Antecedents of Kemalist Secularism: Some Thoughts on the Young Turk Period

Abstract

The secularizing reforms of Kemal Ataturk, wrote Count Leon Ostrorog (1927: 14,70) in 1927, constitute “one of the most considerable events that has happened in the history of the East since fourteen centuries,” “a revolution that the world of Islam had never seen.” This statement remains true even today. Although a substantial degree of secularization has taken place in the Islamic world in general in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,1 nowhere has this trend gone as far as in Turkey where it has become one of the pillars of the state. In fact, the constitutions of practically all Muslim states make some reference to Islam, often declaring it as the religion of the state. Two of the most secular Arab states, Tunisia and Syria, for example, state in their constitutions that the chief of state has to be a Muslim. The Egyptian Constitution (Art. 2) stipulates that “Islamic law is a principal source of legislation.” Furthermore, in all Islamic countries, the Shari‘a occupies a more or less important place in the legal system, especially in such areas as family law, inheritance and personal status (Ryex and Blanchi, 1980).