Manufacturing the Ummah: Turkey’s transnational populism and construction of the people globally

Abstract

Inspired by the concept of ‘transnational populism’ this paper investigates the efforts of a religious populist regime to narratively construct ‘the transnational people’ and ‘the transnational leader’ in diasporic spaces that Sunni Muslim minorities occupy. The paper aims to show how Turkey’s ruling party is constructing an Islamist civilisational populist narrative fortified with emotions and how it is disseminating it. We show that Turkey’s current regime has expanded its definition of ‘the people’ in domestic politics to include the whole global Sunni Muslim community (the Ummah), presenting itself as the representative, protector and saviour of the Ummah that has been victimised by the Crusader West. It also expanded its definition of diaspora to include non-Turkish Sunni Muslims/Islamic communities who did not originate from Turkey. Then, similar to its propagation of this narrative and emotional rhetoric at home, it has attempted to transnationalise this Islamist civilisational populist narrative and thes emotions to the Sunni Muslim diaspora communities through state and non-state apparatuses. As a novel contribution, this paper builds a bridge between diaspora studies, religion and populism to capture this transnational aspect of populism.

Keywords:

• Populism
• transnational populism
• diaspora
• emotions
• Islam
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Despite its claims of secularism, since its inception, the Republic of Turkey has wanted to control religion through Diyanet that controls all mosques in the country, employs religious officers, and develops and spreads the Turkish-state version of the Sunni Hanafi Islamic doctrine (Yilmaz 2005; Kuru 2007; Gözaydin 2008; Maritato 2021).

2 ISNA was originally founded by Muslim university students as the Muslims Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA) in 1963. Then MSA, collaborating with three associations of Muslim professionals, established ISNA in 1981. See https://isna.net/mission-and-vision/.

3 A pro-Erdoğan think tank financed by Tayyip Erdoğan’s close circle, with offices across the world. DW regards this think tank as a ‘megaphone supporting government [Erdoğan’s] policies’ (https://www.dw.com/en/Erdoğans-akp-basks-in-glow-of-think-tank-financed-by-influential-family-dw-finds/a-51258757).

4 Dirilis (Resurrection) Ertuğrul ‘is the culmination of a series of attempts by Turkish government broadcaster TRT to produce a historical drama in line with the values of the governing AKP. Far from being confined to the television screen, Resurrection is called upon by the government for multiple extra-textual engagements with the public’ (Carney 2018, 93).

5 Payitaht Abdulhamid – Theodor Herzl is asking for land in Kudüs (Al-Quds), English and Arabic Subtitle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp5ofE6OXbA

6 Haider’s World is a YouTube channel that started its broadcasting in 2018. The channel description reads as follows: ‘Haider’s world – We bring you the latest from the Pakistani and Turkish entertainment industry! Love to keep up with your favorite celebrities? We aim to bring you new videos regularly to keep you up to date with the latest from the entertainment industry. You will get to see some super cool high quality videos on this channel. A lot of behind the scenes, translations videos, celeb gossip and everything Pak–Turk related to make you smile!’ https://www.youtube.com/c/HaidersWorld/about.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [ARC] under Discovery Grant [DP220100829], Religious Populism, Emotions and Political Mobilisation.

Notes on contributors

Ihsan Yilmaz

Ihsan Yilmaz is a full research professor of political science and international relations at Deakin University’s ADI and Visiting Professor at the Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford. Previously, he worked at the Universities of Oxford and London. He is also Non-Resident Senior Fellow at a Brussels-based think tank, the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). At Deakin, his projects have been funded by the Australian Research Council, Department of Veteran Affairs, and Victorian Government. He is one of Australia’s leading scholars of authoritarianism, digital authoritarianism, populism, transnationalism, international relations, religion and politics, soft power, sharp power, diasporas, and nation-building, with special emphasis on Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. He is a prolific author and has published his research in the world’s leading political science and international relations journals. He is currently leading an ARC Discovery project, ‘Religious Populism, Emotions and Political Mobilisation: Civilisationism in Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan’ and co-leading a Gerda Henkel Foundation (Germany) project, ‘Smart Digital Technologies and the Future of Democracy in the Muslim World: Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Iran’.

Mustafa Demir

Mustafa Demir is a Associate Fellow at the University of Surrey, Associate Lecturer at the University of Derby and Non-resident Fellow at the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). He holds a PhD in political science and international relations from Keele University (UK). His research interests include populism, securitisation, democratisation and foreign policymaking; geopolitics and energy security; authoritarianism and its variants; strategies employed by authoritarian regimes to survive; authoritarian foreign policy; diaspora policies of authoritarian regimes; ethnic and religious minorities in authoritarian settings; the Middle East and regional policies towards minorities; Turkish politics and Turkish/Kurdish relations. He has most recently published a book on Turkey’s relations with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and written a chapter on the geopolitics of energy in Turkey. He also has other works in progress on authoritarian regimes and their foreign policymaking processes and the role and status of diasporas within authoritarian states.