Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

42 islamic political identity in turkeyindividualism was expressed in the literary and artistic renaissance of the time. 17Print-based dialogue appeared in various journals. These journals played homageto the individual, a protean character, and attempted to modify and changepeople to meet the needs of the time. This policy of Ottomanism failed, however,because of the rise of nationalism in the Balkans and the state’s failure torespond to external challenges. Nonetheless, these reforms and their impactpromoted the secularization of Turkish society and introduced new ideas of citizenship,equality, and constitutionalism.The reformists had one goal, to preserve the existence and authority of thestate. Thus most reforms were implemented with the aim of consolidating thestate’s social base. These policies did not have the original liberal intention oflimiting the power of the state or creating public spaces for the expression ofindividual freedom. Nevertheless, a new environment was created in which ideasof citizenship and scientiWc reasoning evolved. The nineteenth-century Ottomanelite sought to consolidate state power primarily by modernizing the army, aprocess that transformed the army into a trend-setter and an agent for orderingthe society in accordance with the needs of the state. In addition to the modernizationof the army, the second instrument for consolidating state power wasthe introduction of science and technology for economic development. Science,for Ottoman bureaucratic intellectuals, became the progressive force to orderand regulate society and alter the modes of thinking. The “carriers” of this positivistworldview exploited the reform campaign to consolidate their power vis-àvisthe religious scholars by framing all opposition as “religious fanaticism.”Whereas the state bureaucratic class saw European-inspired reform policiesas an eVective means of coping with the empire’s problems, the ulema viewedthe reforms as weakening the state. Their argument gained ground as a seriesof reforms failed to stem the decline of the empire or placate its cynical Europeancritics. The ulema began to argue that the Ottoman state should acceptEuropean scientiWc and technological expertise but not its social and politicalinstitutions and ideologies. This group argued that Islam was the cement ofOttoman society and that it should become the state ideology as well. With thereign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1908), this latter argument started tohave a greater impact on the Ottoman government.During the reign of Abdülhamid II, a new group of reformers, known asYoung Turks, presented themselves as progressive on the grounds that they hadscientiWc education and were guided by science and reason rather than by religion.The major characteristics of the Young Turks, who were trained in secularmilitary schools, were an unquestioned faith in positivism as a guide to politicsand society, a determination to create a modern society to consolidate the powerof the state, and a belief in elite rule. Because of these three characteristics, theYoung Turks were neither liberal nor democratic, although they stressed thesigniWcance of the parliamentary system and constitutionalism as a way of copingwith ethnic challenges in the Balkans. Their Wrst and foremost goal was toprotect and consolidate the power of the Ottoman state. Even their attempts tocreate “Ottoman citizenship” were aimed at expanding the social basis of thestate. Thus, for the Young Turks, the parents of the Republican elite, identity