Abstract
These statements are part of my separate conversations with Keriman and Nur on compatibilities and divergences between Islam and modernity (and the West). Both human rights activists, Nur and Keriman are veiled women who both claim to conduct a life in Istanbul in careful observance of Islam’s rules. Whereas Keriman sharply divides Islam and modernity, Nur points to convergences between the two. Rather than being idiosyncrasies, these views represent two distinct religious formations in Turkey: Islamism versus Muslimism.
Keriman (of Organization X)1 said:
I slam says that nobody is superior over the other; the only superiority is the one related with being a servant [kul] to Allah. When we look at the West, we don’t see that … After the World War II, the West … made agreements for human rights … like United Nations Human Rights Convention … these … are not genuine … I believe that the hope for the whole world is in Islam’s understanding of justice and rights.
Nur (of MAZLUM-DER) said:
When I develop my philosophy or approach to human rights, or when I express myself, I refer both to Islam and to Western human rights. I am not putting the Western contracts aside, the Western contracts of human rights are also my values.
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Notes
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (New York: Praeger, 1966)
Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
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For a detailed examination of this process, see Serif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989).
A comprehensive coverage on this can be found in ibid., and Hakan Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Early in the Republic, popular support for tarikats was in large part related to the lack of formal religious education in the new schooling system, unless one chose to specialize in religion at the university level, see Fatma Müge Göcek, The Transformation of Turkey: Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 25.
For a discussion of developmentalist states in Latin America and the urban bias commonly found in their modernizing policies, see Philip McMichael, Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2000).
See also Göcek, The Transformation of Turkey, and Alan Richards and John Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999).
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State monopoly on cultural and ideological production also prevented the rise of non-religious ideologies that could compete against Islamism. See Serif Mardin, Din ve ideoloji (Istanbul: Iletisim Yayinlari, 1993).
Yavuz writes that “ ... neo-liberalism in Turkey … and has altered the cognitive map through which people think about society and state.” Hakan Yavuz, Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 31.
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For an overview of the late-Ottoman economic and political background (institutional arrangements and events), see Serif Mardin, “Religion and Secularism in Turkey,” in The Modern Middle East: A Reader, ed. Albert Hourani, Philip S. Khoury, and Mary C. Wilson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 347–374.
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As much as a rapture, the founders’ vision of what new country would look like and how to build it presented continuities with the Ottoman past, from which they wanted to detach Turks; such reforms as separating state and religious affairs, alphabet reform, promotion of Western styles of art and entertainment, promotion of Turkish-nationalism, westernization, or economic statism were already started in the late-Ottoman era or were debated by the late-Ottoman intel-lectuals. For a discussion on such continuities see Erik-Jan Zurcher, “Ottoman Sources of Kemalist Thought,” in Late Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy, ed. Elisabeth Özdalga (London: Routledge Curzon, 2005).
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A broader discussion on the Directorate of Religious Affairs, its responsibilities, and relations with the state can be found in Ismail Kara, “Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi,” in Islâmcilik, ed. Yasin Aktay and Murat Belge (Cagaloglu, Istanbul: Iletisim, 2004).
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Reported by Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey. Halli identifies 18 such revolts from Resat Halli, Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde ayak-lanmalar (1924–1938) (Ankara: T.C. Genelkurmay Baskanligi Harp Tarihi Dairesi, 1972).
Also see Sencer Ayata, “Patronage, Party, and State: The Politicization of Islam in Turkey,” The Middle East Journal 50, no. 1 (1996): 40
Details on how the coup and 1961 constitution empowered the military over the civilians and electoral politics, and expanded its prestige as well as duties can be found in Ergun Özbudun, Contemporary Turkish Politics: Challenges to Democratic Consolidation (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000)
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Yasar’s analysis of the transformation of Gumushanevi Dergahi into Iskender Pasa Cemaati is an illuminating example to understand how religious orders have adapted to new ways of organizing and institutional arrangements. Yasar Emin, “Dergah’tan partiye, vakiftan sirkete bir kimligin olusumu ve donusumu: Iskenderpasa Cemaati,” in Islâmcilik, ed. Yasin Aktay and Murat Belge (Cagaloglu, Istanbul: Iletisim, 2004).
Examples of Erbakan’s narrative that identified religiosity with partisanship can be found in Ahmet Yildiz, “Politico-Religious Discourse of Political Islam in Turkey: The Parties of National Outlook,” The Muslim World 93, no. 2 (2003): 187–209
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Cemal Karakas, Turkey: Islam and Laicism between the Interests of State, Politics, and Society (Frankfurt am Main: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), 2007), 14.
I agree with Yavuz’s argument that Islamism, which emerged as a reaction against the state’s cultural policies, in time, has become an economic opposition as well; this, however, does not cancel out the possibility, or the fact, that Islamism has also been a cultural opposition. Hakan Yavuz, “Milli Gorus Hareketi: muhalif ve modernist gelenek,” in Islamcilik, ed. Yasin Aktay and Murat Belge (Cagaloglu, Istanbul: Iletisim, 2004).
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See for this approach, Cory Blad and Banu Kocer, “Political Islam and State Legitimacy in Turkey: The Role of National Culture in Neoliberal State-Building,” International Political Sociology 6, no. 1 (2012): 36–56.
Kuran conceptualizes this as “the Islamic sub-economies” referring to Islamic enterprises that collectively form an Islamic sub-economy within the broader economics of the country. See, Timur Kuran, “Islamic Economics and the Islamic Subeconomy,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 9, no. 4 (1995): 155–173.
See also Sennur Ozdemir, MUSIAD: Anadolu Sermayesinin Dönücümü ve Türk Modernlesmesinin Derinlesmesi (Ankara: Vadi, 2006).
For example, Banu Gökariksel and Anna J. Secor, “New Transnational Geographies of Islamism, Capitalism and Subjectivity: The Veiling-Fashion Industry in Turkey,” Area 41, no. 1 (2009): 6–18
Ozlem Sandikci and Guliz Ger, “Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?” Journal of Consumer Research 37, no. 1 (2010): 15–36
Mucahit Bilici, “Islamin Bronzlasan yuzu: Caprice Hotel ornek olayi,” in Islamin Yeni Kamusal Yuzleri, ed. Nilufer Gole (Istanbul: Metis, 2000).
See also Ozdemir, MUSIAD and Emin Baki Adas, “The Making of Entrepreneurial Islam and the Islamic Spirit of Capitalism,” Journal for Cultural Research 10, no. 2 (2006): 113–137
For example, Yalçin Akdogan, AK Parti ve muhafazakâr demokrasi (Cagaloglu, Istanbul: Alfa, 2004).
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Cevik, N. (2016). From Forbidden Modern to Guiltless Modernity. In: Muslimism in Turkey and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-56154-1_2
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