The impact of Islamic sects on education and the media in Turkey

Abstract

Religious tendencies have become more visible around the world during the last two decades, moving further from the private to the public domain. Taking Turkey as a case in point, this article will explore how religious organizations have been active in developing cultural polices designed to shape the attitudes and behaviours of particular groups of people. After reflecting briefly on the significance of the historic relations between Christianity and Islam in culture‐shaping activities, the article will explore the attempts of Islamic sects to influence the culture of three social groups in contemporary Turkey: youth, rural women in cities and the potential audiences of specific TV and radio channels.

Keywords:

• Islamic sects
• religion
• Turkey
• cultural policy
• implicit cultural policy

Notes

1. The impact of the ruling bodies on their constituencies and the experience they gather through governance is limited by the duration of their rule, whereas the impact of religious organizations on their communities and the experience they accumulate through interaction with them are (more or less) continuous, which enables them to act in an uninterrupted tradition that stretches from the past to the future and achieves long‐lasting results in the particular domains mentioned here.

2. The Crusades were instigated in 1095 and were undertaken for two centuries. Their overt reason was presented as ‘safeguarding the accessibility of the holy places to Christian pilgrims’; however, it is now realized that, besides this, power politics and economic motives played a considerable, and according to some, pre‐eminent role as well – namely the control over the Orthodox Church and over the trade routes (silk and spice roads) to Central Asia which were Europe’s source of economic power during the Middle Ages (Rietbergen 1998). For a detailed study on this, see Soykut (2003), Kuran‐Burçoğlu (2005, 2010a, 2010b).

3. During their first raids in the Anatolian peninsula and in the Balkan lands, the Turks were initially perceived and presented by the Byzantines to the European public as ‘barbaric heretics’ and ‘infidels’ who would destroy European lands. The Ottomans, on the other hand, considering themselves as the representatives of Islam, felt obliged to spread their religion by expanding their lands on the three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa. For the promotion of solidarity among communities, nothing is more effective than the creation of a common enemy. In the interaction between the Islamic and Christian world, such an image was finally created during the Crusades, which were presented as ‘holy wars’ against the Muslims, just as Islam presented its raids against the Christian world as jihad. In the Crusades, the world of Islam was made into Europe’s most significant ‘other’, a world filled with every characteristic that made Europeans themselves feel ill at ease. Indeed, Islam has been forced to continue to play this role till today and, in turn, proceeded to cast Christianity in a comparable role (Rietbergen 1998). On the formation of ‘antagonistic feelings’ and on the ‘exclusion of the “other”’, see also Kocadoru 1990, Soykut 2004, Kumrular 2010, Kuran‐Burçoğlu 2010b. On the formation of ‘rival religious communities’, see Haag 2010.

4. Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant sect in Germany, in his three significant preaching texts, ‘Vom Kriege wider den Türken’ (1529), ‘Heerpredikt wider den Türken’ (1529) and ‘Vermahnung zum Gebet wider den Türken’ (1541) presented the Turks as ‘daemons’ and symbolized them as the ‘scourge’ or ‘wrath of God’, who were sent to punish the Christians, as they – misled by the pope – indulged in worldly benefits. This can be linked to the designation of the Turk as ‘the evil fate of Christianity’ by Ricoldi de Monte Croce, an Italian priest whose Confutation of the Quran Martin Luther had translated into German. These sermons were held in the Protestant church during a time when Germany was waging war against the Turks (Kuran‐Burçoğlu 2010a, 2010b). After the Battle of Lepanto, on the other hand, in which the Turkish armada was defeated by the joint forces of Austria, Spain and Sicily in 1571, the sermons of the Catholic church were full of negative clichés about the Turks. For further analysis of this topic, see Haag 2010.

5. On schools founded within the Ottoman Empire by Christian missionaries, see Halit 2003, Mutlu 2005.

6. Islamism is an ambivalent concept that emerged with the rise in the visibility of Islam after 1980. It has political implications referring to the politicization of Islam and a pursuit of social life according to the principles of Islam. Depending on the context the term may gain various additional meanings. For example, while it is seen as a modern movement in some liberal circles, it may evoke pejorative associations or feelings of threat in other circles as it is considered to be a challenge to secularism and contemporary life.

7. The name ‘Nur’ comes from the founder of this sect whose name was Said Nursi. Yavuz, in his article entitled ‘The Renaissance of Religious Consciousness in Turkey: Nur Study Circles’ (2006), states that Nursi, the Kurdish founder of the Nur movement, had stressed the significance of writing and reading. His writings, known as the Risale‐i Nur Külliyatı (The Epistles of Light), were believed by him and his followers to be bestowed by God and they viewed them as semi‐sacred. According to Yavuz, ‘whatever the followers of Nursi read they juxtapose texts to the Risale‐i Nur to discover new meanings. The intertextuality of juxtaposing texts to tease out new meanings also limits the meanings of new texts that they might read’. For Yavuz the writings of Nursi have the following three interrelated goals: ‘to raise the consciousness of Muslims; to refute the dominant intellectual discourses of materialism and positivism and to recover collective memory by revising the shared grammar of society, Islam’ (Yavuz 2006). On this topic, see also Yavuz 2000, 2003. The contemporary leader of the Nur Study Circles is Fettullah Gülen, known as Fettullah Hoca, who lives in the USA. He has founded hundreds of schools all over the world. The solidarity among the members of this sect is very high.

8. Their husbands also attend sohbets organized by male counterparts of women hocas in other circles.

9. Cif. part 1, paragraph 3 of this article.

10. Naqshbandi(yya) is the most significant representative of the spiritual orders of Sunni Islam. It was founded by Muhammad Bahaad‐din an‐Naqshabandi during the 14th century and is a derivative of Khwajaganiyya. The order is based on the principles put forth by Ghujdawani, the founder of Khwajaganiyya. In Naqshbandiyya there are obligatory and optional religious duties that should be fulfilled by the disciples of the order. The best way or worshipping and coming close to God is through reciting God’s name (eulogy of God), which is called dhikr. When and how often this should be practised is specified by the spiritual leader. This can be done individually, but it is also a rule that it should be done collectively after each afternoon prayer. The main practice that distinguishes Naqshbandiyya from other spiritual Sufi orders is the connection between the disciple and his spiritual leader/guide, through which the disciple tries to get enlightened by his leader, who may be either alive or dead. This practice, which lasts at least one hour, is considered to be even more effective in reaching God than the practice of dhikr (Ana Britannica 1989b).

11. The Qadiri order is a spiritual order of Sufi Islam, which was founded at the beginning of the twelfth century by the Persian Sufi, Abdul‐Qadir Gilani. It was spread through Anatolia during the seventeenth century by Ismail Rumi and soon found many adherers within the wider Islamic world from Morocco to Indonesia. This order requires a disciple to go through a severe trial in religious retirement through which he should struggle to overcome his ego. After that he should come back to the material world and try to show the right way to his fellows while sharing and enjoying life with them. He is taught never to forget that the blessings of this world and of heaven form a curtain between man and God and that he should desire God and not these blessings. As in the Naqshbandi order, the most encompassing and effective worship is deemed to be the recitation of God’s name, which is an open ritual performed collectively, with eyes closed, during which God’s name is called regularly after the daily early morning prayer (Ana Britannica 1989a).

12. For a broad elaboration of this topic, see Göle 2006.