Understanding turkish modernization in the midst of conjectural changes in ethics and politics

Abstract

The 1970s onwards, the growing skepticism over the Enlightenment goal of progress gained a new momentum by the mid-1990s when scholars of Middle Eastern politics viewed conflict and democratic deficiency as a failure of the modern secular state. This conjecture further advanced on a perception that suggested an “Islamic awakening” as the movement of the “indigenous faithful” against the “secular tyrant.” Adherents of this view looked at modernization through the prism of a cultural dilemma that shaped how contemporary readings come to interpret Turkish modernization. It is argued that the foundation of modern Turkey as a secular republic in 1923 constituted a vicious assault on the traditional (Muslim) society that was cut off from its cultural roots through an artificial modernization project. This article contends that the prevailing antagonism toward secularism stemmed from an intent on legitimizing a particular way of thinking in accordance with US public diplomacy to influence foreign audiences in support of building “moderate Muslim networks” against radical Islam. This article asks whether modernity as an incarnation of the rational and sovereign self has ever genuinely intended or fully accomplished in those territories where an “Islamic awakening” is argued to occur. Moreover, it suggests that critics of Turkish modernization miss the gist of the actual story because secularization in Turkey corresponded to a distinct phenomenon that did not occur and advance in pertain to religion. Drawing from the Turkish experience, it discusses what constitutes for modernity at the individual level and why secularization remains to be a decisive component in this scheme.