Financial Times

Radikal

Turkish schoolchildren in Istanbul received a series of books denouncing scientific figures, including one denying the theory of evolution and describing Charles Darwin as a big-nosed Jew, thereported Friday.According to the paper, the books were distributed last week to hundreds of students in the Maltepe district of Turkey's capital after the government-affiliated local education authority approved their content.The book on Darwin reportedly states that the evolutionary biologist “Had two problems: First he was a Jew; second, he hated his prominent forehead, big nose and misshapen teeth.”Darwin was not Jewish.A separate book on Albert Einstein reportedly describes the physicist as “filthy and slovenly” and accuses him of eating soap. “The sad part is during that time the Gestapo was putting Jews into ovens and making them into soap,” the book adds.Maltepe’s director of education, Faik Kaptan, told Turkey’snewspaper that he was unaware the books contained anti-Semitic references, saying, “It is not possible to check all the books distributed in the district.”