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Moderate Islam and secularist opposition in Turkey: implications for the world, Muslims and secular democracy

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 28; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01436590701604888

1360-2241

Murat Somer,

Political Conflict and Governance

Abstract Abstract Developing an argument based in theories of democratic consolidation and religious competition, and discussing the reasons for the secularist opposition to the government, this article analyses how government by a party rooted in moderate Islamism may affect Turkey's peculiar secular democracy, development and external relations and how Muslims in the world relate to modernization and democracy. Arguing that secularism in advanced democracies may be a product of democracy as much as it is the other way around, the article maintains that democratic consolidation may secure further consolidation of Turkish secularism and sustainable moderation of Turkish political Islam. Besides democratic Islamic – conservative actors and other factors, democratic consolidation requires strong democratic – secularist political parties so that secularist and moderate Islamist civilian actors check and balance each other. Otherwise, middle class value divisions and mistrust in areas like education and social regulation may jeopardise democratisation and economic modernisation and continuing reconciliation of Islamism with secular democracy and modernity. Notes The author would like to thank Ziya Öniş, Peter Skerry and the participants in the international workshop on 'Islamist Parties and Constituencies, Domestic and External Mechanisms, and Democratization', 25 – 26 May 2007, Koç University, Istanbul, for comments. Hande Özhabeş and Talha Üstündağ provided valuable research assistance. 1 On moderate Islamism, see, among others, V Nasr, 'The rise of Muslim democracy', Journal of Democracy, 16 (2), 2005, pp 13 – 27. On the moderation of Turkish political Islam, see N Göle, 'Secularism and Islamism in Turkey: the making of elites and counter-elites', Middle East Journal, 51 (1), 1997, pp 46 – 58; M Heper, 'Islam and democracy in Turkey: toward a reconciliation?', Middle East Journal, 51 (1), 1997, pp 32 – 46; Z Öniş, 'Political Islam at the crossroads: from hegemony to co-existence', Contemporary Politics, 7 (4), 2001, pp 281 – 298; and RQ Mecham, 'From the ashes of virtue, a promise of light: the transformation of political Islam in Turkey', Third World Quarterly, 25 (2), 2004, pp 339 – 358. 2 JF Hoge, Jr, 'Turkey at the boiling point', International Herald Tribune, 22 May 2007. For the party's attempts to formulate its ideology of conservative democracy, see Y Akdoğan, ak Parti ve Muhafazakar Demokrasi (ak Party and Conservative Democracy), Istanbul: Alfa, 2004. 3 S Tavernise, 'Government of Turkey warns army', New York Times, 29 April 2007; 'Government hits back at military interference in election process', Today's Zaman, 28 April 2007; and G Göktürk, 'Who acted how in the face of military's warning', Turkish Daily News, 5 May 2007. 4 HB Kahraman, Türk Sağı ve akp (Turkish Right and the akp), Istanbul: Agora, 2007. The party's founders split from the more conservative Islamist Fazilet (Virtue) Party when they lost in 2000 the election for that party's presidency by a close margin. The akp won the 2002 elections when Turkish voters decided to destroy the mainstream parties, which they blamed for the financial crises of 2000 and 2001. For the party's emergence, see Z Öniş & EF Keyman, 'A new path emerges', Journal of Democracy, 14(2), 2003, pp 95 – 107; and HM Yavuz (ed), The Emergence of A New Turkey: Democracy and the ak Parti, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2006. 5 For two informative interviews with Abdullah Gül in 2000, see Yeni Şafak, 27 March 2000, and Radikal, 5 June 2000. 6 On Turkey's secular modernisation, see F Ahmad, The Making of Modern Turkey, New York: Routledge, 1993; S Bozdoğan & R Kasaba (eds), Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1997; Ş Mardin, 'Türk Modernleşmesi, Makaleler 4' (Turkish Modernization, Essays 4), Istanbul: İletişim, 2003; and Mardin, 'Turkish Islamic exceptionalism yesterday and today: continuity, rupture and reconstruction in operational codes', Turkish Studies, 6 (2), 2005, pp 145 – 165. 7 Among others, JL Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995; and Nasr, 'The rise of Muslim democracy'. For a recent critical account, see J Schwedler, Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 8 Among others, 'Secularists stage mass protest in Turkey', International Herald Tribune, 13 May 2007. 