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Summary A group Monday said books mocking non-Muslims were given out at several Istanbul schools last month.
The books include phrases that are unscientific, anti-Semitic, anti-Armenian and humiliate Christians, non-religious people and people with a left-wing philosophy, read a statement released by Egitim-Sen union.The legal complaint was filed after parents notified Egitim-Sen of the 15 books titled Big Steps Biographical Series, which were distributed free to some 1,000 elementary school children in Istanbuls central Maltepe district.We want the books impounded, and all those responsible held accountable for their part in their distribution into the hands of 10-year-old children, said Mehmet Aydogan, chief of the unions Istanbul bureau which filed the charges.The controversial books describe Albert Einstein as a dirty and sloppy child who walks barefoot and loves eating soap despite the sad part that, in those years, Gestapos were putting Jews in ovens and making soap out of them.Another prominent scientist, Charles Darwin, is portrayed as a clandestine Jew who hated his big nose and spent 20 years to prove his evolution theory, knowing he was only fooling himself.The mock biographies have caused outrage in social media and from Turks across the country, who said they were amazed to see Sigmund Freud described as the father of perverts and Santa Claus as a bloke who should be prosecuted for housebreaking in the series.The union has filed charges of hate crime against the books editor, Ahmet Sirri Arvas, who was not immediately available for comment Monday.The union complaint also asks for charges against the district governorate and district education authorities, on the grounds they committed neglect of duty by allowing the books to be handed out.
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