, particularly the Catholic Church, uncomfortable. This conflict between Masonry and the Church continued to grow, leaving its mark on Europe the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Masonry began to spread to other countries outside Europe, in second half of the nineteenth century, and, everywhere it went, it became the center for anti-religious philosophies and activities.

An article entitled "Politics and Freemasonry," that appeared in Mimar Sinan, maintains the following about the struggle against religion:

Along with not being a political party, Freemasonry became organized in the beginning of the eighteenth century into a social institution of international scope in tune with political and social currents. in order to help sects in their attempt to exercise religious freedom, Freemasonry engaged in a struggle against the power and influence of the clergy in the attempt to achieve their sole aim of toppling the Church's power and influence over the people. for this reason, in 1738 and 1751 it was declared godless by the Pope... in those countries that adopted the principles of religious freedom, Freemasonry was a mysterious and secret society only in name; in these countries it was both ignored and encouraged, found members among the middle class and high officials who had time and means, and installed leading state officials in positions of leadership in its own organizations. in southern countries where everyone had to be a Catholic, they maintained their character as a secret, forbidden, revolutionary organization subject to legal surveillance. in these countries free-thinking young people, and officers discontent with government administration, began to enter Masonic lodges and so revolutionary plans were initiated and directed against those regimes of Spain, Portugal and Italy that were under the domination of the Vatican.120

There is no doubt that here the Masonic writer is using language favoring his own organization when he states that Masonry is fighting a war against church domination. But, when we examine the matter more closely, we see that in many countries, that same "domination" was convenient for regimes founded or supported by Masons. Therefore, we may easily recognize that Masonry's claim to be fighting against "domination" is pretense. Despite the fact that the Church—because Christianity had become distorted—preserved scholastic ideas and oppressive practices, Masonry's hostility toward the Church was not founded on this but from its hatred of traditional monotheist religions.

It suffices to look at the structure of Masonry and its rites and ceremonies to come to an understanding of this matter.

## Example of a Masonic Lodge: the Hell-Fire Club

In order to understand how eighteenth century Masonry was organized, and what it attempted to achieve, one of the things we must proceed to do is examine the various secret Masonic societies that came to be at that period. One such society was the "Hell-Fire Club," that was active in England in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Masonic structure of this club and its anti-religious, pagan character, is described by the Masonic writer Daniel Willens in his article, "The Hell-Fire Club: Sex, Politics and Religion in Eighteenth-Century in England." Here are some interesting passages from that article published in Gnosis, a journal of Western inner traditions:

On moonlit nights during the reign of England's King George III, immensely powerful members of His Majesty's Government, important intellectuals, and influential artists could sometimes be seen travelling up the Thames River by gondola to a ruined abbey near West Wycombe. There, to the sonorous tolling of the deconsecrated cloister's bell, they dressed in monkish robes and indulged in every manner of depravity, culminating in a Black Mass celebrated on... A debauched noblewoman and presided over by that notorious rake Sir Francis Dashwood. Their diabolical devotions concluded, the inner circle would adjourn to plot the course of the British Empire.

This "unholy sodality," as it has been called, styled themselves, with suitably Gothic flair, "The Friars of St. Francis of Medmenham," though they have been immortalized by their popular epithet "The Hell-Fire Club." in that gossipy age there was much speculation about the infernal activities of the society, and in 1765, Charles Johnstone published a roman a clef entitled Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, which was popularly believed to reveal the secrets of the "Medmenham Monks." ...

... _the Monks' most important precursor is the Hell-Fire Club founded around 1719 in London by Philip, Duke of Wharton (1698-1731). Wharton was a prominent Whig politician, Freemason, and atheist who sought to ridicule religion by publicly presiding over festive gatherings with "satanic" trappings... and Wharton went on to become Grand Master Mason of the London Grand Lodge in 1722..._

By 1739, Dashwood was on the homeward leg of his journey. on his way, he stopped in Florence to see the Abbe Nicolini, and it was there that he met Lady Mary Wortley Montagu... [who] would eventually join... Dashwood in the Divan Club. ...Unfortunately things were not going well for Freemasonry in Italy. Pope Clement XII had recently issued the bull in Eminenti Apostalatus Specula, unleashing the Inquisition against the lodges. by early 1740, the pontiff was dead, and Dashwood went to Rome for the conclave that would elect the new pope. There he playfully assumed the identity of Cardinal Ottiboni, one of the chief persecutors of the Masons, and lampooned him publicly in a scurrilous mock ritual....

The "chapter-room" is the key to understanding the Monks' activities. Its furnishings remain unknown, and consequently the use to which it was put remains a mystery. Sensationalist authors assume it was a satanic sanctuary, although it seems more reasonable to conclude that it was used for Masonic ceremonies. John Wilkes, an important member of the Medmenham circle who did not become a Freemason until after his parting of the ways with the group, whines in an article defaming his former friend: "No profane eye has dared to penetrate into the English Eleusinian mysteries of the chapter-room, where the monks assembled on all solemn occasions, the more secret rites were performed and libations poured forth in much pomp to the BONA DEA."... Sir Robert Walpole's son Horace, one of Dashwood's political enemies and certainly a stranger to the abbey, mocked: "Whatever their doctrines were, their practice was rigorously pagan: Bacchus and Venus were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the nymphs and the hogsheads that were laid in against the festivals of this new church, sufficiently informed the neighbourhood of the complexion of those hermits."...

The membership roll of the Medmenham Monks no longer exists, if it ever did, but the names most reliably associated with the group include Dashwood's brother, John Dashwood-King; John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich; John Wilkes; George Bubb Dodington, Baron Melcombe; Paul Whitehead; and a collection of the local lesser gentry and professional men....a group of men sufficiently in the public eye to create scandal.

The whole question of religion is central to the fascination that Dashwood continues to exercise....A more sophisticated interpretation might seize upon the rumours of sexual magic, the abbey's kabbalistic book, the recurring image of Harpocrates, Dashwood's tenuous connection with the Masonic Order of the Temple, and of course the Thelemic motto on Medmenham Abbey to conclude that the Hell-Fire Club was an early manifestation of "Crowleyanity." a more sober-minded approach would pick out Dashwood's Masonic contacts and conclude, probably correctly, that the "chapter-room" was a Masonic temple.121

The reason for including this lengthy quotation is to get an idea of the atmosphere in which eighteenth century Masonry developed and of the influence it had on people. Masonry appeared as a secret, and curiously attractive organization, whose opposition to the general beliefs of society provided a kind of psychological satisfaction to its members. The basic characteristic of Masonic rites, as stressed in the above quotation, was the sanctification of pagan symbols and concepts instead of those of traditional monotheistic religions. So, those who became Masons, and turned their back on Christianity, became paganized, though not necessarily by adopting paganism as a belief, but at least through the adoption of its symbols.

