RSSTout Entries Atenn Avèk: "Turkey’s AKP"

the 500 most influential muslims

Jan Esposito

Ibrahim Kalin

The publication you have in your hands is the first of what we hope will be anannual series that provides a window into the movers and shakers of the Muslimworld. We have strived to highlight people who are influential as Muslims, thatis, people whose influence is derived from their practice of Islam or from the factthat they are Muslim. We think that this gives valuable insight into the differentways that Muslims impact the world, and also shows the diversity of how peopleare living as Muslims today.Influence is a tricky concept. Its meaning derives from the Latin word influensmeaning to flow-in, pointing to an old astrological idea that unseen forces (like themoon) affect humanity. The figures on this list have the ability to affect humanitytoo. In a variety of different ways each person on this list has influence over thelives of a large number of people on the earth. The 50 most influential figuresare profiled. Their influence comes from a variety of sources; however they areunified by the fact that they each affect huge swathes of humanity.We have then broken up the 500 leaders into 15 categories—Scholarly, Political,Administrative, Lineage, Preachers, Fanm, Youth, Philanthropy, Development,Science and Technology, Arts and Culture, Medya, Radicals, International IslamicNetworks, and Issues of the Day—to help you understand the different kinds ofways Islam and Muslims impact the world today.Two composite lists show how influence works in different ways: InternationalIslamic Networks shows people who are at the head of important transnationalnetworks of Muslims, and Issues of the Day highlights individuals whoseimportance is due to current issues affecting humanity.

OF ISLAMISTS AND BALLOT BOXES

Vickie Langohr

As Islamist movements have gained strength across the Muslim world, their commitmentto democratic means of achieving and exercising power has been repeatedlyanalyzed. The question of whether resort to violence to achieve its goals is inherentin the Islamist project (that what some Islamists understand as a divine mandate toimplement sharia ultimately sanctions the use of force against dissenters) or contingent(that the violent exclusion of Islamists from the political arena has driven themto arms, best expressed by Franc¸ois Burgat’s contention that any Western politicalparty could be turned into the Armed Islamic Group in weeks if it were subjected tothe same repression Islamists had endured1) looms large in this debate. Where Islamistmovements have not had the opportunity to participate in elections for political office,analysts willing to give these movements the benefit of the democratic doubt arguethat their peaceful participation in the student body and syndicate elections that theyhave been allowed to contest proves their intention to respect the results of nationallevelelections.2 They also point to these groups’ repeated public commitment to playby the rules of the electoral game.3 The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptand Jordan and members of the Islah Party in Yemen have successfully competed innot one but a series of parliamentary elections and evinced a tendency to wage theirbattles through parliament and the courts rather than by force suggests to many thatthe question of whether Islamists can ever be democrats has already been settled inthe affirmative.Analysts who are more skeptical of the possibility of a democratic Islamism generallyadvance one of two arguments. The first is procedural: that although some Islamistshave seemingly opted to effect change through the ballot box, they have chosenthis method only because they do not yet have the power to use more forceful ones.In a manner of speaking, this line of thinking accuses Islamists competing in parliamentarypolitics of engaging in political taqiyya, of parroting the rhetoric that democratswant to hear until they obtain sufficient power to abort the democratic politicalprocess and institute a policy of “one-man, one-vote, one-time.”

TRAVELS AMONG EUROPE’S MUSLIM NEIGHBOURS

JOOST LAGENDIJK

JAN MARINUS WIERSMA

“A ring of friends surrounding the Union […], from Morocco to Russia”.This is how, in late 2002, the then President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, described the key challenge facing Europe following the planned enlargement of 2004. The accession process had built up momentum, and the former communist countries of Central Europe had been stabilised and were transforming themselves into democracies. EU membership was not directly on the agenda for countries beyond the enlargement horizon, however. How could Europe prevent new dividing lines forming at its borders? How could the European Union guarantee stability, security and peace along its perimeter? Those questions were perhaps most pertinent to the EU’s southern neighbours. Since 11 September 2001, in particular, our relations with the Islamic world have been imbued with a sense of urgency. Political developments in our Islamic neighbour countries bordering the Mediterranean could have a tremendous impact on European security. Although the area is nearby, the political distance is great. Amid threatening language about a ‘clash of civilisations’, the EU quickly drew the conclusion that conciliation and cooperation, rather than confrontation, constituted the best strategy for dealing with its southern neighbours.

