Abstract
Ahmet T. Kuru’s essay, Rethinking Secularism and State Policies Towards Religion, examines how secularism and state policies towards religion evolved in the United States, France and Turkey during the last decade, using a theoretical lens from Kuru’s book Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey published in 2009. Kuru first outlines passive secularism in the United States throughout the last decade, with a particular focus on state politcies towards the Muslim minority. The essay then delves into the restrictions towards Muslims in France, as well as how Turkey went from being a secular state, to a populist Islamic state. In the United States, the religion-state relations are relatively stable, and in France, assertive secularism has reigned and ruled. Kuru concludes that out of the three cases, Turkey experienced the deepest transformation throughout the last ten years because of its tension between a secularist ideology and its highly religious society. However, the rise of populist Islam in Turkey does not mean the end of secularism. Kuru argues that the Erdogan regime is essentially groundless, although Erdogan’s Islamism has caused Turkey to move away from secularism.
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Notes
- 1.
Ahmet T Kuru. Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey. (New York Cambridge University Press, 2009): 23–34.
- 2.
When Alexis de Tocqueville (2000 [1835], 295) visited America in the early nineteenth century, he recognized that religion in the United States was not seen as part of political oppression: “In France I had seen the spirits of religion and freedom almost always marching in opposite directions. In America I found them intimately linked together in joint reign over the same land.” See also Tocqueville 2000 [1835], 297; Tocqueville 1983 [1858], 6–7.
- 3.
Kuru 2009, 243–4.
- 4.
- 5.
These overlapping but still different goals of the secular and the religious founders problematize the misleading depiction of secularism in the United States as “freedom of religion” as opposed to secularism in France as “freedom from religion.”
- 6.
In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Court specified three criteria to determine the constitutionality of any legislation: “First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion, finally, the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.”
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
Vincent Phillip Munoz; “Supreme Court Gives Religious Schools More Access to State Aid,” New York Times, June 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/us/supreme-court-religious-schools-aid.html
- 10.
- 11.
Pew Research Center 2019.
- 12.
“Trump’s Travel Ban Is Upheld by Supreme Court,” New York Times, June 26, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-travel-ban.html
- 13.
- 14.
“Trump v. Hawaii,” Oyez, June 26, 2018, https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/17-965
- 15.
See Smith 2015.
- 16.
For José Casanova (2009, 147), there are parallels between the nineteenth-century anti-Catholic nativism and current Islamophobia in the United States: “Today’s totalising discourse on Islam as an essentially anti-modern, fundamentalist, illiberal and undemocratic religion and culture echoes the nineteenth-century discourse on Catholicism.”
- 17.
- 18.
In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service began to issue a stamp with Arabic calligraphy to commemorate Islamic holidays.
- 19.
“‘Islam is Peace’ Says President: Remarks by the President at Islamic Center of Washington, D.C.” September 17, 2001, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html; “Presidential Visit to Islamic Center,” C-Span, September 17, 2001, https://www.c-span.org/video/?166111-1/presidential-visit-islamic-center
- 20.
For Obama’s views on religions and secularism, see Lacorne 2011, 161–70.
- 21.
“Remarks by the President on a New Beginning,” Cairo University, Egypt, June 4, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/
- 22.
“‘I Think Islam Hates Us’: A Timeline of Trump’s Comments About Islam and Muslims,” Washington Post, May 20, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/; “On Islam, Trump Takes a Different Approach at Home and Abroad,” New York Times, June 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/politics/trump-muslims-iftar-dinner.html
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
- 26.
- 27.
Kılınç 2019, ch. 5.
- 28.
Ministère de l’éducation 2005.
- 29.
Gunn 2005, 92n48.
- 30.
Law no. 2010–1192, October 11, 2010, http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000022911670
- 31.
Quoted in “Deux mille femmes portent la burqa en France,” Le Figaro, September 9, 2009.
- 32.
“Islam Debate in France Sparks Controversy,” BBC News, April 5, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12969641
- 33.
“Sorties scolaires: le Sénat vote pour l’interdiction du port du voile pour les mères accompagnatrices,” May 15, 2019, Public Senat, https://www.publicsenat.fr/article/parlementaire/sorties-scolaires-le-senat-vote-pour-l-interdiction-du-port-du-voile-pour-les
- 34.
For “l’affaire Mila” in France and other debates on blasphemy and Islam, see Ahmet T. Kuru, “Pourquoi le blasphème est-ilpassible de la peine capitale dans certains pays musulmans?” The Conversation, March 12, 2020, https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-le-blaspheme-est-il-passible-de-la-peine-capitale-dans-certains-pays-musulmans-133458
- 35.
