A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Central Asia

Abstract. This paper reveals and analyses the ethnic politics mobilised by a fast‐growing Islamic movement, the Gülen movement, which emerged in the 1980s in Turkey and expanded to Central Asia in the mid‐1990s. Following the micro‐sites, where nationness is reproduced as an everyday practice, my ethnographic research in Almaty‐Kazakhstan explored the emergent Islamic sensibilities for the nation and ethnic identity. Revivalist Islam has often been essentialised as incompatible with nationalism, since it has been widely associated with the Muslim community rather than nations and nation‐states. I argue that this bias is facilitated and maintained by the deep division in the literature. Scholarly work on both Islam and nationalism are split into two opposing approaches, state‐centered and culture‐centered. The findings of the present study challenge the binary thinking that juxtaposes politics against culture and dichotomises ethnic and state‐framed base of nationalism and nationhood. My major finding is that the Gülen movement has not only inherited the symbols and myths of descent from the founding fathers of the Turkish state, but it is also currently reproducing the related ethnic politics in cooperation with–not in opposition to–the secular states in the post‐Soviet Turkic world. The study reconciles ethno‐symbolic and state‐centered approaches in explaining the convergence between Islamic and secular nationalism in the formation of ethnic politics in Almaty‐Kazakhstan.     

The early medieval secular: spectrum and strategies

This special issue seeks to fill a gap by taking the first steps towards locating the early Middle Ages in the broader history of the secular. While it has generally been assumed that a division between religion and secular was impossible to make in the early medieval period, taken together the articles in this collection show a variety of early medieval seculars, all arising from a general assumption that distinctions could, indeed had to, be made between what was secular and what was not. The introduction proposes that scholars should think in terms of a spectrum of secularity; key to determining what sits within this spectrum must be the identification of secularizing strategies, i.e. attempts to draw a distinction between religious and secular in a particular context. Such an approach offers the possibility of a history of the secular that does not privilege one time or place.     

Bioterrorism: US public health and a secular apocalypse

This analysis was prepared for the 'Bioterrorism: Historical contexts, long-term consequences' conference held at the Department of Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, on 8 May 2002. A revised version was presented at the panel 'A plagued future? Emerging diseases, bioweapons, and other anticipated microbial horrors' at the 2002 American Anthropological Association Meetings, 23 November. I thank meeting participants for their comments, as well as Nick King, Joe Masco and the anonymous referees for AT. I am indebted to colleagues D.A. Henderson, Tara O'Toole, Tom Inglesby and Michael Mair for their reflections on the humanitarian and public policy dilemmas posed by bioweapons, and to Onora Lien and Ari Schuler for research assistance.     

The Regulatory State and Turkish Banking Reforms in the Age of Post‐Washington Consensus

The new era of the Post‐Washington Consensus (PWC), promoted under the auspices of International Financial Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, centres on the need to develop sound financial regulation and strong regulatory institutions, especially in the realm of banking and finance in post‐financial crisis developing countries. This article uses an examination of the Turkish banking sector experience with the PWC in the aftermath of the 2001 financial crisis to show its considerable strengths and weaknesses. The authors argue that the emergent regulatory state in the bank‐based financial system has a narrow focus on strengthening prudential regulation, whilst ignoring the increased ‘financialization’ of the Turkish economy. They identify the positive features of the new era of the PWC in terms of prudential regulation, which has become much more robust in its ability to withstand external shocks. At the same time, however, the article highlights some of the limitations of the new era which resemble the limitations of the PWC. These include the distributional impact of the regulatory reforms within the banking sector, and notably the emergence of foreign banks as the major beneficiaries of this process; weaknesses in promoting productive bank intermediation that finance the real economy and economic growth, leading to poverty reduction via growth of employment whilst stimulating financialization within the economy; and finally, the exclusive focus on prudential regulation, whilst ignoring regulatory costs, consumer protection and competition regulation.     

