The Young Turk Period, 1908-1918 - PSI424

304 The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808-1975
could be used to retain the connections with the Muslim brothers in the Arab world,
Central Asia, and the Far East, but the interests of the Turkish nation had to
be uppermost. Islam had to be Turkified. Arab traditions had to be replaced by
Turkish traditions, rituals and prayers had to be carried out in the Turkish language
and in the Turkish way, and the Koran had to be taught in Turkish, so that
the people would understand their religion and appreciate God far more than they
could when reciting phrases in a foreign tongue. 101
The Islamicists and Pan-Islam
Though the CUP emphasized Turkish nationalism, the strong Islamicist feelings
nurtured during Abdulhamit's reign were not forgotten. The fact that the Turks
now shared the empire primarily with Arab Muslim brothers even strengthened the
feelings of many that for survival they should emphasize Islam rather than Ottomanism
or Turkism. This group, however, lacked effective leadership. The major
Islamicist group, the Society for Islamic Unity, had come to a sudden end following
the failure of the counterrevolution in the spring of 1909. Its basic message had
been that Islam had to be maintained as the religion of the state; no matter how the
regime was established and whether it was autocratic or constitutional, its primary
duty was to enforce the Muslim religious law; and because the Young Turks were
not following the §eriat, they were secularists and atheists and had to be overthrown.
Though the party ceased to exist, its philosophy was kept alive by Sait
Nursi (1867-1960), who led a group of religious reactionaries called "Followers of
Light" (Nurcu) and favored the reestablishment of religious autocracy until the
day of his death, well into the republican period. 102
Another influential Islamicist group was the Society of Islamic Learning
(Cemiyet-i Ilmiye-i Islamiye), which, starting in 1908, published its ideas in its
monthly periodical, Bey an ul-Hak (Presentation of the Truth). It was led by
Mustafa Sabri, who achieved his greatest notoriety during the Allied occupation of
Istanbul following World War I (1918-1923), when he led a number of ulema who
cooperated with the British in abolishing the secular measures introduced by the
Young Turks. Sabri led those who felt that Islam could in fact itself become the
principal vehicle for the empire's modernization; Muslims had to unite to reform
their religion on its own terms as well as to repel the attacks by non-Muslims. 103
The most intellectual Islamicist group was that led by the poet Mehmet Akif
(1870-1936) and a group of conservative intellectuals who published their ideas in
the monthly Sirat-i Miistakhn (The Straight Path), later called Sebil ur-Resad
(Fountain of Orthodoxy). Claiming that Abdulhamit's autocracy had violated the
simple faith of the Prophet and the Orthodox Caliphs as much as had the secular
Young Turks, Akif and his followers emphasized the perfect conformity of the
Constitution with the democracy of Islam, with the Parliament representing the
earliest Muslim practices of consultation among believers. But they differed with
the reformers over those policies that attempted to introduce Western institutions
and to give equality to non-Muslims. Those policies that emphasized union with the
Turks of the world at the expense of universal Muslim ties also were condemned.
Western civilization had corrupted the Islamic ethic, and Muslims would have to
return to their old values and unity if they were to be rescued from imperialism.
Islam could take only the science and technology of the West, rejecting the elements
of government that would weaken the Islamic community. There was a tremendous
gap between the so-called educated people and the mass of the people. The former