Contextualizing Multiculturalism (original) (raw)
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Religion Compass, 2020
The debate on post-secularism indicates both the inclusion of religious voices into the public sphere and the rising importance of religion in international politics as well as in domestic politics of Western nation-states. The term “post- secular” firstly emerged to describe the Western societies where pluralism has been a vital concern for liberal democracy. Nonetheless, the very same concern is prevalent across non-Western societies. In this respect, the Turkish case having a secular state in a predominantly Muslim society provides a vibrant example for the analysis of post-secularism as Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) has been ruling Turkey since Novem- ber 2002. In this article, the success or failure of the AKP in representing a post-secular moment in Turkish politics is analysed with reference to and in comparison of two issues. The first one is the Sunni-Islamic demands on the visibility in the public sphere symbolised with the headscarf issue. The second issue is the demands of Alevis living in Turkey as they force the boundaries of the “secular” public sphere which has been dominated by the Sunni-Turkish socio-cultural identity.
Headscarf Discourses and the Contestation of Secularism in Turkey
The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin 38 (4):77–84, 2009
This paper is an attempt to account for the complex dynamics, its principle constituents and actual contentions that lead to the emergence and exacerbation of the headscarf issue in Turkey, which finally resulted in the constitutional crisis in summer 2008. I argue that the notions of secularism and religious freedom as inscribed into the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey determine and enhance the escalating dynamics of the headscarf issue despite changing constellations and alliances in Turkish politics. The wearing of the Islamic headscarf exemplifies and perpetuates the inherently paradoxical notion of secularism inscribed in the Turkish constitution. I argue that the two opposing sides, the Kemalists and Islamists, take the constitutional principle of secularism or the universal freedom of religion respectively as the imprescriptible foundation as a means to delimit its respective complement. This implies that the conflict, in principle already inscribed in the constitution, is unavoidable. It resumes in the Turkish society in the heatedly contest on the Islamic headscarf by fostering or condemning the governmental prohibitions against it. I show how the headscarf issue in Turkey unfolds in continuous reference to the constitution of Turkey and how the defense of secularism and the protection of human rights in Turkey almost exclusively focused on the headscarf issue.
Global Networks, 2005
In this article we examine recent heated debates about the acceptability of the veil in public institutions in Turkey and France. France's adoption of a law that banned all conspicuous religious and political symbols from public schools was a focal point in these debates. A restraining attitude towards veiling is even more extensive in Turkey. In this article we focus on the historical and contemporary connections between these two secular republics, as well as the ideological context of global neoliberalism and the policies of suprastate and transnational organizations to analyse how the discourses and practices of secularism have been employed with respect to the question of wearing veils in public institutions. We argue that the concept of secularism, of which the veil debate is one component, has been important for state formation and economic development in both Turkey and France, and that in the contemporary period it is also employed with respect to the image of a particular kind of unattached and unbiased neoliberal subject. France and Turkey provide revealing cases of the ways in which contemporary secularism as a technology of governance reflects both historical patterns and new trends in the neoliberal era.
This thesis investigated the reactions to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) recent lift of the ban against the Islamic headscarf in the Turkish Parliament. The reactions by the oppositional party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), were analysed through Norman Fairclough’s understanding of critical discourse analysis, which aims to illuminate unequal power relations created or recreated by the production of discursive practises, which is believed to ultimately affect social practises. The method of critical discourse analysis was accompanied by the feminist critique of orientalism, intended to assess how headscarved women are stereotyped and homogenised through orientalist ideas. The analysis resulted in an understanding of the complex power relations between the ruling party and the main oppositional party, as well as the effect of using orientalist ideas in discourse, possibility contributing to an increasingly extensive polarisation and, thus, the risk of increased conflicts between the secular groups and the more religiously observant groups in the Turkish society.