Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

the matrix of turkish islamic movements 147Islamic” community among Turkish workers in Germany. Moreover, new economicopportunities in Turkey and the Wnancial resources of the Turkish workershelped the Süleymancìs to carve a new space for themselves in terms ofmeeting the housing and scholarship needs of the growing numbers of universitystudents. In this respect, their aim was to protect the new generation againstleftist-atheism and radical political Islam. In the 1970s, they started to organizeamong the Turkish workers in Europe, whose religious aVairs were ignoredtotally by the D8B. The 1980 coup further enhanced the Süleymancì networks,as the state regarded the Turkish-Islamic synthesis as a new national identity.As of 2003, they run the most powerful dormitory networks in Turkey and thesecond-largest mosque network in Germany. Their dormitories are cleaner andmore highly disciplined than those of the state and are equipped with up-to-datetechnology to meet the needs of the university students.Features of the MovementAfter the death of Tunahan, his followers claimed that he had the blessing ofthe Prophet (veraset-i nübüvvet) and was responsible for a spiritual renaissancein the Turkish nation. Like Sheik Khalid, Tunahan gave instructions to his followersto make a rabìta (spiritual bond) to himself rather than any other leader.This spiritual bond requires his followers to seek union with Tunahan throughthe interior visualization of his image in order to attain the supreme Reality—being absorbed in the sheik (al-fana W al-sheikh) and God. According to his followers,he therefore represents the “seal of sainthood” (evliya), meaning thatthere won’t be any similarly blessed leaders after Tunahan. The Süleymancìshave been very active in certain oYces of the higher bureaucracy and activelyinvolved in religious training throughout Anatolia. The movement singled outTurkish youth, in particular, from the outset. Tunahan was an early enthusiastconcerning the importance and revolutionary role of the print media in openingup discursive spaces and liberating Islamic thought not only from Kemalistoppression but also from the weight of religious tradition. He supported NecipFazìl’s populist Islamic magazine Büyük Do:u and encouraged his followers toread it. According to his followers, he also stressed the need to restore pan-Islamicties that had been sundered by the abolishment of the caliphate. He passionatelysupported the liberation movement of Algerian Muslims against Frenchcolonial rule and often was questioned by the police because of taking such akeen interest in international Islamic developments.There are four characteristics that identify the movement of Tunahan. First,the movement has centered on traditional religious training, which was institutionalizedafter his death. The stress on traditional, memorized religious educationdiVerentiates the movement from the Nak7ibendi and Nur movements.When the Kemalist state’s policies shifted between closing all religious educationand creating its own version of “enlightened religious scholar” (aydìn dinadamì), the movement created an alternative informal education to preserve andperpetuate traditional religious education. The movement stressed certain clas-