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The key to understanding Islam and civil society is the state. However, this key issue has been decentered due to the prevailing focus in the literature, that is the compatibility/incompatibility between Islam and civil society. The findings of this thesis reveal emergent Islamic sensibilities and capacities that lead to transitions in state-Islam interaction. These findings call for a rethinking of the theories on civil society and Islam. / The study is based on an extended empirical research project undertaken in Turkey and Kazakhstan between 1997--1999. It focuses on the leading Islamic community-movement in Turkey, Gulen Community, which is not only national(ist) but also internationally organized in numerous countries. Gulen Community aims to reconcile Islamic ways of lives and faith with the secular institutional milieu. Gulen accomplishes its goal mainly (yet not only) through education, i.e., its numerous high schools and universities in Turkey and all around the world. / The main finding of my research contrasts with the juxtaposition of Islam and the state in the literature: Gulen creates the alternative pathways of engagements with the state. The engagements range from domestic symbolic politics and negotiations to international alliances. The thesis examines the engagements in three distinct spheres, i.e., the national education, international undertakings and the gender order. As ethnographic research in Istanbul and Almati revealed, the domestically uneasy interactions between Gulen and the state take the form of overt alliances at the international level. I argue that Gulen's strong identification with the 'nation as the state' facilitates its engagements with the is Republic. Moreover, Gulen's inheritance of the gender strategies of the founding fathers of the nation contributes further to the congruence between Gulen and the state. / My argument is that the engagements can largely be explained by the elective affinities between Islam and the nation-state, which are analyzed at three levels: identity, state and the international world order. The thesis reveals that further research has to be done on the following question: Is the Turkish state in the process of creating a nationalist, non-threatening and pro-state Islam?

This work is a comparative study of the process of secularization in Turkey and Indonesia, with reference to the thought and policies of Mustafa Kemal and Sukarno. In their rational approach to religion and the concern to modernize their societies the two leaders were guided by a secularist paradigm of the relationship of state and religion that each formulated. The abolition of the sultanate-caliphate system, the end of Islam as the state religion and the replacement of Shari/'a by Western codes demonstrated the impact of modernization and secularization on Turkey. The "polity-dominance secularization" of Mustafa Kemal along with, among other thing, the abolition of religious education, the banning of the mystical orders, and the mandatory use of Turkish in Islamic ritual, made Turkey a completely secular state. In Indonesia, secularization was meant not only to serve the cause of modernization but also has had a special significance for ensuring the religious minority's support of the political system. Sukarno's decision to establish a quasi-secular Pancasila state was guided by a concern for political unity. However, unlike Mustafa Kemal, Sukarno avoided the strategy of overt opposition to religion, in order not to entail unacceptable political risks. Though the Indonesian Islamic parties have frequently opposed Sukarno's secularism, the Islamic ideological orientation was significantly moderated by Sukarno's pragmatic syncretism, as embodied in his manifesto NASAKOM (nationalism, religion and communism). Unlike in Turkey, Islamic parties were recognized, and Islamic courts and the system of religious education were integrated into the structure of state in Indonesia.

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This study examines the shift of Turkish foreign policy from an alliance with the West to a close relationship with Muslim leaders in the 21st century. It attempts to understand the reasons why Turkish foreign policy has shifted from Atatèurk's principles of noninterference and neutrality to the ambition of making Turkey a global actor. In this respect it probes and assesses the determinants of Turkish foreign policy in the last decade under the rule of Prime Minister Erdogan, Foreign Minister Davutoglu and the governing political party, the Justice and Development Party. In arguing that Turkish foreign policy has in the last decade been primarily shaped by the shift in the religious political ideology of the governing elites as well as the rise of Kurdish nationalism, the study seeks to determine the direction of Turkish foreign policy in the near term. / by Ivana Griacova. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.