Islam and Secularism in Turkey

Kemal Ataturk's Republic of Turkey was set up in 1923 as a secular state, sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms followed. Islam was no longer the official religion of the state, the Sultanate was abolished and all Turkish citizens were declared equal without reference to religion. But though, in Azak's phrase, 'secularism was the central tenet of Kemalism', fear of a resurgent, even fanatical, Islam, continued to haunt the state. Azak's revisionist and original study sets out the struggle between religion and secularism but shows how Ataturk laboured for an idealised 'Turkish Islam' - the 'social cement' of the nation - stripped of superstition and obscurantism and linked to modern science and positivist philosophy. 'Turkish Islam' has retained its traditional forms in the modern state and Ataturk's Mausoleum dominates the capital and continues to inspire a popular, quasi-religious devotion.

Review: 'the most innovative aspect lies in the fact that [she] redefines the struggle in Turkey not as one between Islam and Secularism, but between 'good and bad' Islam. It is a remarkably mature work'. - Professor Erik-Jan Zurcher, Director of the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam and Professor of Turkish Studies at the University of Leiden; 'The first extensive scientific account on these decisive years of the formation of the modern Turkish political culture - Islam and Secularism in Turkey is the outcome of a systematic and intelligent exploration of a very wide corpus.' - Hamit Bozarslan, Assistant Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris and Co-director of IISMM (Institut d'Etudes de l'islam et des societes du monde musulman)