Intellectual roots of ‘Turkish Islam’ and approaches to the ‘Turkish model’

This paper examines the notions of ‘Turkish model’ and ‘Turkish Islam’ which have caught significant interest among the political circles in Turkey and the West but which failed to receive adequate attention from the academia. This paper argues that there are three main outlooks that conceptualize and idealize the Turkish model vis‐à‐vis its relation to Islam: nationalist, orientalist, and liberal. These perspectives depart from a set of assumptions and practical objectives in order to make their proposal appealing. After examining their premises, it is evident that the intellectual roots of Turkish Islam do not receive adequate attention in these three models. Thus, it would be more accurate to name the Turkish model as the ‘Kemalist model’ of modernization since the historical evolution and intellectual roots of Turkish Islam remain undervalued. The paper concludes that rather than presenting modern Turkey as a role model to the Greater Middle East or the Muslim world, a more comprehensive and nuanced analysis of social, historical and intellectual roots of Turkish Muslimness is necessary. This attitude can make the discussion on Turkish model well founded and better suited for the ongoing debates regarding the future of the Muslim world in terms of its economic, political and social transformation

Faith and Politics in the Public Sphere

In Faith and Politics in the Public Sphere, Ugur explores the politics of religious engagement in the public sphere by comparing two mod...https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/ias_books/1117/thumbnail.jp

Public or Republic Sphere? Parameters of Kamusal Alan Debate in Turkey

The article focuses on the issue concerning the cognitive shift of political, societal, and individual principles from the modern notion to post-modern global points in Turkey. The author discusses Turkey\u27s concept of democratization and the public sphere in the light of balance between liberalism and republicanism. He also defines the basic functions of public sphere, and discusses the role of values as a guiding principle in politics

Intellectual Roots of Turkish Islam

Reflecting the diversity of Islam, this collection focuses on the presence of Muslims in countries outside the traditionally conceived heartlands of the Islamic world. It focuses on the history of the arrival of Islam in such countries and the nature of the way in which Islam is practised in such places

Religious Frames: The Gülen Movement

The Gülen movement is a transnational social movement with presence in more than 120 countries. The movement emerged out of Turkey’s informal Islamic sector in the 1960s and combined elements of Turkish patriotism, Islamic revivalism, Sufi mysticism, interfaith outreach, activist pietism, and conservative modernism. The initial focus on faith-based community-building gave way to a broader “presence movement” in the public sphere. The movement is organized around clusters of non-governmental institutions, including schools, tutoring centers, universities, business associations, community organizations, humanitarian aid, healthcare, and media outlets. Its organizational structure resembles concentric circles of volunteerism with varying degrees of commitment and contribution, with a core of dedicated full-time “elders” (abi/abla) and more specialized contributions in the periphery. Despite its transnational presence and growth, the structure of the movement retained its reliance on the charismatic authority of the movement’s founder, Fethullah Gülen, and a core group of the elders. The participants call the movement simply the hizmet (service), emphasizing its functions as opposed to its identity or leadership. As the community evolved from its early Muslim restorationist identity in the Turkish periphery, it has gradually widened its appeal, incorporated an increasingly universal-humanist language, and achieved a considerable global reach since the 1990s. The movement found a niche in interfaith/intercultural dialogue activism in the public sphere and allied itself with other civil society actors in various countries. The movement schools and services assumed bridge-building roles across ethnic and religious lines in divided and conflict-prone developing countries. These peace-building and civil society–organizing roles in turn helped the movement mobilize its members and promote its legitimacy in the public sphere, and offered layers of protection against its opponents. In Turkey, however, the movement became much more entangled in the state bureaucracy and politics, turning its civil society–based service profile into a controversial organization. Despite achieving a high-profile public presence, the movement’s politics remained informal, its positions on social and political issues vague, and its structure amorphous for much of its existence until the mid-2000s.The changing balance of power between Turkey’s Kemalist state establishment and the Islamists under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) offered a major opportunity for the Gülen movement to increase its access to power between 2007 and 2013. Many affiliates of the movement assumed key positions in the Turkish bureaucracy and the business world. During this period, the AKP gradually dismantled the Kemalist establishment. However, instead of a liberal democratic order, the “new” post-Kemalist Turkey witnessed a power struggle between the former allies. The mistrust between the Gülen movement and the AKP ultimately led to an all-out war, with battles around high-stakes corruption and graft investigations against the AKP government, followed by mass purges of Gülenists from the bureaucracy and crackdown on its economic and human resources, and finalized by criminalization of all movement activities after a coup attempt that implicated Gülenists in the military. The Turkish government extended its crackdown abroad and pressured other countries to declare the movement as a terrorist organization, shut down or transfer its schools, and extradite its leadership to Turkey, with mixed success. The movement is challenged by the conflicting imperatives of self-preservation under existential threats and the need for critical reflection on its relationship with power. It is likely to experience a period of soul searching while its center of gravity shifts away from Turkey. An integrated approach from social movement theory sheds light on how motives, means, and opportunities account for the rise and decline of the Gülen movement, with implications for Islam and modernity, religion and democratization, and state-society relations

Assessing the War on Terror

Was the US-led war on terror, especially the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, a necessary response to the September 11 terrorist attacks? What did the two invasions accomplish? How have the fortunes of al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations been affected? The authors of this important contribution to ongoing debates address these questions as they assess the impact and implications of the war on terror for the Middle East, for Europe, and for the United States itself.https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/ias_books/1062/thumbnail.jp