Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

prefaceixin the reconWguration of the political and intellectual landscape inTurkey. I argue that reinvigorated Turkish Islam(s) in the political and socialspheres cannot be explained by the failure of Kemalism but rather is an outcomeof new opportunity spaces—social and economic networks and vehiclesfor activism and the dissemination of meaning, identity, and cultural codes—in which the Kemalist project played an important albeit inadvertent role. Thisrelationship has not been purely antagonistic but rather also contingent andtransformative. The history of the last 80 years of the Republic shows that theTurkish authorities seldom have been consistent in counterpoising nationalismand Islam, secularism and religion. If any concept could capture this tendentiousrelationship it is that of contradiction.While focusing on contemporary Turkish Islamic social and political movements,this study will also be useful in shedding light on the vexed issue of Islam,democratization, and politics in the broader Muslim world. Turkish Islamicsocial and political movements have sought to consolidate civil society by redrawingthe boundaries between the state and society and attempting to formtheir own intellectual and moral charter, seeking not necessarily to replace theexisting secularist state but rather to reconstitute everyday life. The Islamicmovements of Turkey have created their own middle-class ethos and accommodationswith modernity. Thus the contemporary debate in Turkey is not aboutrestoring Islamic government or imposing Islamic law but about carving newspaces, constituting new identities, and diversifying voices in the public spherewith an idiom that would not be alien to most Western societies.By utilizing new opportunity spaces, these Turkish Islamic movements aremaking new actors of intellectuals, businessmen, scholars, and artists and creatingnew sites of sociability. One of the major impacts of these opportunityspaces has been facilitating the emergence of private identities, commitments,and lifestyles in the public sphere. These new public spaces, along with newactors, have brought Islam to the forefront of public discussion. The secondimpact of these opportunity spaces is on the ultimately centrifugal trajectory ofIslamic sociopolitical movements in democratic and pluralistic settings. As aresult of new opportunity spaces, diVerentiation in terms of political practices,areas of specialization, and class dynamics has become quite apparent. ThusMuslim societies in general, and Turkish society in particular, and their varioussociopolitical movements have allowed a “democratic space” to evince thesame vital diversity and pluralism found in Western liberal democracies. Newopportunity spaces have helped Turkish Muslims to acquire new skills to functionin and shape modern practices and articulate their visions of the good life.For instance, new communication networks helped to create a new class ofMuslim intellectuals, columnists, and news anchorpersons, quite distinct fromthe traditional ulema. Thus competing Islamic movements have less in commonwith each other than with various secular counterparts in Turkish society.This book further examines the state policy of using Islam to overcome the disintegrationand tension created by neoliberal economic policies—and the wayvarious social groups have utilized Islam to make identity claims and justify theirentry into the political and economic spheres.