‘We are not terrorists’: Turkish Muslim organizations and the construction of a moral identity

Abstract

Muslims living in western Europe have to manage their religious identity in societies that tend to define Islam as a religion of violence and terrorism. The current study examines the ways in which two major Turkish Muslim organizations (Milli Görüş and Fethullah Gülen) in the Netherlands and Germany publicly define a morally acceptable identity by arguing ‘what we are not’. Empirically, the focus is on the debate about Muslim terrorism in the newspapers and magazines of these organizations. The organizations try to define a morally acceptable position by redrawing identity boundaries and redefining and essentializing the content of Muslim identity. By redrawing boundaries, terrorists are placed outside of Islam and a distinction with terrorism is made. In addition, the essential nature of Islam is presented to be compatible with the host society. It is maintained that Muslim organizations reveal the real face of Islam by encouraging and developing initiatives for integration and civic participation of Muslims in the host societies.