Screenshot: The Conquest of Diyarbakir. News Agency (İLKHA).Islamism is one of the most powerful political drivers not only in the Muslim world, but also across the globe where it now confronts multiple political, economic and historic power blocs. In seeking to understand this recent change and its drivers in the Muslim world, many scholars up until the 1990s questioned whether Islam was compatible with democracy. Then, the rise of civil society in the Muslim world and neoliberalism at a global level transformed the context of the discussion and instead raised the question: how will a market-friendly Islam adjust to a neoliberal age? 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and a political division between radical and moderate Islam(s) brought Turkey to the fore as an example of peaceful coexistence in a neoliberal polity.
The dichotomy between who is radical, and who is not, relies on problematic political categorizations. The authority to decide and determine who is radical, and hence dangerous, belongs to power holders, in both rhetorical and political realms. Turkey, in connection with a broader geopolitical space, provides a good case study for exploring how political economy can be utilized to mobilize the masses, creating counter-narratives and forms of resilience by using a discourse that addresses people’s emotions, impacts on their bodies, and categorizes them into binary oppositions, thereby lining them up to fulfil various authoritarian ambitions.
Islamism in Turkey
Islamism in Turkey has a long history, which dates back to the time of Abdulhamid II (1876-1909) and was revived in the 1950s and 60s, when it gained trans-border reach. Despite a few short periods in the 70s and 90s, Islamist politics did not succeed in realizing its political agenda and hence stayed as a form of opposition in the Turkish political space – perhaps all the more righteous and less corrupted as a result. The post-9/11 environment provided fertile ground for a new form of Islamism in Turkey. It was indeed favoured by the neoliberal world as a moderate form of Islam, which created more space for civil society and entrepreneurship while reducing the state and its institutions to a polity that could rule peacefully while contributing to the neoliberal economy.
