Islamism in Turkey from a socio‐political aspect: Post‐Islamism oriented approaches

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Burhan Aykaç,Şenol Durgun
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2743

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Islamism in Turkey from a socio-political aspect: Post-Islamism

oriented approaches

Burhan Aykaç

1

|S¸enol Durgun

2

1

Political Science and Public Administration

Department, Istanbul Gelisim University,

Istanbul, Turkey

2

Political Science and Public Administration

Department, Beykent University, Istanbul,

Turkey

Correspondence

S¸enol Durgun, Political Science and Public

Administration Department, Beykent

University, Avcılar, Istanbul 34310, Turkey.

Email: sendurgun@gmail.com

Because Islamism emerged as a local socio-political movement in the Turkish mod-

ernisation history as an alternative solution to problems in addition to modern ideolo-

gies transferred from the West, Islamism has always been a subject of discussion as

an important socio-political movement in Turkish political life. However, this move-

ment that emerged in the early periods of the Turkish modernisation history has gone

through significant changes in the process to date. Domestic and foreign develop-

ments have had an important effect on these changes. Until recently, Islamism

claimed to be an alternative to Western political understanding and civilisation, but

as a result of being in power lately, it has sought to have a part in the system and to

Islamise modernity. This situation constitutes the most important change the Islamic

movement has gone through to date. This situation, that is, the transition from being

an alternative to being within the system, has brought along debates about whether

this can be considered as the end of the Islamic movement, or whether the emerging

new situation represents a post-Islamist period. The purpose of this article is to

investigate whether the current era of Turkish Islamism indicates a post-Islamist era

considering the social and political changes it has undergone from its start to the pre-

sent day, and to examine the main characteristics of this new era.

KEYWORDS

alternative, harmony, Islamic state, Islamism, post-Islamism

1|INTRODUCTION

The main subject of Islamism in Turkey is how to adapt to modernisa-

tion while remaining a Muslim, or how to remaina Muslim in the period

we live in. Whetherit is necessary to establish a new regimeor state to

overcome this problem, or whether these aims should occur by taking

over the existingstate structure or, alternatively,living under the wings

of democracy without interfering with the political system has been a

matter of debate in the history of Islamism. The Islamist movement,

which emergedin an Islamic world that had been defeatedby the West,

occupied countries that were less-developed than those in Europe,

whose religious understanding had collapsed and who, consequently,

were living withoutdated religious institutions. As such, the movement

has generallytaken place in an effort to rectify pastunderstanding, and

has always been in searchof a new understanding.

Consequently, Islamism, which emerged as both a critical view of

the past and an ideology of reaction, has been in an ambivalent state

in terms of being both opposed to and in harmony with new ideas

within its own history. As the conditions of each period in which

Islamism has emerged are different, the movement has undergone sig-

nificant changes in response to the changing socio-political conditions

in place since its emergence. When the problem of living by remaining

a Muslim at an individual level is taken up and addressed at social

(Islamic nation) and political (Islamic state) levels, we see that the

aspects featuring in discussions differ significantly, and it is these dis-

cussions that dominate the history of the Islamic movement. In gen-

eral, Islamism can be defined as a common name for people who act

against political imperialism in the Islamic world and against cultural

imperialism in Turkey. However, the concept of Islamism began to

change after the 1980s, especially after the beginning of the Justice

Received: 18 February 2021 Revised: 21 May 2021 Accepted: 2 August 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2743

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2743. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of14

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2743