Between Islam and the State

Throughout the Middle East, the clash between Islamic forces and authoritarian states has undermined many democratization efforts. But in Turkey, Islamic actors—from the Gülen movement to the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party—have been able to negotiate the terms of secular liberal democracy. This book explores the socio-political conditions and cultural venues in which Islamic movements cease to confront and start to cooperate with secular states. Though both the Gülen and JP have ambivalent attitudes toward individual freedoms and various aspects of civil society, their continuing engagements with the state have encouraged democracy in Turkey. As they contest issues of education and morality but cooperate in ethnic and gender politics, they redraw the boundaries between public sites and private lives. Showing opportunities for engagement between Islam and the state, from Turkey to Kazakhstan to the United States, Between Islam and the State illustrates a successful means of negotiating between religion and politics.

"Berna Turam's book is one of the best to have been published recently on the interaction between Islam and the secular state in Turkey . . . Her study stands as an excellent analysis of what one might call 'Turkish exceptionalism.' As such, it is must reading of anyone who wishes to understand contemporary Turkey and the implications of the Turkish experience for other Muslim-majority countries.", "The need to understand Islam is obvious. Berna Turam's elegant and incisive ethnography of Turkey's Gülenist movement makes a major contribution in showing tension and diversity within the Islamic world.", "Turam's book is an excellent counterintuitive account of Turkish politics in the last ten years . . . Turam shows how a non-confrontational politics have allowed the Turkish secular state and the Islam-inspired Gulen movement and the Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish acronym AKP) to interact, reshape each other, and expand democratic institutions.", "Overall, Turam's Between Islam and the State is an insightful study on the relations between the state and Islam in Turkey, and makes an illuminating methodological contribution to the subject. It is a must-read for students of state-Islam relations and democracy, and for those who seek to understand the changes that have been occurring in Turkey throughout the last decade.", "Between Islam and the State is a very good book that has a timely question and intriguing cases. The Turkish experience is full of lessons for those who are interested in Islam-state relations in other Muslim countries. This book, therefore, is a candidate to become a must-read for the students of Middle Eastern politics in particular and of religion and politics in general."

Berna Turam is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Middle East Studies at Hampshire College.