Secular State and Religious Society Two Forces in Play in Turkey [Hardcover]

On the basis of original, empirically rich, and theoretically sound social research, the chapters in this volume reveal and analyze the complex relations between the secular government of Turkey and the religious persons and society within the Turkish?state.Introduction: Secular State and Pious Muslims: Neither Rivals nor Allies for Life; B.Turam ? The Dynamic Nature of Educational Policies and Turkish Nation-Building: Where Does Religion Fit In?; Y.Bayar? Islam, Nation-State, and the Military: A Discussion of Secularism in Turkey; S.Gurbey ? Secularists as the Saviors of Islam: Rearticulation of Secularism and the Freedom of Conscience in Turkey (1950); U.Azak ? Does Secularism Face a Serious Threat in Turkey?; M.Heper ? Christian and Turkish: Secularist Fears of a Converted Nation; E.Ozyurek Market Oriented Post-Islamism in Turkey; T.Keskin ? Conflict, Democratic Reform and Big Business: Factors Shaping the Economic Elite's Position for Change; D.Yavuz ? Toward Conceptual Integration of Religious Actors in Democracy and Civil Society; A.Rubin ? Afterword; M.G.Tezcur

How do we account for the relationship between the secular state and pious society? Rather than viewing the two as mutually exclusive, the studies in this volume, built on the Turkish experience, skillfully illustrate how a secular state can engage and accommodate the exigencies of a religious society. The lesson may be highly instructive to the emerging democracies in the Middle East today.'

Asef Bayat, professor of Sociology and Middle East Studies, University of Illinois

BERNA TURAM?Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Northeastern University, USA.