Turkish Islamism, conservatism and human rights before and after Gezi: the case of Mazlumder

Abstract

Focusing on Mazlumder, an Islamist human rights organization, the paper sheds light on the complex articulation of Islamism and human rights discourse in post-2002 Turkey. Based on fieldwork and on the analysis of the organization’s press releases and reports on controversial public issues such as the Gezi protests, the paper argues that Mazlumder’s effort should not be read through normative lenses that reduce the issue to a matter of compatibility between Islam and human rights, and suggests that the analysis should instead take into account the positional shifts of the conservative front in relation to recent internal and external turmoil.