The history of the Islamist debate in Turkey dates back to the late 19th Century during which period the Ottoman Empire was in clear decline while western Europe was advancing further into the realms of technological and industrial superiority. As observed in the Russian and Chinese cases of the same period, Turkish political and religious figures embarked on an almost desperate soul-searching assignment with the ambition of discovering the illusive mechanism by which the waning state and society of the empire could be recovered. This was not a premiering debate, however, but was one that had harassed the minds of Turkish statesmen and intellectuals since the 17th Century when Ottoman advances into Europe had all but ceased.

By the late 1800’s the debate had become one of bipolarisation: ‘Westernise’ vs. ‘Islamise.’
The Westernisers advocated the adoption of western technology and approaches to industry as well as the institutional structure of western states. The Islamists on the other hand shared the view that western technology and industrialisation was inevitably essential for the regeneration of the Ottoman state, but argued clearly against the restructuring of the institutional nature of the Turkish empire along western lines.

Islamic society, in the eyes of the Islamists, had already established its value and had catalysed some of the greatest empires and political ideologies witnessed over the preceding millennium and a half – why abandon it? The Islamists failed to win the debate despite their own convictions and the Republican theme which became engrained in the official ideology defining ‘civilized’ society in the Turkish statesman’s understanding (Toprak, 1999), won the moment. Read More »