However, Masonry was not content just to practice strange ceremonies; it also followed a strategy designed to alienate Europe from the Divine religions, and lure it into paganism. in the following section we will consider some high-points of European history, country by country, and follow the traces of this Masonic war against religion. The first country we must examine is France.

## The Struggle Against Religion in France

In earlier works we have examined the important role played by Masonry in the French Revolution. A very large number of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, especially those with the strongest anti-religious views, were Masons. The Jacobins, who set the stage for the revolution, and became its leaders, were lodge members.122

The role played by Masons in the revolution was admitted by an "agent-provocateur" by the name of Count Cagliostro. Cagliostro was arrested by the Inquisition in 1789, and made some important admissions while under interrogation. He began by stating that Masons throughout Europe had been planning a chain of revolutions. He said that the main goal of the Masons was to destroy the Papacy or to take it over. in his confession, Cagliostro also admitted that Jewish bankers financially supported all these revolutionary activities, and that Jewish money also played an important role in the French Revolution.123

The French Revolution was basically a revolution against religion. in the determined effort of the revolutionaries to get rid of the clergy, as well as the aristocracy, many clergymen were killed, religious institutions destroyed, and places of worship ruined. The Jacobins wanted even to destroy Christianity completely, and replace it with a pagan belief they called "religion of reason." But, within a short time, they lost control of the revolution and France was thrown into total disorder.

Masonry's mission in that country did not stop with the revolution. The disorder that came as a result of the revolution was finally settled when Napoleon came to power. But, this stability did not last long; Napoleon's ambition to rule the whole of Europe only brought an end to his power. Afterwards, the conflict in France continued between the monarchists and the revolutionists. in 1830, 1848 and 1871, three more revolutions occurred. in 1848, the "Second Republic" was founded; in 1871 the "Third Republic" was established.

Masons were very active throughout this period of agitation. Their primary aim was to weaken the Church and its religious institutions, destroy the values of religion and the influence of its laws on society, and to abolish religious education. Masons regarded "anti-clericalism" as the center of their social and political activities.

The Catholic Encyclopedia provides important information about the anti-religious mission of the Grand Orient, as French Masonry was known:

From the official documents of French Masonry contained principally in the official "Bulletin" and "Compte-rendu" of the Grand Orient it has been proved that all the anti-clerical measures passed in the French Parliament were decreed beforehand in the Masonic lodges and executed under the direction of the Grand Orient, whose avowed aim is to control everything and everybody in France. "I said in the assembly of 1898," states the deputy Massé, the official orator of the Assembly of 1903, "that it is the supreme duty of Freemasonry to interfere each day more and more in political and profane struggles." "Success (in the anti-clerical combat) is in a large measure due to Freemasonry; for it is its spirit, its programme, its methods, that have triumphed." "If the Bloc has been established, this is owing to Freemasonry and to the discipline learned in the lodges"..."We need vigilance and above all mutual confidence, if we are to accomplish our work, as yet unfinished. This work, you know . . . The anti-clerical combat, is going on. The Republic must rid itself of the religious congregations, sweeping them off by a vigorous stroke. The system of half measures is everywhere dangerous; the adversary must be crushed with a single blow."124

The Catholic Encyclopedia continues its account of French Masonry's struggle against religion:

In truth all the "anti-clerical" Masonic reforms carried out in France since 1877, such as the secularization of education, measures against private Christian schools and charitable establishments, the suppression of the religious orders and the spoliation of the Church, professedly culminate in an anti-Christian and irreligious reorganization of human society, not only in France but throughout the world. Thus French Freemasonry, as the standard-bearer of all Freemasonry, pretends to inaugurate the golden era of the Masonic universal republic, comprising in Masonic brotherhood all men and all nations. "The triumph of the Galilean," said the president of the Grand Orient, Senator Delpech, on 20 September, 1902, "has lasted twenty centuries. but now he dies in his turn.... The Romish Church, founded on the Galilean myth, began to decay rapidly from the very day on which the Masonic Association was established"125

By the "Galilean" the Masons mean the Prophet Jesus (pbuh), because according to the Gospel, the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) was born in the Palestinian region of Galilee. Therefore, the Masons' hatred for the Church is an expression of their hatred for the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) and all monotheistic religions. They thought that they had destroyed the effect of the Divine religions with the materialist, Darwinist and humanist philosophies they established in the nineteenth century, and returned Europe to its pre-Christian paganism.

When these words were uttered in 1902, a series of laws passed in France broadened the scope of religious opposition. 3,000 religious schools were closed and it was forbidden to give any religious education in schools. Many of the clergy were arrested, some were exiled and religious persons began to be regarded as second-class citizens. for this reason, in 1904, the Vatican broke all diplomatic relations with France but this did not change the country's attitude. It took the loss of the lives of hundreds of thousands of French men against the German army in the First World War before the country's arrogance was tamed and it again recognized the importance of spiritual values.

As the Catholic Encyclopedia maintains, the war against religion, from the French Revolution to the twentieth century, was carried out by "the anti-clerical measures passed in the French Parliament" which "were decreed beforehand in the Masonic lodges and executed under the direction of the Grand Orient."126 This fact is clear from Masonic writings. for example, a quotation from a Turkish publication of "A Speech Made by Brother Gambetta on July 8 1875 in the Clémente Amitié Lodge" reads:

While the specter of reaction threatened France, and religious doctrine and backward ideas went on the offensive against modern social principles and laws, in the bosom of industrious, far-sighted organizations like Masonry devoted to the principles of brotherhood, we find the strength and consolation in the struggle against the extravagant claims of the Church, its ridiculous exaggerations and habitual excesses...we must be on guard and continue in the struggle. in order to establish the ideas of human order and progress, let us endure so that our shields cannot be broken through.127

It will be noticed that Masonic literature consistently presents its own ideas as "far-sighted" while accusing religious people of being "backward." However, this is merely a play on words. The notion of "the specter of reaction," mentioned in the above quotation, is something that sincere religious people also oppose, but which Masons exploit to take aim at true religion in their attempt to alienate people from it. Moreover, it must again be emphasized that the materialist-humanist philosophy espoused by Masons is really a superstitious, backward system of ideas, a hold-over of the pagan civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.