9 In August 2002, Abdullah Gül became Turkey's eleventh president. 10 In Turkey, there is a ban on the wearing of headscarves by government employees and by students and professors on university campuses. The proponents of the ban claim that its object is its use in a specific Islamic style, which they call 'turban' and claim that it is used as a political symbol. The opponents of the ban prefer the term 'headscarf', argue that the ban targets the students' personal religious choices, and highlight the fact that in effect the ban restricts any type of headscarf. 11 'Stability doubts despite early elections move', International Herald Tribune, 3 May 2007, emphasis added. 12 'Secularism versus democracy', The Economist, 3 May 2007. 13 S Tavernise, 'Turkish presidential candidate withdraws, as voting stalls again', New York Times, 7 May 2007. 14 Among others, see A Buğra, 'Political İslam in Turkey in historical context: strengths and weaknesses', in N Balkan & S Savran (eds), The Politics of Permanent Crisis: Class, Ideology and State in Turkey, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2002, pp 107 – 144; EF Keyman & B Koyuncu, 'Globalization, alternative modernities and the political economy of Turkey', Review of International Political Economy, 12 (1), 2005, pp 105 – 128; and European Stability Initiative, Islamic Calvinists: Change and Conservatism in Central Anatolia, Berlin/Istanbul: European Stability Initiative, 2005. 15 For competing accounts of Turkish secularism, see Mardin, 'Türk Modernleşmesi, Makaleler 4'; and N Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey, New York: Routledge, 1998. For accounts of 'laicism vs secularism', and 'objective and subjective secularisation' of Turkish religious markets, see A Davison, 'Turkey, a "secular" state? The challenge of description', South Atlantic Quarterly, 102 (2 – 3), 2003, pp 333 – 350; M Introvigne, 'Turkish religious market(s): a view based on the religious economy theory', in Yavuz, The Emergence of a New Turkey, pp 23 – 48; and EF Keyman, 'Modernity, secularism and Islam: the case of Turkey', Theory, Culture & Society, 24 (2), 2007, pp 215 – 234. 16 See J Fox, 'World separation of religion and state into the 21st century', Comparative Political Studies, 39 (5), 2006, pp 537 – 569; and A Stepan, 'Religion, democracy, and the twin tolerations', in L Diamond, MF Plattner & PJ Costopoulos (eds), World Religions and Democracy, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, pp 3 – 23. 17 For empirical evidence on these points, see A Çarkoğlu & B Toprak, Değişen Türkiye'de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (Religion, Society, and Politics in a Changing Turkey), İstanbul: tesev Yayınları, 2006. 18 Among others, see A Filali-Ansary, 'Muslims and democracy', in L Diamond et al, World Religions and Democracy. 19 For a recent commentary based on other Muslim countries, see M Sackman, 'A fatwa free-for-all in the Islamic world', International Herald Tribune, 11 June 2007. The 'moderate center in Turkish religious markets' could prevent a conservative outcome. Introvigne, 'Turkish religious market(s)', p 41. 20 On deregulation leading to 'vitality' in religious markets, see LR Iannaccone, R Finke & R Stark, 'Deregulation of religion: the economics of church and state', Economic Inquiry, 35 (2), 1997, pp 350 – 364. 21 See T Kuran, Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004 for an extensive discussion of Islamism and economics. 22 'Secularism versus democracy'. 23 Nasr, 'The rise of Muslim democracy'. 24 For the argument that Islamism has failed to create a political model, see O Roy, The Failure of Political Islam, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. 25 Çarkoğlu & Toprak, Değişen Türkiye'de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset. 26 Among others, see S Tavernise, 'Presidential pick in Turkey is sign of a rising Islamic middle class', New York Times, 25 April 2007. 27 See 'Turkey calms markets with appointment', International Herald Tribune, 18 April 2006. For a critical account, see Y Kanlı, 'Eligibility or ideology', Turkish Daily News, 2 April 2006. 28 'Diyanetten MEB'e 836 Nakil', (836 transfers from Religious Affairs to Education Ministry) Radikal, 13 May 2007. 29 'The akp government's attempt to move Turkey from secularism to Islamism (Part 1): the clash with Turkey's universities', memri Special Dispatch Series, 1014, 1 November 2005. 