Turkey: The rise of Akp Party and the Islam.
The last October the Turkey's prime minister Erdogan announced key political reforms which including lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves. The moves come as critics accuse Erdogan of Islamising the secular country. The headscarf controversy is the emblem of a long-standing rivalry in Turkish society between religious conservatives, who form the bulk of Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), and secular opponents. These indeed see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance against the strict separation of state and religion, a basic tenet of modern Turkey. On the other side the AKP while not supporting a process of Islamisation imposed from above like the previous Islamist parties, criticizes the traditional relations between the State and the society and the shape of the turkish secularism, accusing it of discriminating religious people and inhibit religious freedom. The process of secularization of Turkey started in 1800, when a series of reforms began to secularize and westernize the country, and which gave its name to the so-called era of the Tanzimat (reforms). By adopting many European codes, Sharia law began to be used less and less and completely disappeared with Mustafa Kemal. His new ideology, which ban Islam from the political sphere, has led to a cultural revolution against any symbol of Islamic society. The first goal of this process involved the state apparatus and the consequent abolition of the Sultanate and the remodeling of the entire legal and judicial system. Despite the political changes, the population, the peasant majority and Muslim, remained tied to the traditions and failed to internalize the modern European models. In this essay I will...
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...ion spreading corruption on interceptions of his family and the AKP .
But this is not a game that is limited to the leadership of Erdogan shake even the Muslim world and invests the concept of Islamic democracy , whose moderate version , referred to as a model after the Arab riots of 2011 , has been shaken by authoritarianism of prime minister to defend themselves from scandals has laid off 6 thousand police officers, ousted hundreds of judges and muzzled the other powers of the state .
The overwhelming electoral victories - up to 49.7 % of the vote to policies 2011 - have been interpreted by Erdogan as a green light to its interpretation of democracy : who wins catchall . But Turkey has also grown civil society that is no longer convinced of the version of the " sultan " Erdogan. Winning at the ballot box is no longer enough to say to the Turks : we are democrats.
The article “My Body Is My Own Business” by Naheed Mustafa is about an Islamic women’s principle that putting on her usual headscarf, or Hijab, actually empowers her as a female, contrary to the popular principle that the hijab represents male oppressiveness. She ex...
Between 1301 to 1922, in the region north of present day Syria, was known as the Ottoman empire. It was rooted in the belief that Islam as an ideology should be in power. One territory held by the Ottoman empire was their homeland of Turkey. In 1907, the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, wanted for the most part to have people who were educated outside of the country limited in what they could do, and if not then they were expunged, as he thought that they were the cause of his land’s plight and decline. This resulted in him becoming very unpopular with his people, thus having many secret societies created practically under his nose. The most important being The Young Turks.
For some women wearing a veil is not something that is forced on them but rather a choice of their own. Martha Nussbaum and Maysan Haydar are both authors that try to explain their reasoning that veiling isn't an oppressive tool used against women. Martha Nussbaum's article “Veiled Threats”, is a political and philosophical take on why banning the burqa is a violation of human rights. On the other hand Maysan Haydar’s article “Don’t Judge a Muslim Girl by Her Covering”, is a more humorous and personal take on why veiling shouldn't be as judged or stereotyped. Though Nussbaum and Haydar have equal goals this essay is being used to understand the main argument, claims and whether or not each article has any weaknesses.
The Ottoman Empire was one of the longest running empires in history, spanning 624 years. The women of the Ottoman empire were often limited to the household of their husband’s and held back by Ottoman lawmakers and authorities. The point of view of outsiders was varied, but there were both positive and negative views.
Islam has been a dominant force throughout Turkish history. During the Ottoman Empire, Islam ruled every part of the theocratic state, but after the demise of the empire, Turkey's rulers led the country away from political Islam. The modern Turkish state has a strictly secular government, and Islam has been relegated to the personal sphere. Although Turkey has experienced a rise in fundamentalism in the past twenty years, the separation of church and state has remained relatively intact. Even with this increase of fundamentalist Islam, the wide majority of Muslims in Turkey are moderate and tolerant. They have adapted to modern life and value Islam for its moral and spiritual messages. Islam is a guide for right living and ethical conduct rather than a political system. Turkey constantly struggles to balance Islamic life with a secular government. Although the government wants to maintain a strict separation between religion and politics, it cannot ignore the power and influence that Islam has in the lives of the Turkish people.
Muslims, Sikhs, and many other religious affiliations have often been targeted for hate crimes, racial slurs, and misfortunate events. We are all different in our own ways some are good and some are bad yet one event changes everything for everyone affiliated with the group. The book The Politics of the Veil by Joan Scott a renowned pioneer in gender studies gives a detailed and analytical book of about the French views towards the Muslim females in France during 2004. The author talks about why the French governments official embargo of wearing conspicuous signs is mainly towards the headscarves for Muslim girls under the age of eighteen in public schools. The main themes of book are gender inequality, sexism, and cultural inequality historical schools used in the book are history of below, woman’s history, cultural history, and political history. In this essay, I will talk about why Joan Scotts argument on why the French government’s ban on wearing conspicuous signs was
Sultan Mahmud II, and various other Europeanized Ottoman bureaucrats initiated what is known today as the largest reform movement in the history of the Ottoman Empire. The Tanzimat changed life in the Ottoman Empire drastically, and completely revolutionized how the Ottomans lived. Previously, the empire was home to various different, nationalities, races, religions and cultures. During the Tanzimat, a major effort was made to unite these people, which is often referred to as the policy of Ottomanism. This resulted in the creation of a national anthem, and the establishment of a national flag. In the past, Islamic law was predominant, but was replaced by secular law, so no individual groups were left out. The Tanzimat’s main focus was to replace it’s old, outdated ways, with more of a westernized approach. The reforms varied greatly, but for the most part, they were all made to help modernize the empire.
