Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

the enduring ottoman legacy 55The Kemalist state justiWed its coercive secularism by presenting Islam asthe main reason for the economic underdevelopment and social malaise thatconfronted Turkish society in the 1920s and 1930s. The reforms of the Republicmaintained the dominance of the state elite until 1950, treating society as anarena to be mapped, controlled, and civilized without any say of its own. As thestate’s hostility to religion became clear, societal groups that did not share inthe political and economic beneWts reaped by the new elite saw Islam as an ideologythey could use to challenge the Kemalist state. Islam thus became a politicaltool in the hands of marginalized segments, which made up the bulk ofTurkish society.By seeking to suppress virtually all manifestations of Islam in what was adeeply religious society, the Kemalist elite actually promoted the politicizationof a furtive Islamic identity and ensured a struggle between the secular andMuslim groups’ control of the state. The secular elite considered any attemptby marginalized societal groups to seek representation within the state centeras an example of an “Islamic revival.” 65The Republican goal of comprehensive secularization of all aspects of socialand political life naturally generated intense hostility and resistance thatcould not be overcome by sheer force. The Kemalist elite did not take into accountthat Islam was embedded in various layers of Turkish social life and wasmore conducive to mass mobilization than either a constructed “ethnic” nationalismor socialism. Its power in this respect stems from its Xexible networksystem, norms, and symbolic value. With respect to the mobilization of Turkishsociety, the abstract concept of “humanism” as expounded by secular discoursewas no match for the concreteness and familiarity of Islamic idioms andsymbols. Indeed, Islamic cosmology conveyed a clear vision of the phenomenalworld for the true believer, and this enabled him to sustain the imaginary andemotional life of the archetypical Muslim, the Prophet Muhammad. Throughimagination, Muslims constantly reexamine their present condition in termsof Islamic ideals, and, in the process Islam is freed from the danger of becominga sterile and fossilized tradition. 66 By imagination I mean the ability to investfamiliar symbols with new meanings, or even to create new symbols basedon an image of what the current situation requires. Through imagination, Islamis freed from the reductionism of literal texts (Qur’an and hadith) and turnedinto a living text that is embodied in the practices of Muslims. Therefore, inalmost every century one witnesses the phenomenon of Islamic movements anda period of radical imagination by prominent Islamic thinkers. By radical imaginationI mean the rethinking of images and concepts of self and society. Theexistence of an imaginary horizon “acts as a schema which organizes categoriesand marks out the frame of the imaginable.” 67 This, in turn, helps in creatinginterpretations and explanations of a more holistic understanding of socialrelations. This is so because the imagination is but a layer of thought on thought,where existing constructs either are superseded or sublimated to a new level.Islamic consciousness remained at the foundation of communal identityamong large segments of society, occasionally transcending national conscious-