Hello, good day. For quite some time there is an ongoing public debate in Turkey.
There are certain observations, witnesses and assessments that the young generation,
especially the young members or children of religious families, have started to keep their distance from religion.
There are very interesting observations. For example, Professor İhsan Fazlıoğlu,
who has a religious vocational school (imam hatip) background, made interesting remarks at a conference.
Speaking to a conservative audience, Fazlıoğlu said that, during different periods, 17 students with headscarves told him that they identified themselves as atheists.
Fazlıoğlu deliberately emphasized this point.
He argued that those who claim to be representing Islam are responsible for this outcome due to their actions.
This was a complaint and objection against the Muslim clergy who, through the media
and social media made irrelevant and outdated remarks or fatwas on a variety of irrelevant subjects.
There aren't many sociological studies that can confirm whether this observation is true or not.
If there are such studies, I'm not aware of them.
Yet, as the issue has recently started to be discussed, I guess certain studies about this subject will come to surface in the near future.
And this issue is now a part of the agenda in Turkey. This reminds of my early journalism years.
In the mid-1980's, a case of "turning to religion" was publicly debated, and it was a real issue.
Actually, this issue was relevant not only for Turkey but for the remaining Islamic world as well.
When I say "Islamic World" I'm not only referring to the Islamic countries but also the Muslims living in the west.
There was a trend among the Muslims living in the west turning to religion, making sense of religion and re-organizing around religion.
This was briefly identified as "turning to religion". Through this mindset, we saw that the Islamic movement gained momentum.
New Islamic groups and communities emerged in Turkey and the world. There were a variety of reasons for this.
For instance in terms of the political conjuncture, there was the Afghan jihad rising against the Soviet occupation or the Islamic revolution in Iran.
This was one dimension of the story. Yet, in another dimension there was a deep philosophical debate.
There was an approach arguing that modernity was insufficient in meeting the moral necessities of individuals.
From a different perspective, turning to religion was a response to the internal moral search of individuals.
Another issue that has been discussed in tandem with the idea that modern mechanisms
and notions in the Islamic World have been eroded or even bankrupt is about a person's need for a sense of belonging to a community, a group.
That is, on the one hand the conjuncture and the spiritual need to belong to a community on the other.
Generally speaking, the turning back to religion has happened virtually everywhere in the Islamic world.
There is a very interesting saying in English about it: "born again Muslim".
This was a Notion used originally in Christianity: "born again Christian",
which was used to describe people who were born into a Christian family
but got estranged from religion entirely in a secular atmosphere and eventually rediscovered Christianity as a result of some kind of a spiritual need.
This happened in the Islamic World too.
Many people in the Islamic World rediscovered their being Muslim to re-embrace Islam, which they hitherto culturally experienced, along with its practice.
There were even some who politically rediscovered being Muslim.
Women loomed large in that process. Particularly, with the headscarf ban, we witnessed that women played an important role in that regard.
When we turn around a look at what is happening in Turkey now;
we are no longer talking about "turning back to religion" but "turning away from religion".
Particularly, the children in conservative families are apparently moving away from religion. Is this an exaggeration?
I don't think it is. I have been observing and voicing this myself for some time.
Consequently, the fact of "turning back to religion" has evolved into "turning away from religion" after a period of some thirty years.
After a generation, the fact of "turning back to religion" that emerged as a result of a quest brought about another quest and now it is the "turning away from religion" that has gotten underway.
So, why is this happening? We can understand this by looking at the basis of the "turning back to religion".
Based on that, which is conjectural, individual and collective, it is obvious that Islamic movements were routed worldwide.
The Islamic movements' claim to Islamize society were radicalized and terrorized by extremist organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda.
This is why Islamism has been associated with terrorism since then – this is the first point.
And the second one is like in Egypt, - there are other examples but basically with the example regarding Egypt –
we see a failure of Islamic groups of those in power or who have been preparing to come into power.
We see they haven't been able to hold on. In this sense, Turkey seems a bit different because AKP,
under the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ruled in Turkey for a long time.
But when we examine this, it indicates to a failure rather than an achievement.
In other words: the AKP experience has been seen as an achievement for a long time and has been displayed as a model for others in the Islamic world,
yet it shows itself now as a failure and bad example.
I believe that AKP under the head of Erdoğan and the Islamic movement in Turkey are collapsing.
Now the topics and discourses that the AKP has voiced for a while,
are far away from, and even the opposite of discourses of Islamic movements from when they were gaining power in Turkey.
In other words, if today there were Islamic movements of 1980s in Turkey, they would fight harshly against AKP and Erdoğan.
Let's take a look at the individual apart from the context.
When we look at the individual, we see that Islam that claims to respond the spiritual emptiness of people does not seem to be around much.
The topics that are voiced today in the name of Islam are far away from the search of young people of the 21st century and today's Turkey.
On the contrary, the Islamic understanding that is voiced today forces these people to live according to mind of past centuries.
There is an Islamic understanding today that is confined to practice and worship, or an understanding reduced to bans and obligations.
There is an understanding in congruence with these.
There aren't many things that are being presented as spiritual.
We can even say that there is nothing at all being discussed regarding spiritual topics.
Of course, there are still some small sects and communities where spirituality is still important and there is a dominance of thinking about life after death.
However, we see that the structures that are popular, and their representatives in media and elsewhere have their discourses related with bans and obligations.
There isn't a spiritual dimension at all.