The cases of Turkey and Uzbekistan are different because Uzbekistan has embraced Sufism into their government. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in Sufism that has not been present for some time in the country. There have been some political analyst that have called Sufism a moderate alternative, and that has reignited the interest in Sufism . The active participation of Sufism would be against the secularism that Turkey established during the beginning of the nation. The younger generations do not possess the same opinion as the older generations, and in given time the secularism may disappear or lessen. Even then, the older generations have a waning opposition to Sufism because “Sufi leaders say that tolerance of the more heterodox sects has extended even to the Justice and Development Party [AKP] government” . Given time, Sufism may push for less secularism but for now, that will need to gain traction. Fethullah Gullen Hizmah, the leader of the Gülen movement, proposes an “integrated approach to life enables Turkish people to preserve what is best and still valuable from the past and accept and make use of scientific and technological advances”, which will be similar to the African nation of Senegal . A movement such as this would change Turkey and redefine the roles of the citizens that are
The Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its power in the 1500s. While other empires were experiencing their downfalls, the Ottoman Empire’s power seemed to be increasing. In fact, this empire can be ranked as the strongest power due to its tactical internal organization of power, minorities, and religion, due to its physical expansion which provided more resources, more advancements, and more people to support the empire, and due to its large military strength that provided security, reduced rebellion, and challenged the other powers.
Political uprisings in the Middle East, especially in Muslim nation states have placed Arabian politics back on the focus point of international politics. Political events in certain Arab countries had an excessive impact on the political development of other neighboring states. Resistances and anxieties within different Arab countries triggered unpredictable actions, sometimes sorely to observe and believe. The authoritarian governments of Arabian countries led from various dictators have created a precarious situation for their people, especially in providing national security and maintaining peace in the region. Jack Goldstone argues that the degree of a sultan’s weakness has been often only visible in retrospect; due in part to the nature of the military-security complex common across Middle East states (Goldstone 1). In addition, the existence of various statesmen with political affiliation is concerned in faithfulness of its armed forces. Usually, the armed national forces of several states, mainly those in Arab countries are loyal and closely affiliated to their leaders, which have a major role in state regimes. Arab uprisings in their early spreading appeared legally responsible and with concrete demands from representatives’ peoples, calling for a more open democratic system and reasonable governance. Even though, the system in which popular frustration with government imposes alters considerably from one state to another. These public revolts against different authoritative governments didn’t halt just in Arab states, but they sustained also in the Far East and in the Eastern Europe. Can we say that the popular uprisings in Arab countries could be attributed to the term of globalization? In fact, globalization is a multi...
She explains the progression from standard politics to biopolitics in the Ottoman empire. As a rights based state, and seeing as it copied a portion of its regulations, those from the constitution, from napoleonic, french law. But with the tanzimat period, the era in which reforms were being made to all areas of politics in the Ottoman Empire, the state began to further incorporate gendered criminal codes. In 1926, the Ottoman Empire's successor, Turkey, started to take ideas from the Italians. This new development only increased the strength of the chokehold the state held
Cicek, Kemal. “The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 3: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603-1839.” Journal of the Economic &Social History of the Orient 52, no.1 (2009): 153-158. EBSCO.
In Document 4, the Ottoman decree expresses a politician’s desire to make his subjects happy, declaring that all subjects are equal and they are all granted religious freedom. This kind of rhetoric from a legal decree parallels with one of the five assumptions of nationalization--that their own self-government is the one that serves the people’s common interests. The document also discusses the creation of schools, management of the police, court procedures and punishment against corrupt politicians. This goes back to how ideas of nationalism is created through the closer involvement of the government in people’s
“Are political Islam and democracy compatible?” This question has been troubling both Muslims and non-Muslims living in East and West for a long time now. Contemporary Islamic political thought has become deeply influenced by attempts at reconciling Islam and democracy. Muslim thinkers who deal with political debates cannot disregard the significance of the democratic system, as it is the prevailing theme of modern western political thought. Hence, it is necessary for any alternative political system, whether it is religious or secular, to explore its position with regards to democratic government. In fact, a large literature and media publications have developed over the last century on this heated discourse of democracy versus Islam. While many argue that Islam has all the ingredients of modern state and democratic society, many other reject the phenomena “modernism” and “democracy” as a whole because of their “foreign nature”—alien to “Islamic values”. For Islamists and modernists, the motivation for such effort to either embrace or reject democracy often is to remove suspicion about the nature and goals of Islamic movements and Islamic revivalism or resurgence. But before diving into this discourse, one needs to understand the definition and origins of “democracy.” Although purely a Western ideology in its origin, there is no consensus on the definition of “democracy” as a political system. The Oxford English Dictionary describes democracy as: “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives” (“democracy, n.”). In my paper, I will examine whether or not democracy and Sunni political Islam are compatible through the eyes of three revolutionary Sun...
Istanbul is both an ancient and modern city that is full of culture dating back to the beginning of time. It’s a city that is unique, in that, it connects both Europe and Asia. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey and the most crowded one too. There are approximately more than fourteen million people living in Istanbul alone. That is more than its capital city of Ankara. Istanbul is not just a metropolitan, or one of the most crowded cities, and it’s also an ancient and historical city.