HopeTracker| The fight against Darwin’s theory of evolution is not confined to debating America’s Conservatives. Muslim followers of Harun Yahya, a well-financed Turkish publisher of Islamic books, held four conferences at Muslim centers in Paris this weekend, with more scheduled in six other cities.

“We didn’t descend from the apes,” lecturer Ali Sadun told the giggling youngsters. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, he said, was “the scientific basis to defend atheism.”

Harun Yahya, one of the most prolific publishers in the Muslim world, gave proudly secularist France a scare in January 2007 by mass-mailing thousands of free copies of his “Atlas of Creation” to schools and libraries across the country.