Secularism in Turkey: Past and Present

Secularism in Turkey: Past and Present

Doğu Ergil

Foreign Policy Institute

The Ottoman civilization was a mixture of institutions borrowed from the Turkish, Persian and Arab cultures, from the religion of Islam, from the Eastern and later Western civilizations. These institutions were never really integrated and never produced a harmonious system to provide the rationality and dynamism to sustain and improve itself in the face of the Renaissance, the Reformation and the ensuing Industrial Revolution.
The dominant religion of the Ottoman realm was Islam. Islam in principle draws no distinction between the religious and temporal spheres of life. Thus, the Muslim State is by definition religious.
However, the concept of rulership in the Islamic community had acquired different characters following sectarian and political divisions. But for all sects, şeriat (divine law) remained the highway of righteous life leading to God. It includes law, moral principles and the creed to which every Muslim ought to subscribe.
Șeriat differs from Western ...

Dr. Doğu Ergil is a Professor of Political Sociology at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University. He holds B. A. degrees in Sociology and Psychology from Ankara University. He has earned a M. A. degree in Sociology from Oklahoma University and a Ph.D degree in Sociology and Political Science from State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Doğu Ergil is a Fulbright Scholar and a fellow of the London School of Economics.