The republican character of Islamism in Turkey from the perspective of 'the political'

Abstract

This dissertation is an exploratory research that critically reviews the existing approaches to Islamism so as to evaluate their suitability and effectiveness and to suggest an altemative framework to approach Islamism. Islamism is primarily a political movement about the fundamentals of the society rather than a religious movement. Studying Islamismin terms of its religiosity, in terms of its modernity and in terms of its different civilizational outlook is not explanatory as far as its political aspects are concemed. Therefore, Islamism could be better comprehended if studied on political grounds and in relation to the context within which it emerges. This dissertation considers Islamism not in terms of its substance, which is Islamisation, but in terms of its alternative structuration of politics and in terms of its vision of state society relationship. The definition of concept of "the political" is central part of the alternative framework. A structuration of political sphere is determined by the underlying mode of societal integration. Although mixtures are possible, there are basically two modes of integration: liberal and republican. When viewed from this perspective it becomes apparent that the National Outlook Movement' s Islamİst opposition to Kemalist Westernization is accompanied by a gramınatical similarity, i.e. the structuration of the legitimate sphere of politics. Despite their substantive differences, both Kemalism and Islamism resemble each other grammatically and, as far as their structuration(s) of politics concerned, belong to the same family of republicanism.