“From France to Denmark, Bans on Full-Face Muslim Veils Are Spreading Across Europe,” Washington Post, August 16, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/16/france-denmark-bans-full-face-muslim-veils-are-spreading-across-europe/?arc404=true; “Burqa Bans: Which Countries Outlaw Face Coverings,” New York Times, October 19, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/world/europe/quebec-burqa-ban-europe.html
- 36.
Recent Covid-19 pandemic, however, has complicated the face covering bans in France and elsewhere. See Anna Piela, “Muslim Women Who Cover Their Faces Find Greater Acceptance Among Coronavirus Masks – ‘Nobody Is Giving Me Dirty Looks,” The Conversation, April 10, 2020, https://theconversation.com/muslim-women-who-cover-their-faces-find-greater-acceptance-among-coronavirus-masks-nobody-is-giving-me-dirty-looks-136021
- 37.
- 38.
- 39.
- 40.
Ahmet T. Kuru, “How Two Islamic Groups Fell From Power to Persecution: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey’s Gulenist,” The Conversation, August 20, 2019, https://theconversation.com/how-two-islamic-groups-fell-from-power-to-persecution-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-and-turkeys-gulenists-120800
- 41.
Ahmet T. Kuru, “Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Analyzing the Failure,” Montreal Review, December 2017, http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/Islam-And-Democracy-In-Turkey.php; Ahmet T. Kuru, “Turkey Releasing Murderers – But Not Political Opponents – from Prison Amid Coronavirus Pandemic,” The Conversation, April 23, 2019, https://theconversation.com/turkey-releasing-murderers-but-not-political-opponents-from-prison-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-136466
- 42.
See Baskın Oran, “Şu Anda En Istıraplı İş, Vicdanlı ve Ahlaklı Müslüman Olmak,” T24, December 22, 2017, https://t24.com.tr/yazarlar/baskin-oran/su-anda-en-istirapli-is-vicdanli-ve-ahlakli-musluman-olmak,18776
- 43.
“18 Yıl Önce “Eşcinsellerin Yasal Güvence Altına Alınmaları Şart” Diyen Erdoğan, Bugün “Lanetlenmiş, Sapkınlıklar” İfadesini Kullandı!” T24, June 29, 2020, https://t24.com.tr/haber/18-yil-once-escinsellerin-yasal-guvence-altina-alinmalari-sart-diyen-erdogan-bugun-lanetlenmis-sapkinliklar-ifadesini-kullandi,887466
- 44.
“Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı Yeni Hizmet Binası Dualarla Açıldı,” January 6, 2020, https://diyanet.gov.tr/tr-TR/Kurumsal/Detay/26236/milli-istihbarat-teskilati-yeni-hizmet-binasi-dualarla-acildi
- 45.
Carlotta Gall, “Erdogan’s Plan to Raise a ‘Pious Generation’ Divides Parents in Turkey,” New York Times, June 18, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/world/europe/erdogan-turkey-election-religious-schools.html
- 46.
Daren Butler, “With More Islamic Schooling, Erdogan Aims to Reshape Turkey,” Reuters, February 25, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/turkey-erdogan-education/; “Bir Yılda 798 Yeni İmam Hatip Okulu Açıldı, Dini Eğitim Alan Öğrenci Sayısı 1.3 Milyona Ulaştı,” T24, October 26, 2019, https://t24.com.tr/haber/bir-yilda-798-yeni-imam-hatip-okulu-acildi-din-egitim-alan-ogrenci-sayisi-1-3-milyona-ulasti,845477
- 47.
Kuru 2009, 243–4.
- 48.
Kuru 2009, 241.
- 49.
Kuru 2013.
- 50.
“Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Criticizes Erdoğan’s Call for a Secular State,” Al Arabiya, September 14, 2011; “Müslüman Laik Devleti Yönetebilir,” Sabah, September 16, 2011; “Erdoğan’dan Libya’da Önemli Açıklamalar,” Hürriyet, September 16, 2011.
- 51.
“Erdogan’s Way” (Cover Story), Time, November 28, 2011; “Clinton Eyes Turkey As Model for Arab Reform,” Al-Ahram Online, July 16, 2011, http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/16522.aspx
- 52.
Kuru 2019.
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Kuru, A.T. (2023). Rethinking Secularism and State Policies Toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey. In: Laurence, J. (eds) Secularism in Comparative Perspective. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13310-7_9
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