Populist and Pro-Violence State Religion

This book explores statereligion relations under a populist authoritarian ruling party in Turkey. In doing so, it investigates how the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) instrumentalizes state-controlled religion to further, defend, legitimatize and propagate its authoritarian populist political agenda in a constitutionally secular nation-state. To exemplify this, the authors examine the Friday sermons delivered weekly in every mosque in Turkey by the Turkish State's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). By analyzing all sermons delivered between 2010-2021, the book shows how the Diyanet has enthusiastically adopted AKP's increasingly Islamist, authoritarian, civilisationist, militarist and pro-violence populism since 2010, and how it has tried to socially engineer beliefs in line with this ideology.

Explores the statereligion relations under a populist regime Establishes clear linkages between the sermons and the populist government's narrative Examines the services provided by the Directorate of Religious Affairs of Turkey

Autorentext

Ihsan Yilmaz is research chair and professor of political science and international relations at Deakin University's ADI (Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation). Previously, he worked at the Universities of Oxford and London. He researches on nation-building, citizenship, minorities, securitisation, intergroup emotions, populism, transnationalism, digital authoritarianism, and legal pluralism. Presently, he leads two Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery projects: "Religious Populism, Emotions, and Political Mobilisation: Civilisationism in Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan" and "Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies, and Social Cohesion: The Case of Turkish & Indian Diasporas in Australia." Additionally, he co-leads a 3-year Gerda Henkel Foundation project: "Smart Digital Technologies and the Future of Democracy in the Muslim World: The Pakistani, Iranian, Egyptian and Turkish Cases." Fizza Batool is an Assistant Professor at SZABIST University, where she teaches courses on Democratisation and South Asian Politics. She is concurrently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Central European University Democracy Institute. Prior to her academic career, Fizza held senior research positions at prominent Pakistani policy research institutions. In 2020, she was a distinguished South Asian Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C.

Klappentext

This book explores state religion relations under a populist authoritarian ruling party in Turkey. In doing so, it investigates how the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) instrumentalizes state-controlled religion to further, defend, legitimatize and propagate its authoritarian populist political agenda in a constitutionally secular nation-state. To exemplify this, the authors examine the Friday sermons delivered weekly in every mosque in Turkey by the Turkish State s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). By analyzing all sermons delivered between 2010-2021, the book shows how the Diyanet has enthusiastically adopted AKP s increasingly Islamist, authoritarian, civilisationist, militarist and pro-violence populism since 2010, and how it has tried to socially engineer beliefs in line with this ideology.

Inhalt
Chapter 1 The Mosque and the State in Turkey.- Chapter 2 The Kindred Evolution of the Turkish State and Diyanet.- Chapter 3 Redefining Diyanet in the AKP Era.- Chapter 4 Swinging between Turkish Nationalism and Global Pan-Islamism.- Chapter 5 Militarism, Necrophily, Glorification of Martyrdom and Jihadism.- Chapter 6 Securitisation, Demonization and De-humanisation of AKP's Opponents.- Chapter 7 Conspiracy Theories and Politics of Victimhood.- Chapter 8 Populist Civilizationism, Otherization of Christians, and Antagonism Towards Interfaith Dialogue.- Chapter 9 The Future of the Mosque-State Relations in Turkey.