Beyond Post-Islamism

Ihsan Yilmaz


With the increased international prominence of Turkey and its successful and internationallyrespected AK Party government, the Academia’s attention has focused on the Turkish Islamistexperience. Turkey had already been seen as an almost unique case as far Islam-state-secularismdemocracyrelations were concerned but the recent transformation of Turkish Islamism coupledwith the global turmoil in the post-9/11 world has made the Turkish case much more important.While Turkish Islamists’ recent transformation that has brought about their rise to the power hasbeen applauded at home and abroad, there are relatively very few studies that analyze theirtransformation by taking into account the unique experience of Turkish Islamism starting from the18th & 19th centuries’ Ottoman secularization, Young Ottomans of the 1860s and the Ottomanconstitutionalism and democracy. Moreover, some dynamics that affected the change in theTurkish Islamists’ Islamic normative framework have not been analyzed in detail. Thus, this studyendeavors to analyze the main factors behind the newly emerged tolerant normative framework ofthe AK Party leaders who were formerly Islamists. After showing that there are good historicalreasons arising from the Ottoman experience of secularism and democracy and arguing based on abrief theoretical discussion of the plurality of Islamisms, it argues that the Turkish Islamism hasalways differed from the other Islamist experiences. Therefore, in this study, a detailed evaluationof the Turkish Islamist experience starting from the Young Ottomans is undertaken. Then, thispaper attempts to show that Islamic groups’ physical and discursive interaction has been a crucialfactor in the Turkish Islamism’s transformation. Main premise of this paper is that the Gülenmovement has been the most influential factor that has helped the AK Party leaders to develop amore tolerant normative framework and to eventually jettison their Islamism. It is of coursedifficult to establish casual relationship between two social phenomena but one can underscorecorrelations. As the main hypothesis is that the Gülen movement has been the most influentialfactor in the normative transformation of the former Islamists’ mental frameworks and theirreligio-political worldviews, this paper provides a comparative discourse analysis betweenFethullah Gülen’s and Islamists’ ideas on several issues that have been relevant for both Islamismand newly-emerged post-Islamism. To identify these relevant issues (secularism, pluralism,democracy, rule of law, nationalism, state, Islamism, religiosity, the other, borders and dialogue),the paper provides a brief theoretical discussion of Islamism and post-Islamism that will also helpthe reader to understand the fundamental differences between Islamism and the Gülenian thought.

Building bridges not walls

Alex Glennie

Depi atak laterè yo nan 11 Septanm 2001 te gen yon eksplozyon enterè nan Islamis politik nan Mwayen Oryan ak Afrik Dinò (MENA) rejyon an. Jiska san patipri dènyèman,analis yo te konprann byen konsantre sou aktè sa yo ki opere nan fen vyolan nan spectre Islamis la, enkli Al-Qaeda, Taliban yo, kèk nan pati yo sektè nan Irak ak gwoup politik ki gen zèl ame tankou Hamas nan teritwa palestinyen yo okipe yo. (OPT)ak Hezbollah nan peyi Liban.Sepandan, sa te kache lefèt ke atravè rejyon MENA an politik kontanporen ap kondwi ak fòm pa yon koleksyon pi divèsifye nan 'endikap' mouvman islamis.. Nou defini kòm gwoup sa yo ki angaje oswa k ap chèche angaje yo nan pwosesis politik legal peyi yo epi ki te evite itilize vyolans piblikman pou ede reyalize objektif yo nan nivo nasyonal la., menm kote yo diskriminasyon kont oswa reprime. Definisyon sa a ta enkli gwoup tankou Frè Mizilman an nan peyi Lejip., Pati Jistis ak Devlopman (PJD) nan Maròk ak Fwon Aksyon Islamik la (IAF) nan lòt bò larivyè Jouden. Mouvman oswa pati islamis san vyolans sa yo souvan reprezante eleman ki pi byen òganize e ki pi popilè nan opozisyon an kont rejim ki egziste yo nan chak peyi., epi kòm sa, gen yon enterè ogmante sou pati nan fè politik lwès yo nan wòl yo ta ka jwe nan pwomosyon demokrasi nan rejyon an.. Men, diskisyon sou pwoblèm sa a sanble yo te bloke sou kesyon an si li ta apwopriye pou angaje ak gwoup sa yo sou yon baz pi sistematik ak fòmèl., olye ke sou pratik ki genyen nan aktyèlman fè sa., pliryalis politik ak yon seri de lòt pwoblèm. Li reflete tou konsiderasyon pragmatik sou enterè estratejik pouvwa lwès yo nan rejyon MENA yo ke yo pèrsu yo dwe menase pa popilarite a k ap monte ak enfliyans nan Islamis.. Pou pati yo, Pati ak mouvman islamis yo te montre yon repiyans klè pou yo tabli lyen pi sere ak pisans lwès sa yo ki gen politik nan rejyon an yo opoze fòtman., pa pi piti paske yo te pè ki jan rejim represif yo opere nan yo ta ka reyaji. Konsantre pwojè sa a sou mouvman islamis politik ki pa vyolan pa ta dwe mal entèprete kòm sipò implicite pou ajanda politik yo.. Angajman nan yon estrateji plis angajman ekspre ak pati islamis endikap yo ta enplike gwo risk ak konpwomi pou mizisyen politik Amerik di Nò ak Ewopeyen yo.. Sepandan, nou pran pozisyon ke tandans tou de bò yo wè angajman kòm yon sòm zewo jwèt "tout oswa anyen" pa itil., ak bezwen chanje si yon dyalòg pi konstriktif alantou refòm nan Mwayen Oryan an ak Afrik Dinò se parèt.

