Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Islam after Empire 5 1abolished, Sufi orders were prohibited from taking part in politics, and in a finalblow to Tu r k e y ’s connection with the rest of the Muslim world, the script inwhich the Turkish language was written was changed from Arabic letters to Romanletters. In turning away from public manifestations of its Islamic heritage,Tu r k e y ’s new elites were confident that they were joining what they saw as the“modern” world. In Atatürk’s words, “There is no second civilization; civilizationmeans European civilization, and it must be imported with both its rosesand its thorns” (quoted in Lewis 1968, 236).In speeches to the public on these matters, Atatürk emphasized the sense inwhich public displays of religiously significant symbols belonged to the pastrather than to the future:G e n t l e m e n . . . it was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on the heads of ournation as an emblem of ignorance, negligence, fanaticism, and hatred ofprogress and civilization, to accept in its place the hat, the headgear used by thewhole civilized world, and in this way to demonstrate that the Turkish nation, inits mentality as in other respects, in no way diverges from civilized social life.(Quoted in Lewis 1968, 268)In some places . . . I have seen women who put a piece of cloth or a towel orsomething like it over their heads to hide their faces, and who turn their backsor huddle themselves on the ground when a man passes by. What are the meaningand sense of this behavior? Gentlemen, can the mothers and daughters of acivilized nation adopt this strange manner, this barbarous posture? It is a spectaclethat makes the nation an object of ridicule. It must be remedied at once.(Quoted in Lewis 1968, 270)C u r i o u s l y, though, in banishing religious symbols and practices from publicv i e w, Tu r k e y ’s new secular elites were not removing them from politics. Fortheir actions, instead, placed religion at the very center of politics, as somethingto be tamed, managed, administered, controlled, and domesticated bythe national government. The 1926 Turkish Criminal Code, for example, announcedpenalties for thosewho, by misuse of religion, religious sentiments, or things that are religiouslyconsidered as holy, in any way incite the people to action prejudicial to the securityof the state, or form associations for this purpose. Political associations onthe basis of religion or religious sentiments may not be formed. (Quoted inLewis 1968, 412)Far from denying the importance of religion, the state acknowledged itsutility as a political ideology and recognized the efficiency of religious institu-