Performing through Friday <i>khutbas</i>: re-instrumentalization of religion in the new Turkey

Ongur, Hakan Övünç

doi:10.1080/01436597.2019.1676640

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The probability of homeland-related sermons occurring is highest between 2015 and 2016 compared to 2011, as well as 2019 (Figure 4). Interestingly, this coincides with time trends in nationalist references found in Diyanet sermons in Turkey (Ongur 2020).…”

Section: Quantitative Content Analysissupporting

confidence: 84%

“…One explanation for the deviation between the Fragile State Index and the references to the homeland could be that the index measures a wide range of dimensions, with not all being directly relevant. Yet, the time trends resemble the trends found when analyzing the Diyanet sermons in Turkey (Ongur 2020;Yilmaz and Barry 2020), which suggests that the content of sermons might be influenced by the Diyanet despite being written in Germany. Gorzewski (2015, 274) outlines that the DİTİB has repeatedly used texts written by Diyanet officials in Ankara for German mosques over the past decade, despite the establishment of a local committee in Germany that drafts or adapts Diyanet texts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

Carol

Hofheinz

2022

Politics and Religion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) runs more than 900 mosques in Germany and circulates Friday sermons in these mosques. Our analysis provides a nuanced depiction of the link to the homeland by conducting qualitative and quantitative content analyses of 481 sermons from 2011 to 2019. To what extent are relations with Turkey reflected in the sermons? And how is the concept of “home” reflected in those sermons? While homeland-related issues constitute a minority overall, the concept “home” occurs in five different contexts within these sermons: First, sermons directly refer to the homeland and norms connected to it. Second, implicit links are created by discussing events in Turkey. Third, leaving the homeland is described as an integral part of the history of Islam. The last two contexts discuss Germany as a “new home”, and build links to Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) through its foundation.

show abstract

Section: Quantitative Content Analysissupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

Carol

Hofheinz

2022

Politics and Religion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The literature has shown how like other contexts where populists made use of religion (Yilmaz and Morieson 2021;Yilmaz et al 2021b;Yilmaz et al 2021c), the Erdoganist AKP (Yilmaz and Bashirov 2018), fused its populism and Islam (Yilmaz 2018;Yilmaz 2021a;Yilmaz 2021b;Yilmaz 2021c). Diyanet's Islamism and Islamist populism emerged and intensified in parallel with the AKP's increasing anti-Western 'civilisationist' (Brubaker 2017) rhetoric (Bashirov and Yılmaz 2020) and Islamist populism (Akalin 2016;Öztürk 2016;Öztürk and Sözeri 2018;Yucel 2019;Ongur 2020). This paper contributes to this literature on the Diyanet by showing how it also followed in the footprints of the AKP by constructing and/or disseminating Islamist victimhood narrative.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Instrumentalization of Religious Conspiracy Theories in Politics of Victimhood: Narrative of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs

Yilmaz

Albayrak

2021

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While victimhood has been studied from very different perspectives, the question how secular nation states have instrumentalised religion for the politics of victimhood has not been studied. This paper addresses this gap in the literature on victimhood by analysing the empirical case of Turkey. As is well known, the constitutionally secular Turkish state, first under the rule of the Kemalists and now Erdoganists, has been using the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) to propagate the state ideology to the faithful. This paper shows that the Turkish state has recently been using Islam to construct and disseminate a religious victimhood narrative, mainly based on conspiracy theories via the Diyanet’s Friday sermons. To do this, the article investigates the texts, such as the sermons produced by the Diyanet that are read verbatim, in every mosque in Turkey during Friday prayers that are attended by more than half of the adult male population. The paper contributes to the victimhood literature by showing how religion, i.e., Islam, has been instrumentalised by a secular state in the construction of an Islamist populist and civilisationist victimhood narrative. Further studies are needed to see if and to what extent the Islamist victimhood narrative of the Turkish state has been impactful on the mosque-goers in the country.

show abstract

“…The literature on the Diyanet agrees that the Diyanet has started to be highly politicised and turned into a propaganda machine of the AKP with the appointment of Mehmet Görmez as its director in November 2010 (Öztürk 2016;Yilmaz and Barry 2020;Mutluer 2018;Öztürk and Sözeri 2018;Ongur 2020).…”

Section: Diyanet's Political Instrumentalization By the Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the last few years, on the one hand, an increasing number of studies have analysed the growing importance of the Diyanet to the state, the gradual shift in the AKP-controlled Diyanet's discourse, its intensifying media projects, identity politics, militarism, domestic and international use for political purposes and its outreach to diaspora populations (Öztürk 2016;Yilmaz and Barry 2020;Mutluer 2018;Öztürk and Sözeri 2018;Ongur 2020;Yilmaz and Albayrak 2021). On the other hand, some studies have underlined how the motifs of martyrdom and sacrificing one's own life have recently gained a cultic quality in the AKP narratives (Yilmaz and Bashirov 2018, p. 12).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pro-Violence Sermons of a Secular State: Turkey’s Diyanet on Islamist Militarism, Jihadism and Glorification of Martyrdom

Yilmaz

Erturk²

2021

Religions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The literature on martyrdom has not, so far, systematically analysed a constitutionally secular state’s extensive use of religion in propagating martyrdom narratives by using state-controlled religious institutions. This paper addresses this gap in martyrdom literature. In addition, even though some studies have analysed how martyrdom narratives have been used for political purposes in Turkey for mythmaking and building a collective memory, a religious institution’s active use by the state for the purposes of mythmaking and collective memory building has not been studied. This paper shows that the contents of the Friday sermons, that reach at least 50 percent of the country’s adult males every week, have moved from Turkish nationalist understanding of militarism and martyrdom to more radical, Islamist and actively pro-violence interpretations that actively promote dying for the nation, homeland, religion and God. The sermons also emphasise that new generations must be raised with this pro-violence religious spirit, which is also novel.

show abstract

Performing through Friday khutbas: re-instrumentalization of religion in the new Turkey

Cited by 18 publications

References 23 publications

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

Instrumentalization of Religious Conspiracy Theories in Politics of Victimhood: Narrative of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs

Pro-Violence Sermons of a Secular State: Turkey’s Diyanet on Islamist Militarism, Jihadism and Glorification of Martyrdom

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About