THE SEARCH FOR A MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN MODERNITY AND MUSLIM TRADITION IN TURKEY

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THE SEARCH FOR A MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN MODERNITY AND
MUSLIM TRADITION IN TURKEY

• Ahmet T. Kuru
• University of Washington

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INTRODUCTION

• Modernization, Westernization
• Modernity 1-Institutional Definition
• Karl Marx capitalism Emile Durkheim division
  of labor
• Max Weber rationalization and bureaucracy
• Modernity 2-Philosophical Definition
• Charles Taylor Science, Reason, Progress,
  Individualism
• Modernity and religion 1-Secularization theory
• Islam is not compatible with
• Modernity and religion 2-Multiple modernities
• Islam is compatible with

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TURKEY

• Muslim society (95 ), Ottoman legacy
• Secular state (80 years), parliamentarian regime
  (130 years), democracy (55 years)
• The EU candidate
• Justice and Development Party
• The Gulen Movement

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A MIDDLE WAY?

• Four Features a-science and Islamic knowledge,
  b-reason and revelation, c-progress and
  tradition, d-modern individuals free will and
  the Muslim belief in destiny
• Aristotle, Said Nursi, Fethullah Gulen
• Two faces of the same truth

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SCIENCE AND ISLAMIC KNOWLEDGE

• Secular v. religious schools
• Earthquake natural event or Gods creation
• Natural laws Gods laws
• Golden generation, modern schools
• The light of the intellect is scientific
  knowledge while the heart of the spirit derives
  its light from religious knowledge. Scientific
  knowledge without religion usually causes atheism
  or agnosticism while religious knowledge without
  intellectual enlightenment gives rise to bigotry.
  When combined, they urge a student to research
  further and further research, deepening in both
  belief and knowledge (Gülen 1997i, 320).

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REASON AND REVELATION

• Two contradictory reference points
• Reason to understand Gods message
• Neglect of the intellect would result in a
  community of poor, docile mystics. Negligence of
  the heart or spirit, on the other hand, would
  result in crude rationalism devoid of any
  spiritual dimension It is only when the
  intellect, spirit and body are harmonized, and
  man is motivated toward activity in the
  illuminated way of the Divine message, that he
  can become a complete being and attain true
  humanity (Gülen 1995d, 105-106).

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THE IDEA OF PROGRESS AND CONSERVATION OF THE
TRADITION

• Linear vs. circular time conception
• The golden age of the prophet
• Perpetual and changing aspects of human life
• Dynamic interpretation of the Quran

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MODERN INDIVIDUALS FREE WILL AND MUSLIM BELIEF
IN DESTINY

• Contradictory worldviews
• Man wills and God creates
• Belief in destiny empowers free will
• Destiny for the past, free will for the future
• Islam sees humanity as the motor of history,
  contrary to fatalistic approaches ofdialectical
  materialism and historicism. Just as every
  individuals will and behavior determine the
  outcome of his or her life in this world and in
  the hereafter, a societys progress or decline is
  determined by the will, worldview, and lifestyle
  of its inhabitants. The Quran (1311) says God
  will not change the state of a people unless they
  change themselves. In other words, each society
  holds the reins of its fate in its own hands
  (2001a, 135).

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CONCLUSION

• Compatible and critical
• Ahmet T. Kuru, Fethullah Gülens Search for a
  Middle Way between Modernity and Muslim
  Tradition, in Turkish Islam and the Modern
  State The Gülen Movement, ed. by M. Hakan Yavuz
  and John L. Esposito (Syracuse Syracuse
  University Press, 2003), pp. 115-130.
• Search for a middle way will go on