Anat Lapidot Islam and Nationalism
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ANAT LAPIDOT ISLAM AND NATIONALISM: A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC POLITICAL THOUGHT IN TURKEY (1980-1990) SUBMITTED FOR Ph.D. 1995 This thesis addresses the relationship between Islam and nationalism in Turkey in the 1980's. It asks whether the nation-state as a political order was accepted by the ideologists of the Turkish Islamic movement. The research focuses on the examination of three main streams of Islamic political thought in Turkey during that period. The first stream is the "new Muslim intellectuals" represented by Ali Bulac. Bulaç rejected any idea of division within the Islamic community, including ethnic division and the nation-state as political division. The basis for this rejection was the theological principle of tevhid, now projected onto the political order. The thesis elucidates Bulac's work, by analyzing it in the light of liberation theology. The second stream is represented by Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the Welfare Party. Erbakan too rejected the nation-state, preferring an Islamic political order or at least the re-establishment of an Islamic empire, this time based on the Islamic Turkic people. The third stream is represented by the creators of the Turkish Islamic synthesis, an intellectual group known as the A ydinlar Ocai, whose ideology was co- opted by the military regime. This group saw religion as an ideology and a tool for social control. In this spirit, they tried to promote a quietist version of Islamic conservatism. Although they collaborated with the regime and even worked toward its legitimation, they did not reject the possibility of creating an ethnic-based state. The thesis concludes that although the Anatolian-based nation-state exists in reality, at the ideological level, within the religious community in Turkey, there has been no agreement on its legitimacy. In the 1980's Islam neglected the struggle for the national cause in favour of a struggle for social justice. In a paradoxical way, while the military and later the civilian regime encouraged Islam as a counter- ideology to the left, an ideological alliance evolved between Islamic circles and the left in the name of social justice. Islam and Nationalism: A Study of Contemporary Islamic Political Thought in Turkey, 1980-1990 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. ANAT LAPIDOT Submitted for a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Politics, University of Durham 1995 15 AUG 1996 No material offered has previously submitted by me for a degree in this or any other university. Anat Lapidot, 1995 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author No quotation from it should be published without her prior consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. To my parents Finally, I am most grateful to my parents, without whose unfailing support this thesis could not have been written. It is a pleasure to dedicate it to them. October, 1994 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ......................................................1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: ISLAM AND THE STATE IN THE 1980's ................ 7 1.1 Historical Background ...................................... 7 1.2 Government's Policy Towards Islam ............................ 13 1.3 MP's Internal Conflict ..................................... 16 1.4 The Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet !leri Bakanligi................................................ 20 1.5 The Prospects of Islamic Reaction ('Irtica') ....................... 22 1.6 The Battle over Islamic Education ............................. 27 1.7 Women's Rights ......................................... 31 1.8 Islam in Turkish Foreign Policy ............................... 34 1.9 'Islamic' Economic Activity ................................. 37 1.10 Government Response to Islamic Radicalism ...................... 43 1.11 Conclusion ............................................. 46 Chapter 2 THEISLAMIC MOVEMENT ....................................... 49 2.1 Views and Attitudes ....................................... 49 2.2 The Islamic Movement ..................................... 56 2.3 Classification and Models ................................... 57 2.4 The Political-Ideological View ................................ 59 2.5 New Aspects of the Movement in the 1980's ...................... 64 2.6 Conclusions ............................................. 66 vii Chapter 3 NATIONALISMAND ISLAM .......................................69 3.1 The Definition and Nature of Nationalism ........................70 3.2 The Academic Discussion ...................................73 3.3 Nationalism and Islam .....................................76 3.4 The Ouestion of Compatibility. Views and Attitudes .................78 3.5 The Concept of the State ....................................83 3.6 The Emergence of Nationalism in the Middle East ...................89 3.7 Conclusions .............................................93 Chapter 4 NATIONALISM AN]) ISLAM IN TURKISH POLITICAL THOUGHT .........95 4.1 The Tanzimat's Literary Figures and Fundamentals of Nationalism................................................96 4.2 The Seeds of Turkish Islamic Radicalism ........................101 4.3 The Emergence of Turkic Nationalism ..........................104 4.4 The Young Turk Period ....................................107 4.5 The 'Age of Ignorance' 1924-1949 .............................112 4.6 The Reemergence of Turkic Nationalism (pan-Turanianism ............115 4.7 Conclusions .............................................118 Chapter 5 MODERN ISLAMIC POLITICAL THOUGHT ...........................120 5.1 Intellectuals and Tradition ...................................122 5.2 The Turkish Intellectual Background ............................125 5.3 The Sunni-Shi'i Division ....................................127 5.4 The Problem of Stagnation: A Re-evaluation ......................133 5.5 Conclusions .............................................142 VII' Chapter 6 AL! BULA AND 'ISLAMIC LIBERATION THEOLOGY' .................144 6.1 "New Muslim Intellectuals" ..................................144 6.2 Background .............................................145 6.3 Au Bulac and Liberation Theology .............................146 6.4 The Heritage of the Civilization Movement .......................151 6.5 Analysis of Bulac's Work ...................................153 6.6 Bulac's Attitude towards Other Religions ........................ 155 6.7 Islamic Thought and Muslim Intellectuals ........................156 6.8 Atheism. Modernism and Imperialism ...........................158 6.9 The Islamic Society of the Future ..............................161 6.10 Tevhid and Ideological Pluralism................................164 6.11 The Ouestion of Identity.....................................167 6.12 The Leadership of the Intellectuals .............................168 6.13 Methodological Remarks ...................................171 6.14 Conclusions ............................................174 Chapter 7 NIECMETTIN ERBAKAN AND THE IDEAS OF THE ISLAMICPARTY ...............................................176 7.1 Personal History .........................................176 7.2 Introduction ............................................178 7.3 Erbakan's Political Philosophy ................................181 7.4 The Ouestion of Cultural Decline and Turkey's Relationswith the West .....................................184 7.5 The Revival of Islam and the Industrialization Process ...............189 7.6 Turkish Internal Problems ...................................191 7.7 Family and Social Life .....................................193 7.8 Education ..............................................194 7.9 Relations between the West and the Islamic East ..................... 195 lx 7.10 Conclusions . 197 Chapter 8 THE "TURKISH-ISLAMIC SYNTHESIS." THE NATIONAL-RELIGIOUS NARRATWE ...................................................199 8.1 Prologue ...............................................199 8.2 Religion as a Tool for Social Control ...........................203 8.3 The Elements of the Synthesis Theory ..........................206 8.4 Demands for the Repair of the Educational System ..................208 8.5 The Origins and Characteristics of the Turks: The Historical Narrative of the A ydinlar ..........................210 8.6 Islamic Tolerance .........................................214 8.7 Ideological Application in Social Fields ..........................217 8.8 Conclusions ............................................219 Chapter 9 CONCLUSIONS .................................................222 REFERENCES ..................................................233 x 1 PREFACE This thesis addresses the relationship between Islam and nationalism in Turkey in the 1980's. The standard approach used by scholars of modern Turkey in evaluating this relationship examines Islam as it is perceived by the Turkish state. A less emphasized aspect of this relationship is the extent to which the national Turkish state is accepted by Islamic groups. This dissertation concentrates on this neglected issue. To what extent is the concept of the nation-state, both as a political framework and as an identity, accepted by Turkish Islamic groups? In evaluating this question, I have chosen to analyze the literature of three leading currents of Islamic ideology in Turkey: the views of Necmettin Erbakan, leader of