Constitution‐writing,nationalism and the Turkish experience

Until recently there has been relatively little attention paid to the question of how the relationship between the state, its citizens and the nation is articulated in constitutional texts. This paper seeks to address this gap through an examination of how the rules of belonging to the nation are discussed by the political elite and how these discussions find their final formulation in the constitutional texts. The analysis focuses on the Turkish case at two constitution‐writing moments (1924 and 1961). While such moments have conventionally been assumed to be ‘revolutionary’, the data on Turkey highlights continuities rather than radical changes over time. More particularly, it underscores the resilience and salience of the principle of nationalism over time.     

From experience to law: Leo Strauss and the Weimar crisis of the philosophy of religion

This paper is a study of the origins of Leo Strauss's thought, arguing that its early development must be understood in the context of the philosophy of religion of late Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany. More specifically, it shows that Strauss's early works were written against the background of Kantian philosophy and post-Kantian accounts of religious experience, and that his turn towards medieval law as a topic and ideal was precipitated by the critique of those accounts by radical Protestant theologians writing in the post-World War I era of crisis. Ironically, then, Strauss's investment in premodern Judaism—and his related rejection of modern philosophy—had important Christian origins.     

The post-Islamist problematic: questions of religion and difference in everyday life

The term post-Islamism has been broadly applied to suggest that we are witnessing a new phase of Islamist politics in which the goal is not to make the state Islamic but to change the lived experiences of Islam. Whether post-Islamism applies to the Turkish case has been a matter of much debate. We approach post-Islamism in Turkey using a feminist geographic analytic that shifts our focus from formal politics to the embodied and the everyday. Drawing upon eight focus groups with men and women in Istanbul in 2013 and 2014, we analyze discussions of education reform, the possibility of religious politics and religious difference to demonstrate how the premises of post-Islamism depend upon the (often unsuccessful) papering over of multiplicity. We argue that everyday, embodied solutions to the questions of post-Islamism often undermine the very categories (state, society, religion and secularism) upon which the post-Islamic problematic is based.     

The mosque in the suburbs: Negotiating religion and ethnicity in South London

The geography of religi on for UK residents of South Asian origin is inexorably linked to the politics of the built environment. In particular, the siting, or expansion, of places of worship for minority-religious groups has often been bound up with the negotiation and contestation of the politics of identity. In this paper we explore the historical unfolding of a complex politics of identity and difference across one particular site of religious worship. The building in question is the London Fazl Mosque, London's first mosque. The paper focuses on two periods in the architectural, social and religious life of the site: its initial planning, opening and use in the London suburbs of the 1920s; and the community's more recent--and ultimately unsuccessful--attempts to extend the mosque in the 1990s. Across these two periods we draw out the ways in which notions of similarity and difference were employed by mosque-users, other local residents, the press and local and central government bodies in their discourse relating to the mosque. In particular we are concerned with how the mosque has meant different things to different religious, ethnic and social groups across the period under study, and how the mosque's relative ability to conform to associative aesthetic valuations throughout its history effectively sanctioned as well as condemned building works. Pour les résidents du Royaume-Uni d'origine sudasiatique, la géographie de la religion est inexorablement liée à l'environnement architectural. En particulier, le choix de sites ou l'expansion de lieux de culte pour les groupes religieux minoritaires ont souvent été reliés à des débats identitaires. Dans cet article, nous explorons l'évolution historique d'un jeu complexe de politiques de l'identité et de la différence par le biais d'un édifice religieux. Le site en question est la mosquée Fazl, la première ayant été bâtie à Londres. L'article se concentre sur deux périodes de la vie architecturale, sociale et religieuse de ce site: sa planification initiale, son ouverture, et son utilisation dans la banlieue de Londres pendant les années 1920, ainsi que les efforts plus récents--éventuellement sans succès--d'agrandir la mosquée pendant les années 1990. À travers ces deux périodes, nous exposons comment des notions de similaritéet de différence ont été mises de l'avant par les usagers du lieu, les autres résidents du quartier, la presse et les institutions gouvernementales centrales et locales dans leurs discours respectifs sur la mosquée. Nous cherchons en particulier à dégager comment la mosquée acquière une signification différente selon chaque religion, ethnie ou groupe social impliqué pendant la période sous étude. Nous cherchons aussi à dégager comment la capacité relative de la mosquée à se conformer à des valeurs esthé tiques associatives au cours de son histoire a servi à supporter de même qu'à condamner les travaux de construction. La geografía de la religio´n para los habitantes del Reino Unido naturales de Asia Sudoriental es inexorablemente vinculada a la política del entorno construído. En particular, la ubicación, o la expansión de los edificios de culto para los grupos de religiones minoritarios muchas veces ha estado estrechamente vinculado con la negociación y la contestación de la política de identidad. En este papel, examinamos el desarollo histórico de la compleja política de identidad y diferencia en un sitio de culto determinado. El edificio en cuestión es la mezquita Fazl, la primera mesquita de Londres. El papel enfoca a dos períodos en la vida arquitectural, social y religiosa del sitio: su planificación, inauguración y empleo iniciales en el barrio londinense en los años 20: y los intentos más recientes de la comunidad de ampliar la mezquita en los años 90, los cuales no resultaron exitosos. Através de estos dos períodos destacamos las maneras en que las nociones de semejanza y diferencia fueron empleadas por las personas que frecuentaban la mezquita, otros residentes locales, la prensa y cuerpos de los gobiernos local y central en sus discursos sobre la mezquita. En particular nos interesa lo que significaba la mezquita para los diferentes grupos religiosos, étnicos y sociales en las épocas bajo investigación y como la manera en que la mezquita cuadraba con las valuaciones estéticas asociativas durante toda su historia efectivamente sancionaba, tanto como condenaba, su construcción.     