Therefore, the Masons' use of terms like "far-sightedness" and "backwardness" has no basis in reality. Indeed, it is unfounded because the struggle between Masons and religious people is nothing more than the perpetuation of the struggle between two ideas that have existed since the earliest ages of history. It is religion that proclaims the first of these ideas: that humanity was created by the will of Allah and that human beings are responsible to worship Him. This is the truth. The opposing idea, that human beings were not created but live vain and purposeless lives, is the one proposed by those who deny the existence of Allah. When correctly understood, it can be seen that their use of the superficial terms of "backwardness" and "far-sightedness" has no basis.

By making use of the idea of "progress," Masons seek to destroy religion. The "Catholic Encyclopedia" states:

The following are deemed the principal means [of freemasonry]:

(1) to destroy radically by open persecution of the Church or by a hypocritical fraudulent system of separation between State and Church, all social influence of the Church and of religion, insidiously called "clericalism," and, as far as possible, to destroy the Church and all true, i.e., superhuman religion, which is more than a vague cult of fatherland and of humanity;

(2) to laicize, or secularize, by a likewise hypocritical fraudulent system of "unsectarianism," all public and private life and, above all, popular instruction and education. "Unsectarianism" as understood by the Grand Orient party is anti-Catholic and even anti-Christian, atheistic, positivistic, or agnostic sectarianism in the garb of unsectarianism. Freedom of thought and conscience of the children has to be developed systematically in the child at school and protected, as far as possible, against all disturbing influences, not only of the Church and priests, but also of the children's own parents, if necessary, even by means of moral and physical compulsion. The Grand Orient party considers it indispensable and an infallibly sure way to the final establishment of the universal social republic...128

It can be seen that Masonry has put a program into effect, under the name of "the liberation of society," whose purpose is to eradicate religion, a program that is still being implemented. This must not be confused with a model that seeks to provide the opportunity for every citizen of whatever religious faith to practice his faith freely. Rather, the model envisioned by Masonry is one of mass brainwashing, designed to remove religion completely from society and the minds of individuals and, if necessary, to persecute its adherents.

In every country where it is established, Masonry seeks to put this program into effect, though in a way that conforms to the culture and conditions prevalent in that country.

One such country is Germany.

## The Campaign Against Religion in Germany: "Kulturkampf"

150 years ago, there was no such country as Germany. The present territory called Germany consisted of a number of principalities. The largest of these was Prussia, which occupied the eastern part of today's Germany and a large part of Poland. in the 1860s, Prussia began to annex other small German states and founded the German Empire in 1871. The ruler of this new state was the Prussian Prime Minister and Chancellor of the new German Empire, Otto von Bismarck.

Bismarck was a successful statesman, especially in foreign politics, but did not enjoy the same success in domestic affairs. One of the reasons for this was a group of intellectuals known as the "National Liberals," similar to the French anti-clerics, that adopted an anti-religious policy. in order to achieve the unity of Germany, the National Liberals believed it was necessary to rid the people of any sense of affiliation outside their borders, and regarded the relationship between one third of the population and the Catholic Pope as the largest obstacle to this. Encouraged by the National Liberals, Bismarck embarked on an anti-Catholic campaign known as the Kulturkampf, or "culture war." It was also described as a struggle to control the minds of Germans.129

During the Kulturkampf, Catholics, especially in the southern Germany, suffered oppression.

In 1872, in compliance with a law that had been passed, all Jesuit priests in the country were rounded up in a single night and their institutions confiscated. in compliance with the "May laws," (maigesetze) passed in 1873, all priests working for the government were fired, the Church was forbidden involvement in all matters related to marriages and education, and topics of sermons was restricted. A number of archbishops were arrested and 1300 churches were eventually found without a priest.

But, because these tactics produced a strong reaction among the Catholics of the country against the government, the Kulturkampf was relaxed. Bismarck ignored the suggestions of the National Liberals, who had led him into this campaign, and restrained the Kulturkampf little by little until he finally cancelled it completely. This whole campaign resulted in nothing other than the oppression of faithful German Catholics, and the ruin of the country's sense of social well-being. Many historians today believe that it was a fiasco that shattered Germany's sense of social security. Moreover, after Germany, the wave of this Kulturkampf encompassed Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland, causing a great social tension in these countries.

The interesting thing to note that it was the Mason intellectuals who lured Bismarck into this policy. The Catholic Encyclopedia says:

But they (Masons) certainly furthered the movement by which Prussia gradually became the leading state of Germany, considered by them as the "representative and the protector of modern evolution" against "Ultramontanism," "bigotry," and "Papal usurpations." They also instigated the "Kulturkampf." the celebrated jurisconsult and Mason, Grandmaster Bluntschli, was one of the foremost agitators in this conflict; he also stirred up the Swiss "Kulturkampf"... German Freemasons put forth untiring efforts to exert a decisive influence on the whole life of the nation in keeping with Masonic principles, thus maintaining a perpetual silent "Kulturkampf." the principal means which they employ are popular libraries, conferences, the affiliation of kindred associations and institutions, the creation, where necessary, of new institutions, through which the Masonic spirit permeates the nation.130

That is, in spite of the fact that the Kulturkampf was stopped officially by Bismarck, it was nevertheless continued by Masons, as an on-going anti-religious propaganda campaign directed at society at large. The bitterest fruits of this struggle were reaped in the 1920's: the Nazis, who aimed to convert the German nation back to their pre-Christian paganism, gradually gained strength and came to power in 1933. One of the most important actions of the Nazis was their initiation of a second Kulturkampf against religious authority. The American commentator Elbridge Colby explains that "the Nazis opened a new Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church, jailing priests and deposing bishops; unlike 1874, however, Hitler also moved against the established Protestant."131

In short, the activities initiated by Masons to alienate society from religion gave rise to one of history's most brutal dictatorships, the Nazi "Reich," and drew the world into the World War Two in which 55 million persons lost their lives.

## The Struggle Against Religion in Italy

Another country in which Masonic activities were evident was Italy.

