Islamic Social and Political Movements in Turkey

Abstract

In recent decades, political Islam has increasingly become a focus of politicalscience. Numerous branches of scholarship that analyze its dynamicswithin seemingly divergent theoretical frameworks have emerged. Somescholars have concentrated on international security threats stemming frompolitical Islam (what can be called the outcomes of this phenomenon),whereas others have focused on the causes of religious resurgence in anattempt to identify what has led to political Islam’s revival. This reviewessay will evaluate the second branch of scholarship, which, I believe,explores the core of the overarching issue and helps identify the causes, the“how” and “why” of the matter, rather then providing a descriptive analysisof “what” is happening.How and why Islamic social/political movements (ISPMs) haveemerged, as well as what sociopolitical circumstances determine where theyare headed, is essential to studying political Islam effectively. To this end, Iwill narrowly focus on the literature of ISPMs in Turkey,1 whose “secular”identity makes it an intriguing and unique case in comparison to other predominantlyMuslim countries, presumably with the exception of Tunisia.Thus, the emergence of strong Islamic movements in Turkey, how the interplaybetween the state and these groups have unfolded, and the futureprospects have broader implications for social movements, civil society, anddemocratization in numerous countries. Moreover, the academic work onIslamic movements is highly dynamic, since current social and politicalevents continuously shape these movements, which affect the country’s sociopolitical context ...