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?
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.37911 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Turam, Berna. |
| Contributors | Hall, John A. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Sociology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001845009, proquestno: NQ75682, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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