Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

58 islamic political identity in turkeyConclusionSecularism, the oYcial discourse of the Republic, failed to establish real connectionswith much of the population, and it left a void in the inner life of manysegments of society. Islam as a spiritual and communal force was well positionedto address some of the more alienating consequences of modernity and theRepublican state- and nation-building project. The Republican discourse ofmodernity and development ironically has been hijacked and transformed bythe religious and cultural forces that the Kemalist authorities saw as the mainobstacles to progress and to their own hold on power.