Islam and secularism in Turkey : Kemalism, religion and the nation state

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Kemal Ataturk's Republic of Turkey was set up in 1923 as a secular state, sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms followed. Islam was no longer the official religion of the state, the Sultanate was abolished and all Turkish citizens were declared equal without reference to religion. But though, in Azak's phrase, 'secularism was the central tenet of Kemalism', fear of a resurgent, even fanatical, Islam, continued to haunt the state. Azak's revisionist and original study sets out the struggle between religion and secularism but shows how Ataturk laboured for an idealised 'Turkish Islam' - the 'social cement' of the nation - stripped of superstition and obscurantism and linked to modern science and positivist philosophy. 'Turkish Islam' has retained its traditional forms in the modern state and Ataturk's Mausoleum dominates the capital and continues to inspire a popular, quasi-religious devotion.

Author Notes

Umut Azak graduated in Political Science and International Relations at Bogazici University, Istanbul, and completed her PhD in the Department of Turkish Studies at Leiden University. She has taught and researched at Sabanci University, Leiden University, Utrecht University and the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) in Leiden. She was 2008/09 fellow of the Berlin-based research program 'Europe in the Middle East - The Middle East in Europe' (EUME).

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
1 Reactionary Islam: The Menemen Incident (1930)	p. 21
The single-party regime, opposition and reactionaries	p. 23
Reactionary rebels: deeds and words	p. 25
Restoration of authority and the specter of irtica	p. 31
Mobilization for secularism and resistance	p. 38
2 Turkish Islam: The Reform of Turkish Ezan (1932-33)	p. 45
The pre-republican background of worship in Turkish	p. 46
Kemalism and reform in religion	p. 49
The birth of the Turkish ezan	p. 54
Resistance to the Turkish ezan	p. 58
3 Turkish Islam Contested: The Ezan Debate and Secularism (1950)	p. 61
Early debates on secularism	p. 62
Debate on the Turkish ezan (1947-50)	p. 68
The ending of the Turkish ezan in May 1950	p. 73
Kemalist secularism versus alternative secularism	p. 76
Nostalgia for the Turkish ezan after 1950	p. 82
4 Reactionary Islam as Violent Threat: The Malatya Incident (1952)	p. 85
İrtica: a contested concept	p. 86
Conservative nationalism and the Malatya Incident	p. 89
Civil Kemalism and the specter of irtica	p. 97
Disassociating the Democratic Party from irtica	p. 107
İrtica as a threat in everyday life	p. 111
5 Reactionary Islam as Creeping Threat: Said Nursî and his Disciples (1959-60)	p. 115
Said Nursî, the Nurcu movement and the DP in the 1950s	p. 116
The specter of irtica: December 1959-january 1960	p. 122
Secularism for or against Said Nursî	p. 128
The Nurcu movement in the 1960s	p. 131
6 Turkish Islam Reappropriated: Alevism in Alliance with Kemalism (1966)	p. 139
Alevism in Turkey	p. 141
Alevis and the secular state in the 1950s and 1960s	p. 150
Alevism and Kemalist secularism in the 1960s	p. 154
A debate on Alevi-Sunni conflict in 1966	p. 156
A magazine for Alevis: Cem	p. 162
Conclusion	p. 175
Notes	p. 179
Bibliography	p. 213
Index	p. 231

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