Abstract
Cafcaf is a humor magazine published by a group of religiously conservative Turks, who esteem and uphold what they consider to be Islamic norms and principles in their cartoons. By offering a close reading of Cafcaf, this article sheds light on transformations among Turkey’s Islamic communities. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have been examining how the Islamic movement in Turkey has shifted course since the late 1990s. To this end, they have been studying the extent to which Islamists in the country have undergone changes with regards to their political aspirations and social attitudes. However, only a handful of these works have analyzed how genres of popular culture have responded to and echoed these transformations. A discussion of Cafcaf fills this gap by demonstrating how a group of Muslim youth reacts and responds to the changing outlooks and lifestyles of Turkey’s Islamists. The cartoons shed light on the efforts among young Muslims to establish a middle ground where they can negotiate their religious identities with their secular surroundings. The cartoons indicate that Muslim youth’s enthusiasm and willingness to attain this goal is sometimes coupled by a cascade of trepidations and hesitations.
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Notes
Cafcaf, no. 34, March 2010.
Cafcaf means pompousness in Turkish.
“Secular” is a highly contested term that has been the subject of an intense scholarly debate. For definitions and further discussions, Selçuk 1994, Köklügiller 2008, Turkish Daily News 2004, Kuru 2007, Çınar 2005, Altan 1994, Hürriyet 2007a, b.
Turkey’s secularity is one of the topics that Cafcaf contests. See Gülsüm Kavuncu’s cartoon featuring the veiled student carrying a board below.
On Muslim youth, Bayat and Herrera (2010).
Between 1981 and 1985, it reached a circulation of 1 million, becoming the third-best-selling comic magazine in the world.
http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Turkey/Turkish-humor, last accessed May 2011.
The red arrows were added later on to draw attention to the inscription.
Three of the most popular humor magazines in Turkey right now are Penguen (Penguin), Uykusuz (Sleepless), and Leman (Mistress).
Interview with Metin Yüksel, June 7, 2010.
What Metin Yüksel does not account for is the idea that by offering an alternative to mainstream humor magazines, Cafcaf is being anti-establishment and oppositional.
Interview with Bahadır Boysal, June 11, 2010. As will be discussed below, a large portion of Cafcaf’s humor concentrates on “fake Muslims.”
For full length interview, http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=19405809488&topic=3786, last accessed December 2010.
The Turkish term used by Asım and others is müslümanca mizah.
The period between 1997 and 2002, witnessed the closure of many Islamic foundations, groups, schools, and publications. In the process, the financial resources of the Islamic movement, most notably a number of religiously conservative Anatolian businesses, were boycotted and prosecuted. Islamic businesses were systematically excluded from public bids or contracts in an already existing economic crisis. Police forces detained and interrogated a significant number of Islamist intellectuals, as well as civic and political leaders.
I have borrowed this term from Göle (2002)
The Justice and Development Party comes from a long line of Islamist political parties that include the Welfare and Virtue Parties (Yıldız 2008).
After the establishment of the modern republic in 1923, the government led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk embarked upon a wide range of reforms to sever the country’s ties with its long-standing Islamic heritage. These reforms sought to place the newly established republic on a par with Western countries by emulating their social structures and cultural practices. Designed to secularize and modernize Turkish society, these reforms engendered a cultural transformation in the country. Congruous to this cultural transformation, cultural products started to become increasingly secular, i.e. non-Islamic, in form and composition. Until the 1980s, these cultural products did not face much competition from their Islamic counterparts.
“Islamist” humor magazines, such as Dinazor (Dinosaur) and Ustura (Razor), have employed religiously conservative cartoonists and engaged in “clean humor” to the best of their abilities. However, due to lack of sales, the publications of these magazines ceased after a couple of issues.
In Turkish, the term abi which means ‘elder brother’ is used as a sign of respect.
Imam-Hatip schools are secondary religious schools that operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The schools’ curricula are split between religious and secular classes.
I discuss this issue briefly in the concluding paragraphs.
Cafcaf is currently a part of Küresel İletişim Merkezi (KİM). KİM does not have apparent affiliations to any religious groups.
