Does secularism face a serious threat in Turkey?

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 29, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 413-422

  Heper, Metin ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

RELIGION; SECURITY THREAT;

EURASIA; TURKEY;

EID: 70450189799     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: 1548226X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-2009-028     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Mardin used the phrase "mahalle baskisi" (the pressure of the neighborhood). See Ruşen çakir, comp., Mahalle baskisi: Prof. Dr. Şerif Mardin'in tezlerinden hareketle Türkiye'de Islam, cumhuriyet, laiklik ve demokrasi (The Pressure of the Neighborhood: Professor Şerif Mardin's Views on Islam, the Republic, Secularism, and Democracy) (Istanbul: Doǧan Kitap, 2008).
2. On the JDP and state-based Islam
3. Kudret Cengiz, Anti Kemalist devrim (Anti-Kemalist Revolution) (Istanbul: Pozitif, 2008)
4. Sabih Kanadoǧlu, Alaturka demokrasi (Democracy Unique to Turkey) (Ankara: Arkadaş, 2004)
5. Erol Manisali, İslâmci siyaset ve cumhuriyet (Islamic Politics and the Republic) (Istanbul: Derin, 2006)
6. Vural Savaş, AKP çoktan kapatilmaliydi (The Justice and Development Party Should Have Been Closed Long Ago) (Ankara: Bilgi, 2008).
7. Metin Heper, "The Conservative-Democratic Government by Pious People: The Justice and Development Party in Turkey," in Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought, ed. Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 345-61
8. Berna Turam, Between Islam and State: The Politics of Engagement (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007)
9. Hakan Yavuz, ed., The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Party (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2006).
10. The full texts of the two interviews with Mardin are in çakir, Mahalle baskisi.
11. The full texts of the two interviews with Mardin are in çakir, Mahalle baskisi., 23-24, 89.
12. Binnaz Toprak, Proje Sorumlusu (Project Director), "Türkiye'de farkli olmak: Din ve muhafazakarlik ekseninde ötekileştirenler" ("Being Different in Turkey: Those Who Are "Othered' on the Basis of Nationalism and Conservatism") (typescript, Istanbul, December 2008).
13. In 1934 Mustafa Kemal was given the last name "Atatürk" (father of Turks) by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
14. The caliphate was an Ottoman religious institution and was headed by the caliph, the Islamic spiritual leader who could legislate in areas not covered by the Sharia. The fez was first worn by members of the Ottoman court during the reign of Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808-1939). At the time, it, too, was taken as a symbol of modernity.
15. Metin Heper, "Islam, Polity, and Society in Turkey: A Middle Eastern Perspective," Middle East Journal 35 (1981): 345-63.
16. Metin Heper, The State Tradition in Turkey (Beverley, North Humberside, UK: Eothen, 1985), chap. 3.
17. Metin Heper, "Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Toward Reconciliation?" Middle East Journal 51 (1997): 34-35.
18. Metin Heper, "Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Toward Reconciliation?" Middle East Journal 51 (1997)., 35.
19. Şerif Mardin, Din ve ideoloji (Religion and Ideology) (Ankara: Ankara Sevinç Matbbasi, 1969), 132.
20. Tarhan Erdem, "İşte KONDA'nin Kürt Raporu," Milliyet, 16 August 1995.
21. In this article "secularists" refers to those who tend to think that people who practice their religion and/or put on what they think is an Islamic outfit are not modern people; the latter would make rational decisions and have a Western style of life, including such dress codes. In the view of the secularists, the people whom they criticize in the above terms long for a state based on Islam.
22. Gareth Jenkins, Political Islam in Turkey: Running West, Heading East? (Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 138.
23. In the process, members of the founding generation of the republic began to feel deep nostalgia for the "good old days."
24. Esra Özyürek, Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006).
25. According to Article 104 of the 1982 Turkish Constitution, the powers the president of the republic shall exercise include (1) promulgating laws; (2) returning laws to Parliament for reconsideration; (3) submitting to referendum, if he or she deems it necessary, legislation regarding the amendment of the constitution; (4) appealing to the Constitutional Court for the annulment in part or entirety of certain laws, decrees having the force of law, and the rules of procedure of the Parliament on the grounds that they are unconstitutional in form and content; and (5) calling for new parliamentary elections. Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, www.constitution.org/cons/turkey/turk_cons.htm.
26. Ali Çarkoǧlu and Binnaz Toprak, Türkiye'de din, toplum ve siyaset (Religion, Society, and Politics in Turkey) (Istanbul: TESEV, 2006), 92.
27. Ali Çarkoǧlu and Binnaz Toprak, Türkiye'de din, toplum ve siyaset (Religion, Society, and Politics in Turkey) (Istanbul: TESEV, 2006)., 81.
28. I say "essentially," for these leaders respect the man on the street, emphasize helping the needy, and ask Muslim jurists at mosques to speak in their sermons to male congregants of acting affectionately, not resorting to violence toward their wives-;all of which, of course, have religious colorings; yet these same leaders are no different from secular leaders when it comes, for example, to addressing Turkey's foreign relations, economics, and the like.
29. For a discussion of the Ottoman heritage of present-day Turks, see Metin Heper, The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of Assimilation (Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), chap. 2.
30. Çarkoǧlu and Toprak, Türkiye'de din, toplum ve siyaset, 71.
31. Çarkoǧlu and Toprak, Türkiye'de din, toplum ve siyaset., 47.
32. çarkoǧlu and Toprak, Türkiye'de din, toplum ve siyaset., 51.
33. Ali çarkoǧlu and Ersin Kalaycioǧlu, Turkish Democracy Today: Elections, Protest, and Stability in an Islamic Society (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007), 152.
34. çarkoǧlu and Toprak, Türkiye'de din, toplum ve siyaset, 23.
35. çarkoǧlu and Kalaycioǧlu, Turkish Democracy Today, 126.
36. According to one definition, which is adequate for the purpose of this article, the Sharia is a body of rules that regulates the conduct of Muslims; it covers not only belief and ritual but also matters of custom and law. See Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal: McGill University, 1964), 9, cited in çarkoǧlu and Kalaycioǧlu, Turkish Democracy Today, 124. This definition of the Sharia draws on Berkes's but is somewhat different from çarkoǧlu and Kalaycioǧlu's
37. Yeşim Arat, Political Islam in Turkey and Women's Organizations (Istanbul: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Economic and Social Studies Foundation of Turkey, 1999), 61
38. Ali Bayramoǧlu, Çaǧdaşlik hurafe kaldirmaz: Demokratikleşme sürecinde dindar ve laikler (Modernity Does Not Leave Space for Superstitions: Devout and Secular in the Democratization Process) (Istanbul: Türkiye Ekonomik, Sosyal ve Siyasal Araştirmalar Vakfi, 2006), 139
39. Alev Çinar, "Clothing the National Body: Islamic Veil and Secular Unveiling," in Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), chap. 2; Sema Genel and Kerem Karaosmanoǧlu, "A New Islamic Individualism in Turkey: Headscarved Women in the City," Turkish Studies 7 (2006): 473-88
40. Nilüfer Göle, The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), 137-;40
41. Elisabeth Özdalga, The Veiling Issue, Secularism, and Popular Islam in Turkey (Surrey, UK: Curzon, 1998), 55-;85.
42. Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72 (1993): 42.
43. "CHP'den çarşafli türbanli şov" ("The RPP Show with Turban and Chador"), Radikal, 17 November 2008.
44. "CHP'nin "çarşaf' açiklamalari bitmiyor" ("The RPP's Justifications Never Come to an End"), Yeni Şafak, 22 November 2008.