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Observations of Turkish Islamist Politics

  |  
07.07.2010 at 01:50pm

Observations of Turkish Islamist

Politics:

Islamic Democrats or Enemies of

Turkish Secularism?

by CDR Youssef Aboul-Enein,

MSC, USN

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Observations of Turkish Islamist Politics

Having just returned from Istanbul as part of the Industrial College of the

Armed Forces Industry Study Group, I was exposed to diverse opinions from

Turkey’s media, political groups, and social advocates whose political

persuasion range from Kemalist and Leftist to Islamist.  This essay takes this

week-long experience and attempts to make sense of where the Turkish Islamist

experiment has been and where it is going in the 21st century. This

thought piece is also timely given the recent attempts by Turkish Islamist

groups combined with Palestinian supporters attempting to run the Israeli

maritime blockade of Gaza using Turkish flagged ships. 

Turkey is a key member of NATO and stands poised to undertake the first

successful experiment in Islamic democracy; it is a political vision abhorred by

al-Qaida, yet could serve as a model for Arab Islamist political groups like the

Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  The Peace and Justice Party (AKP) is using the

democratic process to reorganize the social contract that has left two

institutions as dominant over the executive and legislative branches in Turkey.

Those two institutions are the military and the judiciary, whose senior

leadership view themselves as the protectors of the legacy of Turkey’s founder

Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). Yet Ataturk cannot be described as a secularist but

one who admires laicism, a form of secularism that leaves no room for religious

expression in public life.  Laicism was inspired by the French Revolution and

views expressions of God or the divine on currenc or, in opening legislative

sessions as intolerable.

Download the full article:

Observations of Turkish Islamist Politics

Commander Aboul-Enein is author of

Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat, published this

summer by Naval Institute Press.  He spent one week this spring in Turkey as

part of the Industry Study Program of the Industrial College of the Armed

Forces.  Commander Aboul-Enein learned much during this trip and thanks the

college, and Colonel Deborah Buonassisi, USAF, for an amazing intellectual

experience.  Finally, he wishes to thank Dr. Christina Lafferty for her edits

and discussions that enhanced this essay.

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