Cafcaf: an Islamic humor magazine, no joke!

Abstract

Cafcaf is a humor magazine published by a group of religiously conservative Turks, who esteem and uphold what they consider to be Islamic norms and principles in their cartoons. By offering a close reading of Cafcaf, this article sheds light on transformations among Turkey’s Islamic communities. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have been examining how the Islamic movement in Turkey has shifted course since the late 1990s. To this end, they have been studying the extent to which Islamists in the country have undergone changes with regards to their political aspirations and social attitudes. However, only a handful of these works have analyzed how genres of popular culture have responded to and echoed these transformations. A discussion of Cafcaf fills this gap by demonstrating how a group of Muslim youth reacts and responds to the changing outlooks and lifestyles of Turkey’s Islamists. The cartoons shed light on the efforts among young Muslims to establish a middle ground where they can negotiate their religious identities with their secular surroundings. The cartoons indicate that Muslim youth’s enthusiasm and willingness to attain this goal is sometimes coupled by a cascade of trepidations and hesitations.