The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has been offering courses on different topics since 1996. These courses include sewing, marbling, wood painting, photography, and needlework. For more information, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=municipalitys-handicraft-exibition-attracts-women-students-2010-06-09, last accessed May 2011.
The magazine employs a number of people who have graduated from Imam-Hatip schools.
The use of the word hibne, a take on the Turkish word ibne (queer) used to indicate homosexuals, is an exception. The mainstream interpretation of Qur’anic verses and hadith condemn homosexuality. The most often cited verses that make references to homosexuality are: Qur’an: 26:160–175.
Recently, a number of journalists have been incarcerated by the Justice and Development Party because of their criticism of the government’s initiatives. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/world/europe/05turkey.html, last accessed May 2011.
Cafcaf, no. 44, November 2010.
Cafcaf, no. 1, December 2008.
Cafcaf, no. 26, August 2009.
Tyan (2010). It is worth noting the cartoon inadvertently reflects the spirit of Islamists in Turkey. Jihad has never been a major theme in Turkey’s Islamic movement.
As the head representative of the magazine, Yavuz Selim oversees the activities of other representatives spread throughout the country. His main responsibility is to think of ways to increase the magazine’s readership.
Cafcaf, no. 32, February 2010.
My goal was not to examine the magazine’s attitude towards different religious groups in Turkey. However, I did not see any cartoons which resembled the one featuring Gülen in any of the issues.
This incident is demonstrative of the divergences among Turkey’s Islamic communities, mentioned earlier on. Although the magazine attempts to draw pious readers from all religious orders and communities, it does not always succeed in its goal.
My personal experience confirms this trend. I became interested in Cafcaf after having seen a group of female Imam-Hatip school students reading the magazine. At the time, I was conducting fieldwork for my doctoral dissertation which examined the relationship between religious education and Islamism in contemporary Turkey.
The magazine is available online at www.Cafcafdergisi.net, last accessed November 2010. The magazine has an online forum available at: http://www.Cafcafdergisi.net/forum/ and a Facebook page available at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CAFCAF/152213288344, last accessed November 2010.
The fact that both Yasir and Yusuf are handsome young men might partially account for the cartoonists’ popularity among females.
Cafcaf, no. 22, April 2009.
Cafcaf, no. 31, January 2010.
My observations and conservations suggest that the contributors’ engagement with Islamist politics is at most minimal.
These same people might also regard humor as a transgression against Islam. This might be irrespective of the fact that Prophet Muhammad is known to have been a humorous person. He is reported as playing pranks on his contemporaries—and occasionally laughing so hard that his molar teeth showed (Rosenthal 1976).
Cafcaf, no. 25, July 2009.
Cafcaf, no. 35, April 2010.
The song, One of Us, became hugely popular and reached #1 on pop charts around the world.
Cafcaf, no. 21, March 2009.
Cafcaf, no. 25, July 2009.
This critique was evident in the very first cartoon—where the young boy hadn’t even heard of hadith.
Cafcaf, no. 31, January 2010.
Hac, or hajj in Arabic, refers to the religious pilgrimage that Muslims make to Mecca.
Cafcaf, no. 20, February 2009.
What is thought-provoking about these cartoons is that in both cases, these men are alone in their thoughts when they realize their delinquencies. No one else knows that one of them forgot to circumambulate and the other forgot to perform his ablutions. It would be interesting to find out if they share their negligent behaviors with others and if so, how these behaviors are judged by others.
Perhaps another way to read the cartoon is that the demands of the modern world distract the man from prayer.
Cafcaf, no. 30, December 2009.
Cafcaf, no. 26, August 2009; Cafcaf, no. 27, September 2009.
Cafcaf, no.1, December 2008.
Cafcaf, no. 22, April 2009.
http://www.yasirduzcan.com/index.php?sayfa=oku&kategori=notdefteri&no=21, last accessed December 2010.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__TSHhPp8fLM/TMRBBSJ10rI/AAAAAAAABEg/EEsuuosTRDQ/s1600/zaman-YAZILI-KUCUK.PNG, last accessed December 2010.
Cafcaf, no. 30, December 2009.
Cafcaf, no. 36, April 2010.
Cafcaf, no. 20, February 2009.
For Danish cartoon controversy, Klausen (2009).
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