Islamic Norms and Values in International Relations and Their Reinterpretation in AKP-Governed Turkey

Abstract

The relationship between Islam and the state has been extensively written on by many scholars.1 Islam is a comprehensive way of life with a worldview and a system in which religion and state are not separated.2 It believes that public life, or the state, should embrace Islamic values. In international relations, Islam has its own norms and prescriptions for relations between Muslim countries and between Muslim and non-Muslim countries.3 Islam, upholds values such as mutual sympathy, self-sufficiency, solidarity, mutual trust and help, and mutual advice and justice, which do not conflict with universally-held values.