Until 1870, the Italian territory was occupied by several small states, remnants from feudal times. The most important of these was the Papal State. It was centered in Rome, ruled by the Pope, and controlled a large part of central Italy. The Masons in Italy were founded as an extension of the French Masons, and began to exercise an influence in Italy from the beginning of the nineteenth century. They wanted to destroy the Papal State and eradicate the authority of the Church in Italy as a whole. According to the author of the book entitled the Roman Catholic Church and the Craft, master Freemason Alec Mellor: "In Italy, the origin of irregular lodges was mainly political; they confused Masonry with the fight against the temporal power of the Pope."132

Masonry began its struggle against religion in Italy by means of another secret society that it founded and controlled. This society was known as the "Carbonari."

This society, first heard of in Naples at the beginning of the nineteenth century, took its name from charcoal burners. as the Masons used the emblem of the wall-builder and expressed their ideas with symbols, so the Carbonari adopted the emblem of the charcoal burner. But, the society had ulterior objectives. The members of the society sought to initiate a political program, first in Italy, and then in France, to destroy the influence of the Church, establish a new government and secularize all social institutions.

The connection between Masonry and the Carbonari is evident. Masons automatically became members of Carbonari societies; in fact, from the moment they entered the society they gained the degree of Master. (On the other hand, it was necessary for other Carbonari members to undergo a long process of advancement before achieving this degree) Two cardinals by the names of Consalvi and Pacca issued an edict on August 15, 1814 accusing the Masons and the Carbonari of being organized for socio-political interference and the fomentation of hostility toward religion.

This accusation proved to be true for members of the Carbonari had organized political ruses and armed uprisings. The armed uprising that took place in Macerata on June 25, 1817 was organized by the Carbonari, but it was suppressed by security forces of the Papal State. in 1820, in Spain and Naples, and in 1821 in Piedmont, revolutionary uprisings were organized by the Carbonari against the Church and public order.

It is an accepted fact that the Carbonari were founded by the Masons who engaged in parallel revolutionary activities with them. After the July Revolution in France in 1830, the organization lost its influence and gradually disappeared. in Italy, it united with the "Young Italy" movement founded by Guiseppe Mazzini.

Mazzini, a known atheist, had struggled for years against the Papal State and the Church and finally became a high-ranking Mason who would become founder of the Italian Union. With the support of two other prominent Masons, Guiseppe Garibaldi and Count di Cavour, he founded the Italian Union in 1870, and drew the boundaries of the Papal State within its present borders. Afterwards, Italy entered a process by which it became increasingly distanced from religion, and that was to prepare the foundation for Mussolini's fascist dictatorship in the 1920's.

In short, we can say that Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour were three prominent leaders who performed important functions in the struggle against religion in Europe. Mazzini was not only a political leader in the struggle against religion, he also played a role as an ideologue. His slogan "every nation a state" was the spark that ignited minority rebellions, which were to be the cause of the fall of multi-ethnic empires, such as the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires. This slogan of Mazzini alienated people from their sense of religious fraternity; it was a call that pushed them into ethnic conflict with one another and inspired them to "fanatical rage." (Surat al-Fath: 26).

The fact that this call came from Masons, indeed, high-ranking Masons, is certainly significant. According to information from the lodge publication 10,000 Famous Freemasons, Mazzini rose within the Masonic lodge, and years later, in 1867, was chosen Master Mason of the Italian Grand Orient. in 1949, at a ceremony in Rome to mark the unveiling of a statue of Mazzini, 3,000 Masons gratefully remembered their Grand Master. Garibaldi, Mazzini's right-hand man, achieved the 33rd degree of the Italian Supreme Council in 1863, and in 1864 was chosen Italian Master Mason. in memory of this Master Mason, a lodge is named after Garibaldi, which is attached to New York "valley" with the number of 542.

## Masonic Revolutionary Agenda in Russia

Apart from Italy, it is also possible to find traces of Masonic revolutionary activities in many other countries of Europe. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: "In...the later revolutionary movements in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Central and South America, Masonic bodies, it is claimed, took a more or less active part... in Russia also Freemasonry finally turned out to be a 'political conspiracy' of Masonically organized clubs that covered the land."133

The Masonic plot in Russia is especially interesting.

Masonry came to this country in the second half of the eighteenth century and was widespread among intellectuals. Although it appeared externally as merely a cultural club, anti-religious and anti-government ideas from other parts of Europe were discussed in these lodges. The first to take notice were the priests of the Orthodox Church. The priests sent the information they had obtained to Tsar Alexander I, whose relationship with the Church was good, telling of a Masonic plot to topple the Tsar's regime. in response, the Tsar issued a law in 1822 to shut down all the Masonic lodges in the country and outlaw the organization. Nevertheless, this failed to eliminate the Masons; they merely went underground.

Three years after Tsar Alexander I outlawed the lodges, he became ill and passed away. He was succeeded by Tsar Nicholas I. But, Tsar Nicholas' succession came as a result of a series of disputes and intrigues and gave rise to a disorderly situation in the country. Certain individuals who had wanted to bring stability to the situation by toppling the regime had planned a coup against the new Tsar. They had many supporters in the army. Confident in this support, a number of revolutionary soldiers, together with a number of civilians, marched into the Tsar's palace, in the capital of St.Petersburg, on the 14th of December 1825. There was an armed encounter between the revolutionaries and the forces of the Tsar in which the revolutionaries were defeated. This group was called the "Decembrists" because of the month in which they attempted their revolution. The leaders of this group were arrested and five were hanged.

The Decembrists were none other than Masons...The officers, intellectuals and writers who made up the group were members of the lodges outlawed by Tsar Alexander I three years earlier. One of these revolutionary Masons was the prominent writer Count Pushkin.134

The venture of the Decembrists ended in failure, but the Masons did not give up their intent to topple the Tsar. Masons always played an important role in those groups organized in the nineteenth and first quarter of the twentieth centuries against the Tsarist regime. in the 1917 February Revolution, the leader, Alexander Kerensky, and nearly all his close supporters were all Masons.135 and the majority of the new government was composed of Masons.136The only contribution to history that the short-lived Kerensky Government made was to deliver the country into the hands of Lenin and the Bolsheviks he led.

## Twentieth-Century Masonry: Silent And Remote

It should be noticed that in what we have examined so far, that is, that the activities of Masons in countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Russia, clearly shows that the goal of Masonry was socio-political revolution. Masonry wanted to establish a new order in which religious institutions and religious faith are eradicated, and to this end has attempted to topple the monarchies in those countries. in many European countries, Masonic lodges became rallying centers for opponents of religion, where coups, uprisings, assassinations, political plots and anti-religious politics were conspired. Behind all such activities, whether on a small or grand scale, which have occurred since the French Revolution in 1789 to the twentieth century, is found the influence of Masonry.

