Islamism, State Control Over Religion and Social Identity: Turkey and Egypt

451 Pages·2017·17.12 MB·English

by  Alper Y. Dede

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Dissertations Graduate College
8-2008
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Alper Y. Dede
Western Michigan University
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ISLAMISM, STATE CONTROL OVER RELIGION AND SOCIAL IDENTITY:
TURKEY AND EGYPT
by
Alper Y. Dede
A Dissertation
Submitted to the
Faculty of The Graduate College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department ofPolitical Science
Dr. Kevin Corder, Advisor
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, Michigan
August 2008
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UMI Number: 3323518
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© 2008 Alper Y. Dede
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I dedicate this thesis to my parents; Abdullah Dede, my dad; and Semiha
Dede, my mom; and to my wife Halise Dede, who are all educators. My parents have
always appreciated the value of learning and teaching, and inspired me to choose a
career in the academia. I owe a deep and abiding debt to my wife Halise and my son
Yusuf Emre, who have always been very supportive and understanding since I started
this project. I also owe them an apology for being an absentee husband and father for
the last two years. Without the generous moral support and encouragement of my
parents and my wife, this project could not be accomplished. During the hardships of
completing this project, they have always been understanding and caring.
All four members of my dissertation committee provided invaluable
intellectual inspiration, encouragement and guidance throughout this project. I am
profoundly grateful to my thesis supervisor Dr. J. Kevin Corder for his commitment
to my development as a scholar in general and for his aid in the completion of this
dissertation in terms of methodology and content. This dissertation relies heavily on
Dr. Corder's reading, commenting, editing, and intense emotional and intellectual
labor. I was also extremely fortunate to study with Dr. Mustafa K. Mirzeler, who
helped me to improve this dissertation by providing his insight and by being highly
supportive and encouraging. It is difficult to find the words to express my sincere
gratitude to Dr. Mirzeler. Working with him has been a great pleasure, an experience
ii
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Acknowledgments-continued
that one cannot easily forget. I will never forget his support for the rest of my life.
Equally valuable were the methodological and substantive insights provided by Dr.
Gunther M. Hega, with whom this project was first born, and by Dr. Sybil D. Rhodes
who provided very useful insights about social movements and political activism. I
am grateful to them for their reading and commenting on various drafts through the
completion of this project, and also for their rightful warnings about the focus and
methods of this study. They have helped me clarify my focus at a methodological
level, and some of my central themes and topics at a conceptual level. Throughout the
completion of this project, my committee members' critiques on the contents and
methods have been guiding in the face of intellectual challenges ofwriting a
dissertation. The members of this committee read countless drafts and provided
critical feedback that eventually made this dissertation remarkably better than it
otherwise would have been.
As for my colleagues, mentors, and friends, I owe special thanks to Dr.
Moataz Abdel Fattah, Dr. Thomas Stewart, Dr. Delbert Ringquist, Dr. LUtfullah
Karaman, M. Sanver, 6. GUla~ar, M. F. Hasoglu, S. Canh, M. Mesarifoglu, i. Mtzrak,
A. Anar, G. Olmez, V. 0. Ytldtz, Nidal, YusufBey, Ozglir, Zafer, Dar~m and Abuzer
Abi, Cemil, Murat, Ahmet, Erkan, Cengiz, Sava~, M.S. Yavuz, N. Altundeger, A.M.
Sara9oglu, C. Y. Demirkale, B. Ertiirk, G. Bactk, A. T. Kuru, D. Arslan, F. Canba~.
0. <;etinkaya, K. Akkaya, Y. Alptekin, Halit Hakkt, my best friends, elder brothers,
and also mentors Dr. Mursi, Dr. Abdelhady, Dr. Aboudan, Dr. Zalt, Dr. Samhan,
lll
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Acknowledgments-continued
Brother Ahmed, Akram, Raed, Tariq, Muhammed and others, HUseyin Abi,
SUleyman Bey, Muhammed, Bilal, and Cumali Bey for their moral and intellectual
support, and company in this long and overwhelming journey.
For giving me the opportunity to teach every term as well as for offering
resources generously during the completion of this project, I owe special thanks to the
Department of Political Science at CMU; to Dr. Delbert Ringquist and Dr. Won Paik,
the former department chairs; to Dr. Rick Kurtz, the current department chair; and to
Miss Jackie Robert, the department secretary.
A final acknowledgement goes to all of the respondents who kindly accepted
my request for interviews and openly expressed their minds and hearts during the
interviews. All of them were welcoming and friendly; it was more than a pleasure to
socialize with them and to share their experiences and thoughts. I am grateful to Dr.
Moataz Abdel Fattah, whose support kept me going throughout my fieldwork and
writing. He commented on some of the chapters and provided thoughtful comments
and suggestions. I also thank Dr. K. Stlay for commenting on an earlier draft of two
of my chapters. I reserve my deepest gratitude especially for Dr. Moataz Abdel Fattah
and Miss G. Fayek for providing a fundamental help during my fieldwork.
Alper Y. Dede
IV
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... ii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1
Existing Literature............................................................................... 7
What Is Islamism and How Does Islamism Manifest Itself?....... 7
