Overcoming the Secular Suspicion? State Secularity and its Impact on Societal Relations in Turkey and Egypt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11660997 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Birol Başkan (0000-0002-3542-9814, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2013-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Arab Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0271-3519 • E-ISSN: 2043-6920 |
| Publisher | Pluto Journals (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.13169/arabstudquar.35.2.0165 |
| OpenAlex | W237394372 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
What conditions are the most conducive for religious and secular groups to overcome their mutual fears and suspicions towards each other? This article addresses this question through a comparative historical analysis of two major cases from the Middle East: Turkey and Egypt. The article argues that institutional differences in state-religion relations explain why Turkish religious groups, but not their Egyptian counter-parts, could better alleviate the fears and suspicions of the other secular groups. In summary, Turkey and Egypt instituted their state-religion relations in different ways while building their modern states and therefore entered the highly politicized environment of the 1970s under different state-religion relations. Institutional state-religion relations in Egypt have provided a venue for Islamic groups to Islamize the state and society using state power if necessary. This came at great cost, however. Religious groups in fact pushed further away the other societal groups, deepening their fears and suspicions. Institutional state-religion relations have not provided a venue for Islamic groups in Turkey to Islamize the state and society from top to bottom. Lacking state power to correct practices and norms deemed un-Islamic helped the Islamists and Islamic groups in the long run. Their relations with other societal groups have not deteriorated to the extent they have done in Egypt
Archaeology · Islam · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Secular state · Secularity · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Turkish · Gender Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society
Islam's Marriage with Neoliberalism
Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey
The logic of comparative social Inquiry
Making Islam Democratic
Historical institutionalism in comparative politics
Islamic Law and Gender Equality
The Brotherhood Goes to Parliament
Rethinking Islamist Politics
Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Arab World
A World Survey of Religion and the State
The Muslim Brothers
With the Islamists?—Sometimes. With the State?—Never!’ Cooperation between the Left and Islamists in Egypt
The Shaikh Al-Islam and the Evolution of Islamic Society
State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East
Conflict and Cooperation Between the State and Religious Institutions in Contemporary Egypt
Class, Status, and Party
The Islamist Trend in Egyptian Law
The State in the Pulpit
Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms
Islamic Mobilization
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |