Atheism, Theism, and Reactivation in Turkey Irreligiosity in a Secular State Under an Islamist Conservative Regime
Atheism, Theism, and Reactivation in Turkey Irreligiosity in a Secular State Under an Islamist Conservative Regime

Author(s): Samim Akgönül
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Politics and religion
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Atheism; Theism; Reactivation; Turkey; Irreligiosity; Secular State; Islamist Conservative Regime;
Summary/Abstract: Meryem, a 19-year-old resident of a small and highly conservative town in Northern Turkey, comes from a family that strongly identifies with Turkish nationalism and Sunni Islam. For them, the combination of the two is the only legitimate way to define what it means to be Turkish. In 2019, she was declaring to Euronews that when she sees how religion is used by politics in Turkey, she gets confused as many of her friends, and she was on her way to becoming an atheist “but don’t tell it to (her) mom”. 1 After two decades of an increasing Islamist atmosphere, the main fear of the conservatives in Turkey is to witness more believers but a less practicing generation. Indeed, to the fear of Atheism has been added since 2010 the fear of Deism, i.e., people who believe in Allah, but who think that all the ceremony of Sunni Islam is a political show at worst, a folklore at best. In this chapter, I will try to describe and analyse different attitudes in the Turkish society, especially among youngsters, that can be seen as a reaction to the formal normative Sunni Islam as defended by the political elite

• Details
• Contents