Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

142 islamic political identity in turkeyRather, he stressed economic progress and industrialization as the best ways todevelop society and ease the iron grip of Kemalist authoritarianism. 49 Kotku’sagenda modiWed the old SuW saying “Bir lokma, bir hìrka” (all a person needs isa morsel of food and a cloak to cover oneself) by adding to the list “one Mazda.”By “one Mazda,” Kotku meant that Muslims should control technology so theycould control their own destiny; once Turkish Muslims had joined the ranks ofthe middle class and obtained the power that would accompany this rise in class,they could reshape their state and society from within. 50 Kotku stressed bothreligious (uhrevi) and worldly liberation (felah). His disciples were encouragedto become involved in trade as opposed to seeking jobs in the civil service, sincesuccess in trade, for Kotku, freed individuals from dependence on state authoritiesand created an economically and culturally powerful Turkey. In furtheranceof this goal, he emphasized the centrality of education and individual developmentfor his followers. Kotku was a man of deep intelligence with a clear understandingof the constraints of society. He treated the lack of ethics andself-discipline among individuals in Turkish society as the main impedimentto the full realization of freedom and an Islamic ethos.Kotku wrote 30 books, most of which have appeared in third or fourth editions.51 An in-depth examination of these works reveals that Kotku’s goal wasto help Muslims Wnd their inner selves by cultivating a progressive Islamic consciousnessthat would address the issues and needs of each Muslim’s own period.Kotku’s Sermons to the Faithful (Mü’minlere Vaazlar) seek to consolidate Muslimfaith through moral allegories from the period of the Prophet Muhammad.In the corpus of his writings, a struggle emerges over the question of how toclose the gap between daily human exigencies and practices and traditional Islamicmorality. 52 In Kotku’s appraisal, the high Islamic tradition is Xexible andenlightened enough to address contemporary needs.Islam, for Kotku, is a repository of moral arguments that are expressed inthe shared language of a community and can be used to mold an unformedfuture. One might sum up the writings of Kotku in the following way: a harmoniouscommunity cannot exist without a shared ethical and spiritual language(mores); communal justice and tranquility only can be realized by the internalizationof such mores; SuWsm had a crucial role to play in this inner transformation.Kotku’s focal point was disciplining the appetite/soul and constructinga cognitive map within each believer that could be followed to form a well-orderedsociety. After Kotku’s death, Esad Co7an (1938–2001), his son-in-law and thenew leader of the order, reinvented the Gümü7hanevi order as a model for politicalassociations and economic corporations. In this process, the image ofGod was redeWned; Co7an’s emphasis on the market implied that Muslimsshould view the liberating and rationalizing “hidden hand” of market forces asa reXection of divine wisdom. After the 1997 coup, Co7an left Turkey; he diedin Australia on February 4, 2001, and his son Muharrem Nureddin Co7an becamethe leader of the order.The 8skenderpa7a promoted the circulation of ideas and the developmentof new intellectuals in society by publishing them in its magazines and broadcastingthem on its radio stations and, by doing so, marketed its own intellectu-