30 See 'Parents reveal scandal at high schools', Turkish Daily News, 1 June 2007; and 'Prayer scandal at Bağcılar High School', Today's Zaman, 15 June 2007. See also S Tavernise, 'A secular Turkish city feels Islam's pulse beating stronger, causing divisions', New York Times, 1 June 2007. 31 Statistics from the Turkish Treasury. 32 JL Linz & A Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. See also A Przeworski, 'The games of transition', in S Mainwaring, G O'Donnell & JS Valenzuel (eds), Issues in Democratic Transition, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992. 33 Among others, 'Top general calls for a cross-border operation to Northern Iraq', Turkish Daily News, 13 April 2007; and 'System faces its greatest threat since 1923', Turkish Daily News, 14 April 2007. 34 For preference falsification, see Kuran, Islam and Mammon. 35 Among others, see 'Sezer: definition of secularism clear', Turkish Daily News, 6 February 2007; and F Dıslı, 'Sezer stokes secularism debate', Today's Zaman, 7 February 2007. 36 Stepan, 'Religion, democracy, and the twin tolerations', p 8. 37 See H Smith, 'Turkey split by plan to criminalize adultery', Guardian, 6 September 2004; F Zakaria, 'How not to win Muslim allies', Newsweek, 27 August 2004; and V Boland, 'Mutual incomprehension between Turkey and EU', Financial Times, 27 August 2006. 38 See references in note 13. 39 SN Kalyvas, 'Unsecular politics and religious mobilization', in T Kselman & JA Buttigieg (eds), European Christian Democracy, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003, pp 293 – 320. 40 HW Lowry, 'Betwixt and between: Turkey's political structure on the cusp of the twenty-first century', in M Abramowitz (ed), Turkey's Transformation and American Policy, New York: Century Foundation Press, 2000, pp 61 – 93; and T Demirel, 'Lessons of military regimes and democracy: the Turkish case in a comparative perspective', Armed Forces & Society, 31 (2), 2005, pp 245 – 271. 41 An unsuccessful military adventure in Iraq may also decrease the military's prestige and status in society. 42 Kalyvas, 'Unsecular politics and religious mobilization'; and Mecham, 'From the ashes of virtue, a promise of light'. 43 Stepan, 'Religion, democracy, and the twin tolerations', p 8. 44 For the importance of philosophical questions such as these, see A Filali-Ansary, 'Muslims and democracy'; and NH Ayubi 'Islam and Democracy', in D Potter, D Goldblatt, M Kilch & P Lewis (eds) Democratization, Cambridge: The Polity Press, 1997, pp 345 – 366. 45 Among others, H Smith, 'Fury at Turkish ban on bikini ads', Guardian, 22 May 2007. 46 Among others, see S Sayarı & Y Esmer (eds), Politics, Parties, and Elections in Turkey, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002. 47 However, since 1961 voter preferences have roughly been stable between 'left' and 'right' parties, with some shift to the right during the 1990s. For a recent contribution, see Y Hazama, Electoral Volatility in Turkey: Cleavages vs the Economy, Chiba: Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization, 2007. Importantly, Hazama argues that, since the 1990s, volatility has mainly been caused by 'retrospective voting', whereby voters punish incumbent governments for bad governance rather than voting for values or along identity cleavages. 48 Sayarı & Esmer, Politics, Parties, and Elections in Turkey. 49 Lowry, 'Betwixt and between', p 24. 50 Ibid. See also Sayarı, 'The changing party system'. 51 Among others, S Tepe, 'A pro-Islamic party? Promises and limits of Turkey's Justice and Development Party', in Yavuz, The Emergence of a New Turkey, pp 107 – 135. 52 M Heper, 'The consolidation of democracy versus democratization in Turkey', Turkish Studies, 3 (1), 2002, p141. 53 Lowry, 'Betwixt and between', p 39. 54 'Secularism and democracy in Turkey', New York Times, 1 May 2007. 55 A Przeworski, M Alvarez, JA Cheibub & F Limongi 'What makes democracies endure?', in L Diamond, MF Plattner, Y Chu & H Tien (eds), Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies: Themes and Perspectives, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997; also see DL Epstein, R Bates, J Goldstone, I Kristensen & S O'Halloran, 'Democratic Transitions', American Journal of Political Science, 50 (3) 2006, pp 551 – 569. All figures are in purchasing power parity US dollars. Nominal gnp per capita was $5477 in 2006. 56 E Özbudun, 'Democratization reforms in Turkey, 1993 – 2004', Turkish Studies, 8 (2), 2007, pp 179 – 196.