Emergence of Islamism..... ........... ........ .......... ... . . .. .. . .. . . . . ... . .. ........ 9
Islamists, Democracy, Civil Society and the State Control over
Religion........................................................................................ 14
Political Islam and the State in Egypt.......................................... 16
Political Islam and the State in Turkey........................................ 21
The Struggle over Identity Through Cultural Frames ................. 25
Social Identity and Contentious Politics...................................... 29
Cases, Hypotheses and Model............................................................. 33
Most-different-systems Design.................................................... 33
Hypotheses and Model................................................................. 34
Cases and Focus of Study . . ................. ................. .. . ....... ........... .. . 46
Methods and Plan of Study .. . . . . . . . . . .. ..... .. . . . . ........... ......... ....... .. .. ...... .. . . 4 7
Methods....................................................................................... 48
Chapters and Organization ... . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . ... ..... .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . ...... ... . 54
II. HISTORY OF ISLAM, TURKEY AND TURKISH
SECULARIZATION.................................................................................. 57
Islam.................................................................................................... 57
Emergence and Rise of Islam ...................................................... 57
v
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Table of Contents-continued
CHAPTER
The Umayyad and Abbasid Empires ........................................... 61
The Turks ............. ............................................................................... 62
The Rise and Expansion of the Ottoman Empire......................... 63
The Decline of the Ottoman Empire............................................ 68
The Tanzimat Era......................................................................... 70
The Young Turk Revolt of 1908 and the Collapse of the
Ottomans...................................................................................... 73
The New Turkish Republic................................................................. 75
The Emergence of Modem Turkey from the Ruins of the
Ottoman Empire........................................................................... 7 5
Authoritarian Reform in Turkey ...... .. .............. .. . . . .. . ............ ........ 77
Secularist-Atatiirkist Ideology and Government Control over
Religion........................................................................................ 79
The Multiparty Era....................................................................... 81
Rapid Urbanization and Politicization of Turkey in the 1960s ... 85
Islam and Politics: The Conceptual Framework ................................. 88
Islam as a Historical and Organic Religion................................. 90
The Interplay between Modernization, Secularization and
Islamism .. . . .................... .... ... ............ .. . .. .. . . . . . . ... ... . . . . . .... ............. .. . 93
Emergence oflslamism as a Political Movement........................ 95
Conclusion........................................................................................... 97
III. ISLAMIST POLITICS IN TURKEY......................................................... 99
Emergence of Islamism in Modem Turkey......................................... 10 0
vi
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Table of Contents-continued
CHAPTER
The Gramscian Struggle: Politics as Jihad.......................................... 104
Politics as Jihad: The MNP .......................................................... 107
The Interviewees' Profile ...... .. .. ......... ........ ...... .. .. .. .. .. .... .. .. .. .. .... ...... .. . 113
The Road to the Coup of 1980 ............................................................ 116
Civil Society and the Islamist Politics in the Aftermath of the
Military Rule .. .. .. .. .. ...................... ...... .... ...... ............ .... .. .. .......... .... ..... 117
Political Engineering, Government Led Depoliticization, and
Political Alienation of the Masses after the Coup....................... 119
Controlled Liberalization and the Reemergence oflslamism ..... 122
Structural Strains: The Secular Backlash and the February 28
Period........................................................................................... 128
Government Control over Religious Education.................................. 133
Government Control over Mosques.................................................... 143
Perception of External Threats............................................................ 14 7
How Does the Islamists' Perception of External Threats Relate
to Political Activism.................................................................... 148
The Content Analysis................................................................... 151
The Content Analysis and the Interview Data............................. 159
The Closing Down of the Islamist Party............................................. 162
Types and Strategies of Islamist Political Activism............................ 166
Explaining Islamist Outreach, Opportunities and Constraints.... 171
Culture and Framing: The Role oflslamist Frames in Islamist
Activism....................................................................................... 176
Framing and Identity Formation through Islam........................... 177
vii
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