According to the English historian Michael Howard, Masonic lodges concentrated their efforts in the second half of the nineteenth century to overthrow the two remaining important Empires: the Austro-Hungarian and the Russian Empires, and were able to achieve their goal as a result of the World War One.

In other words, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Masonry had, in great measure, achieved its goal of socio-political revolution.

Therefore, the twentieth century was not one of Masonic revolutions. Thinking they have no more obstacles to confront, Masons prefer to merely disseminate their philosophy instead of hatching political plots. They spread their materialist and humanist philosophy to the masses under the guise of science, or by means of art, the media, literature, music and all manner of popular culture. Masons do not intend by this propaganda to eradicate the Divine religions in a sudden revolution; they want to achieve this over the long-term, and to initiate all people into their philosophy only little by little.

An American Mason sums up this method as follows:

Freemasonry does its work silently, but it is the work of a deep river, that silently pushes on towards the ocean.137

High Priest J.W. Taylor, from the state of Georgia in the USA, makes this interesting comment on the same matter:

The abandonment of old themes and the formation of new ones do not always arise from the immediately perceptible cause which the world assigns, but are the culmination of principles which have been working in the minds of men for many years, until at last the proper time and propitious surroundings kindle the latent truth into life... enthusing all with a mighty common cause and moving nations as one man to the accomplishment of great ends. on this principle does the Institution of Freemasonry diffuse its influence to the world of mankind. It works quietly and secretly, but penetrates through all the interstices of society in its many relations, and the recipients of its many favors are awed by its grand achievements, but cannot tell whence it came.138

According to Voice magazine, published by the Grand Lodge in Chicago, "So, silently but surely and continually, it [Masonry] builds into the great fabric of human society"139 This "building into the great fabric" will come about when the basics of Masonic philosophy—materialism, humanism and Darwinism—are imposed on society.

The most interesting aspect of this silent and remote strategy is that those Masons who are carrying it out almost never reveal that it is being done in the name of Masonry. They do their work under different identities, titles and in different positions of power, but they impose a commonly espoused philosophy they adopted through Masonry, on society. One of Turkish Masonry's Master Masons, Halil Mulkus, explained this matter in an interview a few years ago:

Masonry as Masonry does not do anything. Masonry guides individuals and individuals who are trained here, and Masons who contribute to the production of intellectual development are at various levels in their careers in the places where they live in the world. They are rectors of universities, professors, ministers of state, doctors, head administrators in hospitals, lawyers, etc. Wherever they live they are zealous to spread to society the Masonic ideas in which they have been trained.140

However, these ideas, which Masonry persistently studies and tries to indoctrinate to society are nothing more, as we have seen in earlier sections, than deceit. Masonry's philosophy stems from sources such as the myths of Ancient Egypt and Greece, and in their eagerness to transmit these myths to society, wrapped in the package of science and reason, Masons deceive both themselves and others. in an age of globalization, this is the role of "Global Freemasonry."

The result of this deceit is very detrimental. The program of alienating the masses from religion, carried out by Masonry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, gave rise to neo-pagan ideologies such as racism and fascism, and secular and violent ideologies such as communism. The spread of social Darwinism deemed people to be animals struggling for their existence, the brutal results of which came about in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the twentieth century. World War One was the work of European leaders who, as a result of Darwin's suggestions, regarded war and bloodshed as a biological necessity. During that war, 10 million people went to their deaths, for nothing. World War Two that followed it, and in which 55 million people perished, was again the work of totalitarianism, like fascism and communism, that was the result of the seeds of militant secularism sown by the Masons. Throughout the whole world, during the twentieth century, all the destructive wars, conflicts, cruelty, injustice, exploitation, hunger, and moral degradation, basically, were products of irreligious philosophies and ideologies. (For details, see Harun Yahya's the Disasters Darwinism Brought to Humanity)

In short, the philosophy of Masonry has yielded bitter fruit. It could not be otherwise as that is a Divine law. Historically, those pagan peoples who rejected the religion of Allah, in preference of their traditional mythology and the religion of their ancestors, followed the road to destruction. Freemasonry, a contemporary manifestation of this paganism, is drawing the whole world, and themselves, into ruin.

It is for this reason that human beings must protect themselves from this potential calamity, by overcoming the intimations of what Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, a renowned Islamic scholar, referred to as "the disease called materialism and naturalism," and in this way preserve the faith of the masses.

#   
Conclusion

Masonry has been one of most interesting phenomena of the past two centuries. Naturally, it has attracted attention because of its closed, reserved and mystical character. at the same time, an antipathy to Masonry has arisen; it attempts to advertise itself as a "harmless charitable institution," while a determined opposition to Masonry has grown as a result of the contradictory claims of the organization.

However, what must be done in order to oppose Masonry is not to adopt a blind anti-Masonic agenda, but to discern and show the invalidity of the perverse philosophy that this organization espouses and imposes on humanity.

The great Islamic scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi describes in one paragraph the main outline of such a duty:

A tyrannical current born of Naturalist and Materialist philosophy will gradually become strong and spread at the end of time by means of materialist philosophy, reaching such a degree that it denies God... 141

In other words, the current of materialist ideas that will emerge in the end times will go so far as to deny the existence of Allah. in response, it must be shown what a great and irrational deception this is, and the proofs of the existence of Allah as revealed in the Qur'an must be made known.

This is the way of the intellectual struggle that must be waged against Masonry. The important thing to do is to invalidate and overcome Masonic philosophy. It is of the greatest importance to destroy the influence of the ideas of this organization, that silently and from a distance carries out its mass propaganda campaign, and distances people from their faith and draws them away from religious moral values and to materialist, humanist and Darwinist myths. Obviously, an ideologically defeated philosophy can no longer be effective. Moreover, it is also necessary to tell people about the existence of Allah, His Unity, and the truth of religion, and to show them the true path in the light of the scientific facts. Actually, this intellectual undertaking cannot be regarded merely as a struggle against Masonry because the goal is also to save Masons, who are themselves deceived. One verse in the Qur'an about the unbelieving people of 'Ad and Thamud indicates the situation of Masons: "Satan made their actions seem good to them and so debarred them from the Way, even though they were intelligent people." (Surat al-'Ankabut: 38)

The goal is to show the truth to all people, including Masons, and to save them from their error.

