Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

166 islamic political identity in turkeydiscourse assumed concrete expression in areas outside the strictly religiousrealm. The dershanes became socioeconomic and, indirectly, political networkswith which upwardly mobile segments of the religious middle class establishedtrust and connections and competed in the capitalist market economy. Cooperationin business relations has been one of the main social and economicachievements of these dershanes.In order to understand more clearly the operation and signiWcance of thecontemporary Nurcu dershanes in Turkey, I will describe a visit to one inthe Istanbul neighborhood of Tamirhane. 46 I was invited to attend an iftar (theevening meal to break the Ramadan fast) at a dershane located in a sixth-Xoorapartment. Six permanent residents, all students, shared the apartment, whichhad three bedrooms and a living room. Approximately 20 people were present,mostly owners of small retail establishments, with one university professor—of mechanical engineering. They all knew one another, and during their initialconversations most of the talk focused on the business and economicsituation in Turkey. These dershanes thus are not conWned only to religiousissues but also are centers for business networking and sharing informationabout the market. After a half hour of conversation, everyone joined the iftar.The person who leads the interpretive discussion tends to be the most educatedperson present and is given more respect than the others. The students livingin the dershane call him abi (older brother). From their conversations andinteractions it was easily discernable who the group leader was. The diVerence instatus in the dershane is determined by who knows and interprets the RNK best.Knowledge and formal education become a source of power in this context. Whatis important here is the stress placed on formal education and its role in producingIslam. Neighborhood mosque functionaries (imams) are not regarded veryseriously because they are assumed to be dogmatic in their approach and thusunable to have the same kind of interpretive ability as those with modern stateeducations. During prayer, it is not the elderly or those who have memorized theQur’an better who lead the prayer but rather that person whose interpretation ofthe Nurcu texts generally is considered to be most authoritative. In this case, thisperson was Murat, the professor of mechanical engineering. Nonetheless, thereis a hierarchy, according to age, in the way people sit in the room; young peoplesit closer to the door, and the interpreter sits in the center.After the iftar, the interpreter leads the prayer and presents the lesson(ders)—a reading and interpretation of Nursi’s work. The interpreter has a “dual”function: (1) to read Nursi’s work aloud and to oVer, in the process of recitation,a Turkish translation of Arabic, Persian, or Ottoman words; and (2) to interpretthe text in terms of the prevailing social, economic, and political conditions. Theinterpreter inserts his ideas into Nursi’s text, reXecting his own thinking andunderstanding. For example, in the lesson I witnessed, the interpreter turnedNursi into an environmentalist, claiming:The essence of Islam is balance and justice in environment andsociety. There is justice in this world and balance between nature