Overcoming the Secular Suspicion? State Secularity and its Impact on Societal Relations in Turkey and Egypt

Abstract

What conditions are the most conducive for religious and secular groups to overcome their mutual fears and suspicions towards each other? This article addresses this question through a comparative historical analysis of two major cases from the Middle East: Turkey and Egypt. The article argues that institutional differences in state-religion relations explain why Turkish religious groups, but not their Egyptian counter-parts, could better alleviate the fears and suspicions of the other secular groups. In summary, Turkey and Egypt instituted their state-religion relations in different ways while building their modern states and therefore entered the highly politicized environment of the 1970s under different state-religion relations. Institutional state-religion relations in Egypt have provided a venue for Islamic groups to Islamize the state and society using state power if necessary. This came at great cost, however. Religious groups in fact pushed further away the other societal groups, deepening their fears and suspicions. Institutional state-religion relations have not provided a venue for Islamic groups in Turkey to Islamize the state and society from top to bottom. Lacking state power to correct practices and norms deemed un-Islamic helped the Islamists and Islamic groups in the long run. Their relations with other societal groups have not deteriorated to the extent they have done in Egypt.