Beyond the Dichotomy of Secular and Religious

Abstract

Abstract This chapter evaluates the early development of Turkish secularism and the political ideology of Kemalism, with a discussion of the establishment and significance of the Diyanet. The chapter challenges the “exceptionalism” of Turkish secularism and the argument that Kemalism “instrumentalized” Islam to control the Muslim majority. Moving away from the secular versus religious dichotomy, or the oppression versus liberation of Islam paradigm, the chapter explains the advancement of Kemalism as integral to Islamic culture in Turkey. It argues Kemalism was a productive discourse that constructed not only secular citizens and institutions, but also modern Islam and its subjects in Turkey. Kemalism sought to form a modern Islam—as rational, moderate, and individualized—that is compatible with the values of secularism and modernity. The chapter also argues that Kemalism was a situated discourse that evolved in relation to the historical trajectories of Islam and secularism in the Ottoman Empire and elsewhere.