The failure of Islamization policies in Turkey: a “Victory” of Secularization Theory?

ABSTRACT

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s aim to raise a pious generation has failed to achieve its objectives. On the contrary, relevant academic studies reveal that Turkish society is secularizing. Therefore, the present study seeks to explain the reasons why Erdoğan’s policy of Islamizing Turkish society failed despite him having the whole state apparatus at his disposal. Recent studies argue that this transformation is a reaction to the repressive policies of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP) and that the dissatisfaction with Erdoğan and AKP has turned into a parallel dissatisfaction with religion. However, this article argues that the secularization debates centering on hot politics are only a small part of the picture and that the modernization process, as the secularization theory claims, is behind the young generations’ disaffection with religion in Turkey. The article argues that Turkey has been experiencing a demographic transition and religious change similar to what occurred in regions where scientific developments, industrialization and urbanization, i.e., modernization, had occurred.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamization
• recep tayyip erdoğan
• secularization
• secularization theory
• turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2024.2352893

Notes

1. In Erdoğan's words: ”They say we are lowering interest rates. Don't expect anything else from me. As a Muslim, I will continue to do what Nas (i.e. Quran and hadiths) required. That's the verdict.” (Independent Turkish December 19, 2021).

2. Dellaloğlu (2017, 105) argues that this politicization of religion by the AKP is itself a form of secularization. He emphasizes that the struggle for worldly power is a secular demand and therefore sees the AKP’s struggle for power as the secularization of the AKP itself.

3. He visited Turkey twice, in 1988 and 2008.

4. Although the references in this study seek to focuses on the contemporary situation as much as possible, the study conducted by Kirman (2005), which describes a graduation ceremony at a Faculty of Theology in a conservative city, reveals that even ‘students with a high level of religious education’ differentiate in terms of relationships beyond friendship and develop new forms of religiosity.

5. For detailed discussion on the rise of deism see Euro News, 19 March 2019 and Arpacık 2019.

6. An increase in the number of students and academics does not necessarily mean that the quality of education also increases. Concerning discussions on secularization, the primary focus is on the increasing mobility of young individuals, their exposure to diverse cultures, and their relocation to urban areas.

7. A measure of height-for-age, linear growth retardation and cumulative growth deficits (HUIPS 2019).

Additional information

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Volkan Ertit

Volkan Ertit holds a PhD in the sociology of religion from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His areas of interest include secularization theories, secularity and the Muslim world, history of modernization, the social transition of Alevi communities, and qualitative research methods. His research has been published in journals such as Open Theology and Religions. Currently, Ertit is teaching in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Adana Alparslan Turkes Science and Technology University as an associate professor.