It needs to be made clear that science, that Masons have used supposedly in support of their philosophy for the past two hundred years, has now turned against them. The theory of evolution, the foundation of the materialist world view, has been in severe decline since the 1970's. The fossil record clearly denies the claims of this theory, by revealing that species appeared abruptly and fully formed, without an "evolutionary ancestor." Biochemistry, examining minute aspects of living things, has demonstrated marvelous instances that cannot be explained in terms of natural causes. Genetic comparisons have shown that species supposed to be close relatives, according to the Darwinist "tree of life," are in fact very distinct in terms of genetic make-up. Science has proven the invalidity of the theory of evolution, a fact that cannot be hidden any longer by evolutionists. It is necessary to use the evidences that science has brought forward and inform the masses of the invalidity of materialist-humanist philosophy.

Masonry has been able for some time and with effective methods of propaganda to make the masses accept a false idea. to tell the truth and aid people in accepting it is much easier.

When Muslims undertake this duty, with Allah's permission, the following pronouncement will become manifest: "Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through it and it vanishes clean away!" (Surat al-Anbiya':18)

Then, the twenty-first century will not be the century of "Global Freemasonry" as the Masons had hoped, but the century of Islamic morality.

# Captions

19

The roots of Masonry date back to the Crusades against Muslims initiated by Pope Urban II

21

The Crusaders wreaked havoc in Jerusalem. The Mediaeval engraving shown above depicts certain scenes of the horror.

22

The Crusaders put to sword all those living in the lands they conquered.

24

Templars developed a pagan faith in Christian guise.

25

Templars fleeing the Church were given refuge by the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce .

26

The Warriors and the Bankers: a book about the Templars

27

The magazine Mimar Sinan, a private Turkish Masonic publication intended for its own members.

28-29

A TEMPLAR-MASON TEMPLE: ROSSLYN CHAPEL

The church known as "Rosslyn Chapel" near Edinburgh in Scotland is recognized as a symbol of the heretical pagan beliefs of the Templars. in the course of the construction of this edifice, Masons and Rosicrucians, the successors of the Templars, were employed, and decorated the whole chapel with symbols representative of their pagan philosophy.

In a publication of Turkish Masonry, the magazine Mimar Sinan, the Masonic origins and the pagan elements of the chapel are described in these words:

The most convincing proof of the unity of the Templars and the Masons in Scotland is the castle and chapel in the village of Roslin, 10 km. south of Edinburgh and 15 km. from the ancient Templar center at Balantrodoch. The Templars lived in this region and in this castle especially after 1312 under the protection of the Barons of St. Clair.

...The chapel was built between 1446-48 by Sir William St. Clair who was one of the most prominent nobles of the time in Scotland and even in Europe. Masons and Rosicrucians worked on the construction. The chief architect of the work was the Templar Grand Master, Sir William St. Clair who brought itinerant mason architects and stone masons from every part of Europe. New houses were built in the near-by village of Roslin and a lodge was opened...

The plan and decoration of the chapel is unique. There is no other such example in Scotland or even Europe. It captured the atmosphere of Herod's temple very well and every part of it was decorated with Masonic symbols. Among the symbols were reliefs on the walls and arches depicting the heads of Hiram and his murderer, a relief of an initiation ceremony, the keystones of the arches, and compasses. Apart from the fact that the chapel was constructed in a marked pagan style with Egyptian, Hebrew, Gothic, Norman, Celtic, Scandinavian, Templar and Masonic architectural elements, and that it contains very rich examples of stone work, one of the most interesting aspects of it is that the tops of the columns are decorated with cactus and corn motifs, besides various other plants figures....

There are so many pagan decorative elements inside the chapel that a priest, writing an account of the baptism he performed of the Baron of Rosslyn in 1589 complained, "because the chapel is filled with pagan idols, there is no place appropriate to administer the Sacrament. in August 31, 1592, as a result of pressure exerted on Baron Oliver St.Claire of Rosslyn, the chapel's pagan-style altar was destroyed. (Tamer Ayan, "The Oldest Known Masonic Institution-the Scottish Royal Order," Mimar Sinan, 1998, No.110, pp.18-19)

Rosslyn Chapel at the present time and an example of its pagan symbols.

30

The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons, and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

32

Traces remain in the Kabbalah, external to Judaism. These stem from the pagan beliefs of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

35

An Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script

36

The most important supporters of Pharaoh's regime in Ancient Egypt was the priestly class (magicians). Their beliefs later formed the roots of the Kabbalah and were transmitted from there to Masonry.

38

The "world-view" of Ancient Egypt did not remain buried with these statues, but was carried down to the present day. by those secret societies that see themselves as the heirs of Ancient Egypt...

41

The statue that the Jews worshipped when they departed from their true religion was, according to many researchers, was an Egyptian idol made of gold in the form of a calf.

43

Another Ancient Egyptian idol: Hathor, the golden calf.

44

An Ancient Egyptian statue of Hathor.

45

A sefiroth is one of the most blatant expressions of the distorted teachings of the Kabbalah.

The figure composed of circles on the Kabbalistic engraving on the right is a sefiroth. Kabbalists attempt to explain the process of creation by means of the sefiroth. The scenario they propose is really a pagan myth totally at odds with the facts revealed in holy books.

46

Some Jews, influenced by the cultures of the pagan civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, turned away from the Torah that Allah gave them as a guide, and began to worship various material objects. Above is pictured a pagan temple to the sun.

52

The Kabbalah's teaching about the origins of the universe and living things is a story replete with myths totally contrary to the facts of Creation revealed in holy books.

57

A model of Solomon's Temple. The Templars and Masons, because of their superstitious beliefs concerning the Prophet Solomon (pbuh), believe that there is a "secret" in this temple passed down from ancient pagan civilizations. It is for this reason that Masonic literature places so much emphasis on the temple of Solomon.

59

Today, humanism has become another name for atheism. One example of this is the enthusiasm for Darwin typical in the American magazine, the Humanist.

64

John Lennon, by his lyrics, "Imagine [there is] is no religion," was one of the most prominent propagandists of humanist philosophy in the twentieth century.

67

Contrary to the promises of humanist philosophy, atheism have brought only war, conflict, cruelty and suffering to the world.