I mean, people who seek spirituality, to a large extent, prefer to enter an Islamic journey on their own, away from institutionalized Islam.
They prefer to be on their own, or to be part of a limited circle.
From here, we can move onto the collective.
The feeling of being part of a group or a community used to be a very important feeling.
And this was one of the biggest advantages of Islamic communities from the start.
But amid the big war between the AKP and the Gülen movement, the "community" (cemaat) bubble has exploded.
The word "community" became a repulsive, disturbing term.
It became synonymous with a worrisome approach. It cast doubt on the idea of a group of religious people coming together, acting together.
This is something brought about by Fethullahism.
But we saw that in other Islamic communities, prioritizing the community's own expectations instead of those of the people was more predominant.
These structures were such that required their followers to sacrifice many things for the leaders and sheikhs.
In other words, these communities gave very little to people, and asked for a lot from the people - they asked for things people were not even able to manage.
And because of this, I think that these communities have lost their appeal to a great extent.
On top of that, there is something that Olivier Roy wrote in his book, which was translated, to Turkish as "The Bankruptcy of Political Islam".
He said: Islamic movements failed to present the people with a concrete world - they are unable to do this.
What kind of a life? What kind of a freedom? What kind of a sense of justice? They are far away from providing answers to these questions.
They are also far away from concepts like entertainment. We see this very clearly here in Turkey under AKP rule.
But I think the most important issue is women.
Women, who once helped Islamic movements to gain strength and become visible, were completely sidelined after these movements became powerful and widespread.
Today, we can see this in many aspects of the AKP rule - the number of women in the parliament,
the number of women who are mayors, the number of women who serve in the higher ranks of the bureaucracy, etc. We see this very clearly.
Women really are pushed to the side, and they are trying to be sidelined even further.
On the other hand, there is a desire to present women with a very narrow space within life. This actually is against its nature.
It wasn't very sustainable for women who ushered in the religious turn, which got somewhere, to be pushed down the religious ranks.
as in the example I gave earlier of the philosophy professor.
It is fair to say this: what do you offer other than stating and in certain situations dictating that these women wear headscarves?
Or, what spaces will you provide for the women who have studied and are studying philosophy, upon their graduation?
Should they wish to move beyond teaching philosophy, or teaching in general, will you give them the equal opportunities required to compete with the men?
Do you have such a promise? Or let alone promise, do you have such an intention, such a belief? You don't.
Therefore, after this one generation, the Islamic activity, the turn of which is completed, the rise of which is completed, is now starting to fall.
What will come of this? In the interview we did the other day with Mücahit Bilici, which was very effective,
Mücahit had some very striking things to say.
But now we know he is not alone. There are others who are saying similar things. We see the emergence of a more individual oriented religious search.
Within this search for a religion that is more individual oriented, we of course see Islam as the first choice.
However, it is said that in some cases, some people turn instead to deism, or even atheism.
There are many observations of, and witnesses to this situation.
Beyond this, it might well be the case that other interpretations and movements emerge,
presently not talked about very much but termed new religious movements across the world,
from the hybridisation of various different religions, including for example the Far East religions etc.
There are already some movements of this kind in Turkey.
They are not very strong. They could get stronger, new ones may appear. But most interesting of all are the new interpretations coming out of Islam.
I'm going to call it "contemporary" though I don't necessarily mean that in a positive sense.
I mean contemporary as in, emerging out of the circumstances of, and the necessities of the information age.
We might witness some new interpretations of Islam, strongly highlighting these.
We know that today, the terrorist organizations that claim to act in the name of Islam use this cyberspace, both for propaganda and communication.
We see that the other institutional Islamic organizations and cults in Turkey are at the bottom of the ladder in this regard.
They cannot fully meet this need.
We see that in this cyberspace, which is an attraction especially for youth, the traditional organizations in Turkey remain very weak.
While, for instance, new movements led by the youth may arise and spread in this cyberspace;
adding, say, a pinch of Nur movement, a pinch of Nakshibendi cult, and a pinch of Atatürk, examples of which occurred occasionally in the past.
However, one thing is very clear: The event of "turning back to religion" has seemingly come to an end in Turkey -
which is, by the way, happening in many countries in Islamic world as well.
A generation has passed, and it ran out of breath, failed to meet the expectations and commitments.
It has become similar to what it previously opposed, and at times even worse.
Hence, a new era has begun.
It might take another generation to pass before we see a revisit of "turning back to religion" in a form we have been talking about.
However, I believe that, I think that this train is out of order.
There's no such a train anymore.
Before I finish, here's something I remember very well:
Years ago, I did an interview with the great Iranian philosopher Daryush Shayegan, who recently passed away.
Mohammad Khatami was the President of Iran back then.
Shayegan, having returned back to his country after a long time, influenced by the reformist commitments of Khatami, was very hopeful.
However, his hopes didn't fully come true. Back in that period, which corresponds with the rise of the Welfare Party in Turkey, he said to me:
"We are coming out of a tunnel, but you, as Turkey, are going into that tunnel right now."
I thought it was a bit exaggerated. Now, I see that Iran couldn't get out of that tunnel entirely, and that Turkey has somehow gotten into a tunnel.
However, I can also see that Turkey is currently coming out of it. Islamism has met almost none of the commitments it had made to Turkey.
In that sense, the ones who managed and maintained the Islamic movement have done the greatest harm to the religious people who supported them, and to Islam itself.
I don't think it can ever regain its historical power, at least for another generation.
This is all I have to say. Have a good day.
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