The Brotherhood’s Dilemma

Marc Lynch

The question of the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) realattitudes toward democracy has rarely been of moreintense interest to American foreign policy. Despiterecent electoral setbacks for the Islamic Action Frontin Jordan and the Moroccan Party of Justice andDemocracy, Islamist electoral success (the Brotherhoodin Egypt, Hamas in Palestine, the AKP in Turkey) hasthrown into sharp relief the dilemma posed for theUnited States by promoting democracy: Free electionsin today’s Arab world are likely to produce Islamistvictors.

The Egyptian government and many Egyptian skeptics alike accuse the MB of lying about its democratic commitments and working within the system in order to overthrow it. Inevitably, the specter is raised of an organization that would, in effect, subscribe to the position “One man, one vote, one time”—and which, if given the opportunity, would impose a despotic religious law over an unwilling population. If this alarming picture were shown to be accurate, then many Americans would back away from promoting democracy—as the United States has, indeed, done over the last year and a half .

Will Turkey Have An Islamist President?

Michael Rubin


While the campaigns have not officially begun, election season in Turkey is heating up. This spring, the

Turkish parliament will select a president to replace current president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, whose seven-year

term ends on May 16, 2007. On or before November 4, 2007, Turks will head to the polls to choose a new

parliament. Not only does this year mark the first since 1973—and 1950 before that—in which Turks will

inaugurate a new president and parliament in the same year, but this year’s polls will also impact the future

of Turkey more than perhaps any election in the past half century. If Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo˘gan

wins the presidency and his Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, also known as

AKP) retains its parliamentary majority, Islamists would control all Turkish offices and be positioned to

erode secularism and redefine state and society.If Erdo˘gan ascends to Çankaya Palace—the

Turkish White House—Turks face the prospect if an Islamist president and a first lady who wears

a Saudi-style headscarf. Such a prospect has fueled speculation about intervention by the Turkish military,

which traditionally serves as the guardian of secularism and the Turkish constitution. In December

2006, for example, Newsweek published an essay entitled “The Coming Coup d’Etat?” predicting

a 50 percent chance of the military seizing control in Turkey this year.1

While concern about the future of Turkish secularism is warranted, alarmism about military
intervention is not. There will be no more military coups in Turkey. Erdog˘ an may be prepared to
spark a constitutional crisis in pursuit of personal ambition and ideological agenda, but Turkey’s
civilian institutions are strong enough to confront the challenge. The greatest danger to Turkish
democracy will not be Turkish military intervention,but rather well-meaning but naïve interference
by U.S. diplomats seeking stability and downplaying the Islamist threat.

