Islam and democracy in Turkey

Abstract:

This essay discusses the relationship between Islam, politics and democracy in the Turkish context. Its main theme is that although, in the author's view, liberal democracy is incompatible with a Muslim state that bases its legitimacy on Islamic law, a Muslim-majority country can have a democratic system of government provided law is secularized, prohibiting discrimination on the bases of gender and faith. Turkey, by secularizing its legal system in the early years of the Republic, opened the way for the advent of democracy. While its brand of radical secularism was contested by Islamist groups, the fact that the tug-of-war between the secularist and the Islamist strata in society was played out within a democratic system, based on compromise and moderate politics, differentiated the trajectory of the Islamist movement in Turkey from others in the Muslim world.