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Shari‘a and the Secular in Modern Turkey

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Abstract

This article discusses the paradoxical relationship of Kemalist state power and traditional Muslim theologians at the beginning of the Turkish Republic. By analyzing the history of a now-commonly accepted argument for change with the Shari‘a, this article proposes that the anxious relationship between state Kemalism and Muslim modernist theologians helped to lay the foundations of mainstream Muslim praxis in modern Turkey. I argue that the supposed conflict between “religious” and “secular(ist)” ideas in Turkey may be better described as a debate over the definition of secularity itself. A concept of the secular is implied in both Kemalist political secularism and Islamic modernism, and these two interact in ways that contribute to each other’s formation. This article will also bring contemporary theorizing on the nature of the “secular” to bear on this question in order to open up new possibilities for the study of Islam in contemporary Turkey.

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Notes

  1. I use the English term “reformism” here simply to denote the acceptance of changes in Shari‘a practice within the context of modern circumstances. My use of the term does not refer to the Turkish cognate reform which often has a much more aggressively secularist meaning when discussed in connection with religion.

  2. Kuru (2009). According to Kuru, examples of “passive” secularism include regimes where public displays of religious sentiment and argumentation is considered part of legitimate free expression, such as the United States.

  3. For a detailed treatment of the Kemalist state’s intense fear of religious opposition, see Azak (2010).

  4. Koştaş, 7; Dorroll, 1040.

  5. Koştaş, 8.

  6. Ibid., 8–9.

  7. Aydar, 30–31.

  8. Ibid., 1039.

  9. “Türkiye’de kaç ilahiyat fakültesi var.?” www.haber7.com. May 10.

  10. Pacaci and Aktay, 136.

  11. Kazım, 175.

  12. Özdinç, 221–222.

  13. Taylor, 423.

  14. Biography obtained from the Diyanet website: http://www.diyanet.gov.tr/tr/kategori/ahmet-hamdi-akseki/114

  15. Ibid., 114.

  16. Ibid., 1288–1289.

  17. Ibid., 1295.

  18. Bein, 138.

  19. Akseki, İslam: Fıtri, Tabii ve Umumi Bir Dindir, 284–288.

  20. On this theological distinction in Hanafi theology, see Rudolph (2014); and Dorroll, 1055.

  21. Dorroll, 1042.

  22. Çarkoğlu (2004). Support for a Shari‘a government hit its high point in Turkey during the electoral success of the Refah Partisi in the mid-1990s, with approval for Shari‘a government hovering between 20 and 25%.

  23. “Who Speaks for Islam? Excerpt”: http://www.gallup.com/poll/104731/muslims-want-democracy-theocracy.aspx

  24. Huffington Post Omnibus Poll: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/toplines_churchstate_0403042013.pdf

  25. Ibid., 118–123.

  26. Ibid.

  27. It is important to note here that Said Nursi’s theology also displayed a distinctively Islamic modernist character. Though not discussed in detail in this article, it must be kept in mind that his persistent activism must surely have also played a role in the spread of Islamic modernism among Turkish Muslims.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Jakelic, 1.

  30. Ibid., 18.

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  1. Wofford College, 429 N. Church St., Spartanburg, South Carolina, 29303, USA

    Philip Dorroll

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Dorroll, P. Shari‘a and the Secular in Modern Turkey. Cont Islam 11, 123–135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-017-0377-7

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