While the campaigns have not officially begun, election season in Turkey is heating up. This spring, theTurkish parliament will select a president to replace current president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, whose seven-yearterm ends on May 16, 2007. On or before November 4, 2007, Turks will head to the polls to choose a newparliament. Not only does this year mark the first since 1973—and 1950 before that—in which Turks willinaugurate a new president and parliament in the same year, but this year’s polls will also impact the futureof Turkey more than perhaps any election in the past half century. If Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo˘gan wins the presidency and his Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, also known asAKP) retains its parliamentary majority, Islamists would control all Turkish offices and be positioned toerode secularism and redefine state and society.If Erdo˘gan ascends to Çankaya Palace—theTurkish White House—Turks face the prospect if an Islamist president and a first lady who wearsa Saudi-style headscarf. Such a prospect has fueled speculation about intervention by the Turkish military,which traditionally serves as the guardian of secularism and the Turkish constitution. In December2006, for example, Newsweek published an essay entitled “The Coming Coup d’Etat?” predictinga 50 percent chance of the military seizing control in Turkey this year.1While concern about the future of Turkish secularism is warranted, alarmism about militaryintervention is not. There will be no more military coups in Turkey. Erdog˘ an may be prepared tospark a constitutional crisis in pursuit of personal ambition and ideological agenda, but Turkey’scivilian institutions are strong enough to confront the challenge. The greatest danger to Turkishdemocracy will not be Turkish military intervention,but rather well-meaning but naïve interferenceby U.S. diplomats seeking stability and downplaying the Islamist threat.

Democracy Protecting Itself from Itself?

Ebru Erdem

Studies on government in Muslim societies and in the Middle East in particular have mostly focused on authoritarianism. They sought to answer why authoritarianism is the most often observed regime type, and why it persists. Recent work has looked at the role of elections and elected bodies under authoritarianism, explaining why they exist and what purposes they serve (Blaydes 2008; Lust-Okar 2006). The goal of this paper is to shift the spotlight onto the judiciary, and to the political role of high courts in Muslim societies with different levels of authoritarianism.Judiciaries and the judicial processes in Muslim societies have not caught much scholarly attention. Much of the work in this area has revolved around Shari’a. Shari’a law, incorporation of the Shari’a into western style judicial systems and legal codes, conflicts between western and Shari’a inspired codes of family law, and especially the impact of the latter on women’s rights are some of the extensively studied topics concerning the judicial processes in these societies. Nan lòt men an, work on judiciary as a political institution in the Muslim world is scarce, notable exceptions being Moustafa (2003) and Hirschl (2004). Judiciaries may take different institutional forms, be based on different legal traditions, or vary in the level of independence they enjoy, but they are still a political institutions.Why study the judiciary in the Muslim World? Is a focus on the judiciary meaningful given the dominance of the executives in countries with authoritarian regimes? The justification for a focus on the judiciary has different dimensions. From a rational choice-institutionalist perspective: if an institution exists, there must be a reason for it, and we think that investigating the raison d’être of the judiciaries will provide interesting insights about political processes and executive strategies. From an institutional-design perspective, the shape that an institution takes2is related to the strategies of the actors negotiating over that institution, and we would like to use the observed variance in judicial institutions and powers across countries and time periods to learn about different aspects of political bargains that scholars have studied in other political realms. From a democratic development perspective, the establishment of the checks and balances is central to a functioning and sustainable democracy, and we would argue that studying the judiciary is central to understanding the prospects towards establishment of rule of law and a credible commitment to democracy (Weingast 1997).

Islamic Movements and the Use of Violence:

Esen Kirdis

.


Despite recent academic and popular focus on violent transnational Islamic terrorist networks,there is a multiplicity of Islamic movements. This multiplicity presents scholars with two puzzles. The first puzzle is understanding why domestic-oriented Islamic movements that were formed as a reaction to the establishment of secular nation-states shifted their activities and targets onto a multi-layered transnational space. The second puzzle is understanding why groups with similar aims and targets adopt different strategies of using violence or nonviolence when they “go transnational.” The two main questions that this paper will address are: Why do Islamic movements go transnational? And, why do they take on different forms when they transnationalize? Premye, I argue that the transnational level presents a new political venue for Islamic movements which are limited in their claim making at the domestic level. Second, I argue that transnationalization creates uncertainty for groups about their identity and claims at the transnational level. The medium adopted, i.e. use of violence versus non-violence, is dependent on type of transnationalization, the actors encounter at the transnational level, and leadership’s interpretations on where the movement should go next. To answer my questions, I will look at four cases: (1) Turkish Islam, (2) Frè Mizilman yo, (3) Jemaah Islamiyah, epi (4) Tablighi Jamaat

