Since the establishment of the Turkish Republic and the series of top-down secular revolutions, Islam has been compelled to play a limited social role, and many of its political and social aspects have been curtailed and excluded from the public sphere. Islam was perceived by the national elite, the Kemalists, as a reactionary or potentially threatening force that could hinder the modernization and secularization of the Turkish Republic as well as the project of homogenizing nation building (VUAUU 2011). The state has controlled and nationalized Islam under the rule of the Diyanet, the Turkish Directorate for Religious Affairs, and tried to domesticate it into theprivate realm. The directorate promotes "Turkish Islam" as a "moderate," "civilized," and" enlightened" type of Islam that is compatible with the secular values of the Turkish Republic. The rule and administration of Islam under the one state bureaucracy has been a characteristic of Turkish secularism.
However, according to changing relationships among the state, society, and religion in Turkey, we see not only a shift in the understanding of secularism and the position of Islam in society but also the Diyanet's dubious points regarding the legitimacy of its existence and its function as an important ideology tool for the majority state.
Today, the Diyanet fulfills crucial roles. In addition to conducting religious affairs pertaining to faith and moral principles, instilling religious knowledge in society, and administering places of worship, it identifies the solidarity and unity of Turkish people under the interpretation of Turkish Islam based on the Sunni doctrine and operates within the official limits of state ideology.
Since the 1980s, Turkey has experienced democratization. Furthermore, the revival of the Islamic movement and a new socio-political or national framework have become controversial matters. In the age of transformation, the functions of the Diyanet are certainly changing; however, in this paper I point out the" unchanged" intentions of Turkish state ideology through the functions and activities of the Diyanet and determine its assimilative force.
|