69

As Vatican University historian Malachi Martin has shown, there is a close relationship between the rise of humanism in Europe and the Kabbalah....

72

Some Masonic symbols.

73

Pico della Mirandola, a Kabbalist humanist.

76

The Masonic theory of "humanist morality" is extremely deceptive. History shows that, in societies where religion has been destroyed, there is no morality and only strife and disorder. The picture on the left shows the savagery of the French Revolution and portrays the real results of humanism.

78

Another violent scene of the French Revolution.

79

The guillotine, the French Revolution's implement of brutality.

84

G. E. Lessing and E. Renan. The Masons wanted to realize the dream of these two atheist writers in eradicating religion from the face of the earth.

88

The Ancient Egyptians believed in the myth that matter was eternal, and that the order of the universe arose due to a mythical "self-organizational" power of matter.

92-93

PHARAOH in the LODGE

Modern Masonry preserved Ancient Egyptian philosophy and uses symbols to give it expression. in the above photograph of a lodge, the Pharaoh's image on the front of the altar is an example of this symbolism.

At the entrance of the Grand Masonic Lodge in Washington D. C. there are two Ancient Egyptian sphinxes.

Above, left and below: Representations of Masonic temples

94

A depiction of the Ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. The Masons regard this city, with its numerous pagan temples, as the "source of light."

96

THE EYE AND

THE PYRAMID

Among the most important Masonic symbols taken from Ancient Egypt is the pyramid with an eye within a triangle. The pyramid on the Great Seal of the USA (left) is the great pyramid of Cheops. The eye is a frequent symbol on Ancient Egyptian engravings. (bottom)

97

One of Masonry's most important symbols is the six-pointed star.

98

The six-pointed star is the seal of a Prophet and a Divine symbol. However,

Masons interpret it according to the pagan beliefs of Ancient Egypt.

100

Various Masonic symbols: the double column, the eye, and the compass and the square.

102

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

103

An obelisk covered with Masonic symbols in New York's Central Park.

104

Remains from Ancient Egypt: Monuments of pharaohs with an obelisk rising in front of them in the Valley of the Kings.

105

An Ancient Egyptian depiction of Isis.

108

Albert Pike and a Masonic medallion produced in his memory.

109

The compass and square depicted with the eagle, one of Ancient Egypt's most important symbols.

111

The materialist theories in Masonic literature are no different from those found in the writings of materialist ideologues such as Marx, Engels and Lenin.

115

Masons believe in materialism and reject the idea of life after death. Sometimes the concept of life after death appears in Masonic texts, but, as in the myth of Hiram depicted here (left), what is meant by it is the continuation of the memory of a person's name in this world.

118

Prof. Penrose maintains that materialism can never account for the human mind.

120

Materialism believes in the creative ability of lifeless and unconscious matter. in other words, it turns matter into an idol. Masons believe that atoms have spirit and openly admit to their belief in such a superstition.

122

Pagans of bygone ages worshipped idols made of stone. Today's pagans idolize matter.

123

A relief from the pagan civilization of Mesopotamia.

125

The theory of evolution is not an original discovery of Darwin's. He did nothing more than re-apply an old superstitious philosophy.

127

The theory of materialist evolution was developed by the pagan philosophers in Ancient Greece.

129

The first to promote the theory of evolution in modern Europe were members of the Masonic society known as the Rosicrucians. Above: the symbol of the Rosicrucians.

132

The symbol shown above is used in Masonic lodges, and is a Rosicrucian symbol (the rose and the cross) combined with a Masonic symbol (the compass and square).

133

Revolution: France was turned into a sea of blood.

134

In his book, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke showed the destructive effects of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.

135

Voltaire, Diderot and the "Encyclopedists": the Masonic leaders of the Enlightenment and the fierce opponents of religion.

137

Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather was a "Master Mason."

Erasmus Darwin's book Zoonomia, in which he laid the foundations for the theory of evolution.

140

Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin

141

Pope Leo XIII

142

Thomas Huxley, a fanatical supporter of Darwin.

144

Darwin's theory seemed plausible to some due to the primitive level of scientific knowledge and meager evidence in the nineteenth century.

146

Because of the rudimentary scientific understanding of his day, Aristotle proposed certain mythical explanations still accepted today in Masonic literature.

150-151

THE MASONS' FALSE SUPPORT of HAECKEL

When we look at Masonic literature, apart from their blind attachment to the theory of evolution, we are struck by its profound ignorance. for example, when we examine Turkish sources, we see that evolutionist claims that were proved false in the first quarter of the twentieth century are still defended passionately. One of these is the story of Haeckel and his theory on embryos mentioned in nearly all Masonic publications.

The story is about a German biologist by the name of Ernst Haeckel, who was a close friend and supporter of Charles Darwin, and one of the most prominent supporters of the theory after Darwin's death. in order to establish the validity of the theory, Haeckel examined the embryos of various living things, and proposed that they all resembled one another and that each undergoes a miniature process of evolution before birth. to support this claim, he drew a number of comparisons between different embryos, by means of which he persuaded many of the validity of the theory of evolution in the first half of the twentieth century.

As we mentioned, Masonic sources place great importance on this embryology thesis, which is termed "'ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." Master Naki Cevad Akkerman, in an article entitled "The Concept of Truth and the Principles of Masonry" in Mimar Sinan, calls this thesis a "law," that is, he raises it to the rank of undisputable scientific fact. He writes:

...We will consider a very important natural law. This is the formula proposed by Haeckel, "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." If we take a human being as an example, the meaning of the law is as follows: the morphological changes and changes in the order and function of the organs that a human being undergoes, from the first cellular formation in his mother's womb, until he is born and during his life until he dies, is nothing more than a recapitulation of the changes that he has undergone since the beginning, from his initial cellular formation in earth and in water until today.1

Master Mason Selami Isindag also places great importance on Haeckel's theory. in an article entitled "Masonic Doctrines" he writes "In his experiments, Darwin proved that various species of animals first developed from a single cell and later from a single species." Then he adds:

Haeckel made studies supporting all these experimental findings. He believed that the most basic animal, the Monera, became an organic living thing from inorganic material elements. He demonstrated that there was a unity at the basis of everything. This Monism is a combination of matter and spirit. These are two aspects of the substance that forms their basis. What Masonry believes is in conformity with these scientific and experimental findings.2

In another Masonic text Haeckel is referred to as a "great scholar," and his thesis that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is claimed as proof of the theory of evolution.3

However, the Ernst Haeckel that Masons believe to be a great scholar was an imposter who deliberately falsified scientific discoveries, and the thesis they accept as a "law" (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny) is one of the greatest deceits in the history of science.

