Islam Secularism And Nationalism In Modern Turkey

This book examines Turkish and Balkan nationalism, arguing that the legacy of the Ottomon millet system which divided the Ottoman population into religious compartments called millets, shaped Turkey’s understanding of nationalism during the interwar period.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In this new interpretation of the modernisation & secularization of Turkey, Andrew Davison demonstrates the usefulness of hermeneutics in political analysis, illuminating the complex relations between religion & politics in post-Ottoman Turkey.

A systematic account of the life, works, and accomplishments of al- Kirmani, an important Ismaili Muslim scholar and writer in the fields of philosophy and science who lived during the first half of the 11th century AD

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Turkey has leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and is looked on by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring. This book reveals how Turkish national identity and the meanings of Islam and secularism have undergone radical changes in today's Turkey, and asks whether the Turkish model should be viewed as a success story or cautionary tale. Jenny White shows how Turkey's Muslim elites have mounted a powerful political and economic challenge to the country's secularists, developing an alternative definition of the nation based on a nostalgic revival of Turkey's Ottoman past. These Muslim nationalists have pushed aside the Republican ideal of a nation defined by purity of blood, language, and culture. They see no contradiction in pious Muslims running a secular state, and increasingly express their Muslim identity through participation in economic networks and a lifestyle of Islamic fashion and leisure. For many younger Turks, religious and national identities, like commodities, have become objects of choice and forms of personal expression. This provocative book traces how Muslim nationalists blur the line between the secular and the Islamic, supporting globalization and political liberalism, yet remaining mired in authoritarianism, intolerance, and cultural norms hostile to minorities and women.

In the Turkish elections of December 1995, the Islamic Welfare Party became the biggest Party in parliament and for the first time in history, an Islamic party had come to power by means of free elections. The rise to power of the Turkish Islamists is a result of several decades of revivalism. In this process the veil has been a prominent symbol of the new religious puritanism, causing resentment among those who regard the bare-headed woman as the symbol of progress and emancipation. In the light of a century-long conflict between secularism and popular Islam, the present study describes the conflict over the veil as it became a burning issue in the decade following the military intervention of 1980 and remains to this day a matter of controversy. While focusing on the issue of veiling, the author also considers the wider picture of tension between official secularism and popular Islam in present-day Turkey. Although this tension is not discounted, the author argues that the fact that the Islamic movement is on the rise does not mean that it threatens the very foundations of modern Turkish society. Whereas the controversies of the nineteenth century could be described as a 'clash of civilizations' (between Islam and the West), those of today have shrunk into conflicts over certain cultural symbols that are part of the same globally-expanding technological civilization.

This book evaluates the Turkish nation-building process from the Ottoman Empire to today, considering the role of Islam in this process. It gives insight into what has changed and not changed in this process. The book explains to readers that the Islamisation of the country is not a coincidence. Rather, Islamism has been grown symbiotically with the secular Republican regime through the organizational power of Islamic sects and with the assistance of the West. How we live as a nation today is not a revolution of Islamists, as some scholars have remarked. Rather, it is a continuation of the Turkish nation-building process with further Islamisation.