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

Somer, Murat

doi:10.1080/01436590701604888

Cited by 102 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…. Secularist rallies, some of which draw millions of supporters, frequently feature demonstrators carrying anti-American placards (Somer 2007;Zaman 2007). Islamists, such as the elite associated with the Justice and Development Party, have been relentlessly and publicly negative in their portrayal of the United States (Cagaptay 2008).…”

Section: Turkeymentioning

confidence: 99%

Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World

2012

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T he battle for public opinion in the Islamic world is an ongoing priority for U.S. diplomacy. The current debate over why many Muslims hold anti-American views revolves around whether they dislike fundamental aspects of American culture and government, or what Americans do in international affairs. We argue, instead, that Muslim anti-Americanism is predominantly a domestic, eliteled phenomenon that intensifies when there is greater competition between Islamist and secular-nationalist political factions within a country. Although more observant Muslims tend to be more anti-American, paradoxically the most anti-American countries are those in which Muslim populations are less religious overall, and thus more divided on the religious-secular issue dimension. We provide case study evidence consistent with this explanation, as well as a multilevel statistical analysis of public opinion data from nearly 13,000 Muslim respondents in 21 countries.

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Section: Turkeymentioning

confidence: 99%

Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World

2012

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“…In more specific terms, Islamism is “a form of instrumentalization of Islam by individuals, groups and organizations that pursue political objectives,” which “provides political responses to today's societal challenges by imagining a future, the foundations for which rest on reappropriated, reinvented concepts borrowed from the Islamic traditions” (Denoeux, :61). Although this concept partly implies the homogeneity of viewpoints regarding the role of Islam in politics, there are wide disagreements regarding Islam's political role in the Muslim world (Ciftci, ; Somer, ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Revisiting Political Islam: Explaining the Nexus Between Political Islam and Contentious Politics in the Arab World*

Achilov

2016

Social Science Quarterly

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Objective This study (1) introduces a new framework to conceptualize and measure political Islam, and (2) examines the empirical nexus among Islamic religiosity, ideological support for political Islam (ISPI), and collective protests in the Arab Middle East. Methods Analyzing cross‐national attitudes in five Arab states, I conduct a principal component analysis to construct a new index to account for a variation in ISPI, and examine the effects thereof on participation in collective protests. Results The evidence shows that Islamic religiosity matters in challenging political elites via collective action. While politically moderate Muslims appear more likely to engage in nonviolent, collective political protests, political radicals seem less likely to do so. Conclusion The findings suggest that political ideology plays a central role in moderating the intricate relationship between Islam and collective political activism. The evidence also supports the resource mobilization thesis, among other factors, to explain the dynamics of collective action in the Arab world.

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“…4. For further discussion on religious-secular divide in Turkey, see Göle (1997aGöle ( ), (1997b, Bayramoğlu (2006), Somer (2007), Somer (2010), Keyman (2007), Grigoriadis (2009), Kalaycıoğlu (2012) and Çarkoğlu and Hinnich (2006). Moreover, the term 'neighborhood pressure' raised by Mardin (2007) has been widely embraced by the Turkish society to talk about this social tension amongst the two camps.…”

Section: Disclosure Statementmentioning

confidence: 95%

Religiosity and tolerance in Turkey: Is Islam the problem?

Bilgili

2015

Southeast European and Black Sea Studies

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This study analyses the impact of religiosity on tolerance in Turkey, where social divisions are deep, and where religiosity is one significant source of such divisions. In going beyond survey research studies which limit the discussion to individuals' levels of tolerance, this analysis aims to provide a deeper understanding of tolerance through qualitative interviews that make use of a series of vignettes. In such interviews, the respondents are consulted about their attitude towards various out-groups, with the design of the vignettes illuminating the sensitivity of such attitudes to variation in the forms of relationships described. Besides the majority/minority division, the polarizing impact of the religious/ secular divide is also investigated. The findings suggest that intolerance is a common problem within Turkish society amongst both religious and secular communities, and that religious and secular respondents exhibit different preferences amongst the out-groups. Moreover, this study reveals that attitudes towards out-groups are sensitive to the form of relationships depicted.

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

Cited by 102 publications

References 9 publications

Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World

Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World

Revisiting Political Islam: Explaining the Nexus Between Political Islam and Contentious Politics in the Arab World*

Religiosity and tolerance in Turkey: Is Islam the problem?

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