Language,ethnicity and religion: a complex and persistent linkage

ABSTRACT. Among the markers of ethnonational identity, language and religion have figured with equal prominence. In many cases, religion has been the bedrock of nation‐building; and even today, it is difficult to separate a number of national identities from their religious matrices. Religious identity is based on, and perpetuated in, narratives expressed in a specific language. Language and religion are related; in our secular age, however, that relationship is no longer consistent. The two may feed upon one another; language may substitute for religion; or religion may trump language. This article explores the varying relationships between language and religion.     

Of calves and kings: The Canaanite dimension in the religion of Israel

Abstract

In this article, the author studies the question how pastoral metaphors shape or construct the argumentative development and the internal structure of the Oracle against Babylon (Jer 50–51). Methodologically, the article draws on the insights provided by the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor stating that metaphor is not merely a literary ornament, but rather a fundamental way in which people think. On the basis of these insights, the pastoral metaphors occurring in Jer 50,6–7; 8; 11–13; 17–18; 19–20; 44–45 and 51,38–40 are subjected to close scrutiny. It is shown that these metaphors display a strong internal development, challenging the view that the Oracle is an ongoing repetition of the same ideas. Moreover, the pastoral metaphors occur at structurally important positions in the Oracle, thus contributing to its overall architecture, and they provide important thematic links to other crucial texts in the book, e.g. Jer 25. Finally, the close analysis of the pastoral metaphors in Jer 50–51 has shed a new light on a number of the text's interpretational problems, for which new solutions were consequently proposed.     

The religion of the Non-Jurors and the early British enlightenment: a study of Henry Dodwell

The article considers the fundamental motivations and associated theological thought of those involved in the Non-Juring schism in the Church of England in the period after the Revolution of 1688. It indicates and exemplifies how that thought is to be related to wider intellectual conflicts of the period, considered as constituting an early phase of Enlightenment/Counter-Enlightenment debate. The works of the leading Non-Juror theologian, Henry Dodwell, and in particular his writings on the destiny of the soul, serve as an area of focus. Extensive reference is also made to the equally prominent Non-Juror, Charles Leslie.     

The religion of the Non-Jurors and the early British enlightenment: a study of Henry Dodwell

The article considers the fundamental motivations and associated theological thought of those involved in the Non-Juring schism in the Church of England in the period after the Revolution of 1688. It indicates and exemplifies how that thought is to be related to wider intellectual conflicts of the period, considered as constituting an early phase of Enlightenment/Counter-Enlightenment debate. The works of the leading Non-Juror theologian, Henry Dodwell, and in particular his writings on the destiny of the soul, serve as an area of focus. Extensive reference is also made to the equally prominent Non-Juror, Charles Leslie.