Limits of post‐secularism in Turkey: Comparing the attitudes of the Justice and Development Party towards the headscarf and Alevi issues

• Published in: Religion compass Vol. 14; no. 6
• Main Author: Konuralp, Emrah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-06-2020
• Subjects: Secularism; Turkey
• ISSN: 1749-8171; 1749-8171
• DOI: 10.1111/rec3.12352

The debate on post‐secularism indicates both the inclusion of religious voices into the public sphere and the rising importance of religion in international politics as well as in domestic politics of Western nation‐states. The term “post‐secular” firstly emerged to describe the Western societies where pluralism has been a vital concern for liberal democracy. Nonetheless, the very same concern is prevalent across non‐Western societies. In this respect, the Turkish case having a secular state in a predominantly Muslim society provides a vibrant example for the analysis of post‐secularism as Islamic‐oriented Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) has been ruling Turkey since November 2002. In this article, the success or failure of the AKP in representing a post‐secular moment in Turkish politics is analysed with reference to and in comparison of two issues. The first one is the Sunni‐Islamic demands on the visibility in the public sphere symbolised with the headscarf issue. The second issue is the demands of Alevis living in Turkey as they force the boundaries of the “secular” public sphere which has been dominated by the Sunni‐Turkish socio‐cultural identity.