Mouvman Islamik ak Demokratizasyon

Aysegul Kozak

Gulseren Isik

Nan dènye ane yo, anpil sosyològ ak syantis politik yo te diskite sou e yo te ofri teyori sou faktè ki ankouraje demokrasi.. Gen kèk sijere ke yon peyi gen plis chans vin demokratik si li vin pi rich, si li redistribiye richès ak revni peyi a nan yon fason egalitè.
Pou lòt moun toujou, vin pi kapitalis epi rapidman konvèti peyizani li an pwoletè se yon kondisyon demokratizasyon.. Lè ou yon ansyen koloni Britanik ak yon pwotestan yo ofri tou kòm faktè ki ogmante chans pou yo te yon demokrasi siksè. (wè Dahl, 1971; Bollen & Jackman 1985; Huntington 1991; dwe nesesè, 1994; Moore, 1966; Muller, 1995).
Alamòd, majorite syans yo sou demokratizasyon peyi Islamik yo te fè fas ak pwoblèm nan anba lantiy efè negatif Islam yo sou nivo demokratizasyon nan peyi Mizilman yo.. Etid sa yo, sepandan, sitou echwe pou pou remake kondwi a pozitif nan demokratizasyon te pote pa pati Islamik yo nan sistèm politik ki egziste deja. Papye sa a vize abòde defisyans sa a nan literati demokrasi a.
Plis espesyalman, objektif papye a, atravè ka etid Latiki ak peyi Lejip, se egzamine efè enklizyon oswa esklizyon pati Islamik yo nan sistèm politik tranzisyon peyi Mizilman yo nan demokrasi.. Nou diskite sa, enklizyon de pati Islamik yo nan sistèm demokratik la nan peyi Turkey ogmante lejitimite eta a, diminye konfli sivil, ak ankouraje liberalizasyon sistèm politik Tik la, pati yo ak sikonskripsyon yo konsa, ankouraje yon konduit pou siksè demokratizasyon.
Nan lòt men an, esklizyon islamis yo nan sistèm politik la nan peyi Lejip febli lejitimite eta a, entansifye konfli sivil la, ak radikalize Islamik la 4 mouvman ak sikonskripsyon li yo. Eta a piti piti te vin pi plis ak plis otokratik konsa, anpeche demokratizasyon.

Nan dènye ane yo, anpil sosyològ ak syantis politik yo te diskite ak teyori yo ofri sou faktè ki ankouraje demokrasi.. Gen kèk sijere ke yon peyi gen plis chans vin demokratik si li vin pi rich, si li redistribiye richès ak revni peyi a nan yon fason egalitè. Pou lòt moun toujou, vin pi kapitalis epi rapidman konvèti peyizani li an pwoletè se yon kondisyon demokratizasyon.. Lè ou yon ansyen koloni Britanik ak yon pwotestan yo ofri tou kòm faktè ki ogmante chans pou yo te yon demokrasi siksè. (wè Dahl, 1971;Bollen & Jackman 1985; Huntington 1991; dwe nesesè, 1994; Moore, 1966; Muller, 1995).Alamòd, majorite syans yo sou demokratizasyon peyi Islamik yo te fè fas ak pwoblèm nan anba lantiy efè negatif Islam yo sou nivo demokratizasyon nan peyi Mizilman yo.. Etid sa yo, sepandan, sitou pa t remake konduit pozitif nan demokratizasyon pati Islamik yo te pote nan sistèm politik ki egziste a. Papye sa a vize abòde defisyans sa a nan demokrasiliterati a.Plis espesyalman, objektif papye a, atravè ka etid Latiki ak peyi Lejip, se egzamine efè enklizyon oswa esklizyon pati Islamik yo nan sistèm politik tranzisyon peyi Mizilman yo nan demokrasi.. Nou diskite sa, enklizyon de pati Islamik yo nan sistèm demokratik nan peyi Turkey ogmante lejitimite eta a,diminye konfli sivil, ak ankouraje liberalizasyon sistèm politik Tik la,pati yo ak sikonskripsyon yo konsa, ankouraje yon kondwi nan demokratizasyon siksè.Nan lòt men an, esklizyon islamis yo nan sistèm politik la nan peyi Lejip febli lejitimite eta a, entansifye konfli sivil la, ak radikalize Islamic4movement la ak sikonskripsyon li yo. Eta a piti piti te vin pi plis ak plis autocraticthus, anpeche demokratizasyon.