Usrah@Masat

‘Islamists’ or Muslims?

• Islamist: a new consciousness and new agencies involving a desire to reshape the modern world according to Islamic principles. (Activist)
• Muslim: a more passive historical and cultural stance on the part of the religion and its believers.

“Conservative democrats” or “Muslim democrats”?

The term ‘conservative democracy’ then points at two parallel processes: a new Muslim self on the one hand that does not put an ‘and’ to demarcate between Islam and democracy and who is open to the possibility of a mutual borrowing. In this case, this term involves a renunciation of an earlier Islamist claim that Islam was totally distinct from Western frames of reference. The prefix ‘conservative’ on the other hand testifies to Muslim actors’ long lasting desire to blend democracy with conservative values such as emphasis on the family or the prohibition of pornography.

(Kenan Cayir)

Erdogan: Background

• Brought up in a observant Muslim family, he graduated from a religious high school (Imam Hatip school) and then studied Business Admin at Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (now it is known as Marmara University’s Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences).
• Mayor of Istanbul 1994-1998.
• In 1998, he was given a prison sentence after he had read poetry regarded as a violation of Kemalism by judges.It included lines translated as “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…“
• In 2001, he established the moderate Justice and Development Party( AKP/JDP) with former Fazilet Partisi and Anavatan Partisi members, and became Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003
• Before he established AKP, polls showed that we will garner at least 30% support from the people. He has the aura!

AKP: The Model

• Erdogan’s statement, “My reference is Islam“
• It started to redefine and reframe their religious demands and ideals in terms of a universal vocabulary on human rights and liberties.
• This Islamic sensitivity of the JDP leadership may be called a soft version  of “islamism without Islamists.“
• Ali Bulac argues that JDP’s new discourse on “democratic Islam” is an agreement among the urban poor, agricultural sectors, and Anatolian entrepreneurs and this is a “new version of Islamism” that has continued since the Young Ottomans. He also claims the underlying factors behind the AKP’s success is the unvoiced and unspoken existence of Islamism.
• Islamic state, but state of Muslims, implying that this new state is secular but responsive to the Muslims’ demands.

Islamic civilization & the west: Harmonization or antagonism?

We are to prove that a Muslim society is capable of changing and re-inovating itself, attaining contemporary standards while preserving its values, traditions, and identity. We acted on the premise that the highest contemporary standards of democracy-fundamental freedoms, gender equality, free markets, civil society, transparency, good governance, rule of law, and rational use of resources- are universal expectations. It is our belief that out people and other Muslim nations fully deserve to have these expectations met. Our sicieties can only benefit from the realization of these standards. And indeed, our societies have the necesssary historical background and moral and spiritual strength to adapt themselves to modernity when guided with successful and determined leadership

(Abdullah Gul 2003)

Islamization: Diversity in expression is key.

Five main groups:

1) Political organization, the political parties of NOM

2) Religious orders and communities like several branches of Nakshibendi order and of Nurcu Movement

3) Intellectuals like Sezai Karakoc, Ismet Ozel, Ali Bulac

4) Business associations (Musiad), trade unions, (Hak-Is), and human rights association (Mazlum-Der)

5) Independent small organizations around some journals, foundations, and associations

Full Usrah agenda:-

1- Tazkirah: Youth’s role in reappraisal of Islam.
2- Culture of excellency: Where art thou?
3- Agenda to change our condition: A brief summary of Shaikh Hamza Yusuf’s book.
4- Islamization: Diversity in expression is key.
5- Are we ‘Islamists’ or Muslims?
6- Islamic civilization & the west: Harmonization or antagonism?
7- Are there any shared values between “us” and “them”?
8- Kemalism and Erdoganism: Bridging secularism, Islamism, and democracy.
9- The Erbakan vs Erdogan trend (’traditionalist’  vs ‘reformist’)
10- “Conservative democrats” or “Muslim democrats”?
11- Pragmatic strategist: Al-Ghazali or Ibn Taimiyya’s approach?

For further readings:-

1) A brief summary of Agenda to Change Our Condition.

2) A case of traditionalist-reformist split

3) We are all Erdogans, really?