This deceit is found in the drawings of embryos made by Haeckel. in order to demonstrate the similarity between the embryos of human beings, chickens, rabbits, salamanders, which in reality shared no such resemblance to each other, he falsified the drawings. in some cases, he took the organs out of the embryos, in other cases he added organs. Moreover, he altered the actual size of the embryos in an attempt to show them as all the same size. in short, Haeckel conducted this falsification in order to fabricate evidence where there otherwise was none. The reputable science journal by the name of Science contained an article in its September 5 1997 edition that stated: "In reality...even closely related embryos such as those of fish vary quite a bit in their appearance and developmental pathway...It (Haeckel's drawings) looks like it's turning out to be one of the most famous fakes in biology."4

Interestingly, this deception has long been recognized for many years. Haeckel's drawings were shown to be falsifications already in his own lifetime (1910), with he himself admitted to it. in an article published in American Scientist we read: "Surely the biogenetic law is as dead as a doornail... as a topic of serious theoretical inquiry it was extinct in the twenties..."5

In spite of this, evolutionists continued to use these drawings for decades with the sole intention of deceiving the masses who had no knowledge of the topic.

There is only one reason why Masons regard Haeckel's theory as a proof for the theory of evolution, and think of him as a great scholar: the Masons' dedication to the theory of evolution is not based on their passion for knowledge and truth, as they claim, but, on the contrary, out of ignorance.

1 Naki Cevad Akkerman, Mimar Sinan, No. 1, p.13

2 Selami Isindag, Masonluk Öğretileri, Masonluktan Esinlenmeler (Inspirations from Freemasonry), Istanbul, p.137

3 Selami Isindag, Din Açısından Mason Öğretisi (Masonic Doctrine According to Religion), Akasya Tekamül Mahfili Publications, p.10

4 Elizabeth Pennisi, "Haeckel's Embryos: Fraud Rediscovered," Science, September 5, 1997

5 Keith S. Thompson, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny Recaputilated", American Scientist, vol. 76, p.273

Haeckel

155

Masonry is the continuation of narrow-minded traditionalism. Modern Masonry maintains the same superstitious beliefs that their "brothers" have defended uncritically for centuries.

157

An expression of Masonry's traditionalism: symbols that have not changed for centuries.

158

The rules that have been accepted as Masonry's constitution have been preserved unchanged for centuries.

162

A depiction of strange ceremonies in an eighteenth century Masonic lodge.

170

An illustration of an eighteenth century French Masonic lodge.

175

Otto von Bismarck

177

When the Nazis came to power, an anti-religious campaign, worse than that of Bismarck, was initiated.

179

A publication of Italian Masonry.

180

Giuseppe Mazzini and Count di Cavour: two Master Masons who brought the Papal State to an end.

181

Masonic propaganda depicting Garibaldi as a great hero.

183

Renowned writer Pushkin was among the Masons who organized the Mason-perpetrated coup attempt in Russia.

185

STRANGE RITES in the TEMPLE of HUMANISM

Masons want to make the whole world a "temple." But, the temple they envision is not the temple of true religion but of humanism. Their dream is of a perverted world in which humanity is idolized, where people have completely rejected true religion, and the evolutionist philosophy is regarded as the only true philosophy.

In a Masonic text, a strange ceremony organized for this intention is described:

Today, one universal religion is coming into being, slowly as it may be, that can satisfy consciousness in its full meaning... Parallel to this universal religion a morality will be established commensurate with a world-view... Such a religion will unite human beings in the universe. This is MASONRY. This religion will be passed from heart to heart. The temples of this religion will be temples of humanity. Among the hymns sung in this temple may be Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the most noble musical composition that ever sprang from the human spirit....

Instead of the meat and blood of a bull in the ceremonies of Mithras, we celebrate this birth by eating bread and drinking red wine. Here we unite in a common faith that has the character of a communion. in a new year, I want to baptize this holy struggle of ours and bring it to an end: Eat one more piece of bread, brothers, you are the missionaries of this religion, let those saints who share this bread be friends. Brothers, to be blood brothers, take another sip of flame from your wine glass. (Mason, Year: 29, No.40-41, 1981, pp. 105-107)

186

The materialist-humanist dogma espoused by the Masons has brought great suffering upon humanity in the twentieth century. World War Two cost 55 million people their lives. This photograph of a fallen soldier, whose face was shattered by a bomb near Stalingrad, is just one example of the great human suffering that was created by "humanist" ideologies.

# Back Cover

Freemasonry is a subject that has attracted much discussion for centuries. Some have accused Masonry of fantastic crimes and misdeeds. However, instead of trying to understand "the Brotherhood" and criticizing it objectively, critics have been unduly hostile to the organization.

This book contains a true exposition of Masonry as a school of thought. The most important unifying influence among Masons is their philosophy—which can be best described according to such terms as "materialism" and "secular humanism." But, it is an errant philosophy based on false suppositions and flawed theories, as you will see in this book.

In this book, the reader will also be presented with a summary of the history of the Masons' struggle against theistic religions. Freemasons have played an important role in distancing Europe from religious moral values, and in their place, founding of a new order based on the philosophies of materialism and secular humanism. The reader will also see how Masonry has been influential in the imposition of these dogmas—and a social order based on them—on non-Western civilizations.

After reading this book, the reader will be able to consider many aspects, from schools of philosophy to newspaper headlines, rock songs to political ideologies, with a deeper understanding, and better discern the meaning and aims behind events and factors.

## About the Author

Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pen-name Harun Yahya, was born in Ankara in 1956. Since the 1980s, the author has published many books on faith-related, scientific and political issues. He is well-known as the author of important works disclosing the imposture of evolutionists, their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons between Darwinism and such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism.

All of the author's works share one single goal: to convey the Qur'an's message, encourage readers to consider basic faith-related issues such as Allah's existence and unity and the Hereafter; and to expose irreligious systems' feeble foundations and perverted ideologies. His more than 300 works, translated into 63 different languages, enjoy a wide readership across the world.

By the will of Allah, the books of Harun Yahya will be a means through which people in the twenty-first century will attain the peace, justice, and happiness promised in the Qur'an.

