Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey

Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey
Author: Jeremy F. Walton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2017-04-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190658991

The sway of Islam in political life is an unavoidable topic of debate in Turkey today. Secularists, Islamists, and liberals alike understand the Turkish state to be the primary arbiter of Islam's place in Turkey--as the coup attempt of July 2016 and its aftermath have dramatically illustrated. Yet this emphasis on the state ignores the influence of another field of political action in relation to Islam, that of civil society. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Istanbul and Ankara, Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey is Jeremy F. Walton's inquiry into the political and religious practices of contemporary Turkish-Muslim Nongovernmental Organizations. Since the mid-1980s, Turkey has witnessed an efflorescence of NGOs in tandem with a neoliberal turn in domestic economic policies and electoral politics. One major effect of this neoliberal turn has been the emergence of a vibrant Muslim civil society, which has decentered and transformed the Turkish state's relationship to Islam. Muslim NGOs champion religious freedom as a paramount political ideal and marshal a distinctive, nongovernmental politics of religious freedom to advocate this ideal. Walton's accomplished study offers a fine-grained perspective on this nongovernmental politics of religious freedom and the institutions and communities from which it emerges.

Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey

Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey
Author: Jeremy F. Walton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2017
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190658975

In contemporary Turkey, a plethora of Muslim NGOs, spanning the sectarian divide between Sunni and Alevi Muslims, has called into question statist sovereignty over Islam. Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey is an ethnographic study of these institutions and their distinctive, nongovernmental politics of religious freedom.

The Emergence of a New Turkey

The Emergence of a New Turkey
Author: M Hakan Yavuz
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2006-05-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0874808634

Explains the social, economic, and historical origins of the ruling Justice and Development Party, offering keen insight into one of the most successful transformations of an Islamic movement in the Muslim world.

Islam in Modern Turkey

Islam in Modern Turkey
Author: Kim Shively
Publisher: New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-01-31
Genre:
ISBN: 9781474440158

This book provides a survey of Islam in Turkey since the founding of the modern republic in 1923. It examines the secularising policies of Turkey's founders and how these policies have shaped the development of religious institutions and social expectations around religious practice up to the present day. A special emphasis is on the relationship between religion and politics, with chapters focusing on state-based religious institutions, religious education, Sufi orders and religious communities, Alevism, Islamic-oriented political parties, and the effects of economic liberalization on the practice of Islam in Turkey. Readers will also learn about the political and social developments that contributed to the rise of the current Islamist government of the Justice and Development Party. In this way, Islam in Turkey provides vital historical context for understanding both the rise of the controversial President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and current events in Turkey and the Middle East more broadly.

Women, Religion, and the State in Contemporary Turkey

Women, Religion, and the State in Contemporary Turkey
Author: Chiara Maritato
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2020-05-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108873693

Tracing the centrality of women in the definition of Turkish secularism, this study investigates the 2003 decision to increase the number of women officers employed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). It explores how, as professional religious officers, the female Diyanet preachers epitomize a pious, modern and highly educated woman whose role in society has been raised to prominence. Based on extensive fieldwork in Turkey, and drawing on a rich ethnography of the activities conducted by Diyanet women preachers in Istanbul, Chiara Maritato disentangles the state's attempt to standardize a multifaceted female religious participation. In using the feminization of the Diyanet as a prism through which to understand the significance of a renewed presence of Islam in the Turkish public realm, she casts light on a broader reformulation of religious services for women and families in Turkey, and pinpoints how this pervasive moral support has been able to penetrate and reshape even secular spaces.

Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey

Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey
Author: M. Hakan Yavuz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2009-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521888786

The Islamist Justice and Development Party swept to power in Turkey in 2002. Since then it has shied away from a hard-line ideological stance in favour of a more conservative and democratic approach. This book asks whether it is possible for a political party with deeply religious ideology to liberalise and entertain democracy?

Civil Democratic Islam

Civil Democratic Islam
Author: Cheryl Benard
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2004-03-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0833036203

In the face of Islam's own internal struggles, it is not easy to see who we should support and how. This report provides detailed descriptions of subgroups, their stands on various issues, and what those stands may mean for the West. Since the outcomes can matter greatly to international community, that community might wish to influence them by providing support to appropriate actors. The author recommends a mixed approach of providing specific types of support to those who can influence the outcomes in desirable ways.