If you think that Islamophobia only exists in the western world,think again.This very interesting article was published in the Turkish Daily News last week.Think of it as a self criticism of the secular Turks( me included)
I would love to hear the opinions of those foreign nationals who travel to Turkey or live in Turkey and observe this sociological aspect of the Turkish society.
Islamophobia in Turkey: A kind of self-hatred ?
In my opinion, the term “Islamophobia” is insufficient for and incapable of explaining the situation in Turkey. “Islamophobia”, a term created to describe the Western reaction to Islam, does not operate with the same clarity in the Turkish context.
For Westerners, Islam is a totally external entity, something completely foreign, with Muslims in Europe and the U.S. representatives of this foreign culture. However, in the Turkish context we are talking about a predominantly Muslim society in which some people have a strong dislike or even hate toward devout Muslims and public manifestations of Islam.
Sometimes these feelings are so strong that there are those who would rather experience another coup than see religious people in the government. We can call a Westerner Islamophobic for his or her reaction to something totally external to his or her culture, but the term does not work when describing a reaction to something one has been raised in or at least surrounded by his or her whole life.
I suggest a new word be forged for this phenomenon in the Turkish context, although I am not able to create it at the moment. However, to help produce this new word I would like to share my ideas with you by thinking aloud. With all due respect to secular people in Turkey, and apologizing in advance for any inconvenience this article may create, I will start my brainstorming.
I have a tendency to think that whenever we show a strong emotional reaction toward something, a reaction out of proportion to the situation, we should look inside ourselves to find the root cause of this reaction.
Why and how some people in Turkish society built up these strong negative feelings toward devout Muslims? How did these otherwise intelligent and sophisticated people become myopic when it comes to Islam and Muslims in Turkey? How did democratic people, highly tolerant in respect of many different things in their lives, become so intolerant toward the lifestyles of Muslims? Why do we see analyses of political Islam every day, speculations on hidden agendas, and discussions of many related things that are far from the realities of this country?
A new description is needed
As I said earlier, for Westerners Islam and Muslims are totally external subjects and therefore “phobia” can be an accurate term to explain and understand their reactions. However, how can we explain individuals' fear, dislike, abhorrence, or hate toward something in which they have been raised? As I also said above, this is a kind of thinking aloud with no claim of being scientific at all, but I have a hypothesis about these strong emotions. In my view, Islamaphobia in Turkey represents a kind of self-hatred or at least self-dissatisfaction.
We have quite a Western lifestyle in Turkey . We drink alcohol, our relations with the opposite sex are relaxed, and the way we dress and behave are quite Western. In Turkey no one interferes with our lifestyles. However, when we see a woman swimming in the sea with a head to toe swimsuit on, or crowded group of women with headscarves, we Turks become very angry! Why we are so irritated with this? Do they remind us that we are not Western enough, that we have strong roots in the East? Or maybe something closer, more private? Do they tap into our emotional baggage we still carry from the struggle with our parents who were devout whereas we became atheists or non-practicing Muslims? Are we “latent Muslims” who could not resolve our intellectual and emotional struggle with Islam? Do these people represent our repressed side?
I think we must ask ourselves these and other similar questions. When I read some comments by distinguished secular intellectuals in Turkey, I cannot stop thinking that for them the only solution is that all devout Muslims become secular; that Muslim women relinquish their headscarves, or there will be no peace in Turkey! Is our peace based on the idea that some people in our society must change their beliefs and religious practices so they better resemble us? Can we accept something like this?
We do not have to like devout Muslims but they also have the right to lead their lives in accordance with their beliefs. People have the right to believe what we think is total nonsense, and to do things we find nonsensical as well. In my opinion, freedom of religion is one of the key freedoms necessary for Turkey to be completely democratic because in this way we will accept that people who, in our opinion believe in nonsense and lead their lives accordingly, are also adults and no one has the right to force them to live a certain way. I can hear the objections – “we are not against the devout Muslims or any religion but we are against political Islam!” But the problem is that in Turkey, people's attempts to lead their lives in a manner suitable to their beliefs are being seen and labeled as the manifestation of political Islam!
The question remains, do we really, objectively see any danger that a religious state will be established in Turkey, or is it our very strong dislike of the Muslim lifestyle that leads us to smell danger in the wind that will justify our hatred toward…ourselves perhaps ?
I think people are jittery, because Iran used to be very much like Turkey, but a corrupt government and a bad economic situation lead to the imposition of an Islamic theocracy against most people's wills (I partly blame the Tudeh (Communist) Party of Iran for this, for their 'strategic alliance' with the mullahs. Most people wanted to do away with the Shah, but few, I think, wanted the Ayatollah as Supreme Leader.
I support the 'right' of people to practice religion, but I do not support the 'right' of a religion to impose its political will on people, as has happened in other countries - Saudi Arabia, Israel, Ireland, Poland to name but a few.
I have no doubt that, unchecked, some elements of the AK Partisi would impose a need for women to wear the headscarf in public. If you talk with some political islamists, such as Hizb-Ul-Tahir, they view any element of opposition to Islamicization as 'Islamophobia' from non-Muslims, to apostasy from Muslims! The very concept of opposition to them is alien. God's word is the law and that is that.
What is needed is sufficient counterbalance to that, and sadly it seems the only manifestation of that in Turkey is the military; I had high hopes that the opposition in Turkey would make gains at the ballot box, but this has not happened. The opposition in Turkey is hopelessly divided.
A bit off topic, but why do we call it "Islamophobia"? A phobia is an irrational fear of islam. If someone calls me "Islamophobic", it means the phobia is my problem, I need help.
The fear of many secular Turks is a rational, well-founded fear, that a Islamist government would take away many of the freedoms currently enjoyed in Turkey, especially from women. That's not a phobia. To treat this fear, you don't need an army of psychologists offering behaviourla therapy. You need to neutralise the threat that people ratonally fear. A democratic tradition and a secular constitution are good starting points, and Turkey has both of these.
Where it becomes difficult is when democracy conflicts with civil rights. Riceuten highlights Poland. Roman catholicism is still widely practiced in Poland. I could believe that > 50% of the population do want to outlaw abortion on religious grounds - in other words, the reason Polish law bans abortion is not some defect in democracy but, rather, democracy at work - it really is what most people want. The problem is that this conflicts with what some people see as the right of any woman to kill her unborn baby.
In the UK, we have the reverse problem. Much of the UK public would favour a harsh clampdown on any remotely radical elements of Islam. Our recent terror attacks have shown the potential for UK muslims to become radicalised and then threaten the lives of innocent people. But for some reason the UK govt seems more concerned to uphold freedom of speech and other human rights of nasty groups such as Hizb-Ul-Tahir, than to execute the wishes of the electorate most of whom would happily see the radicals strung up tomorrow.
While I have nothing profound to add to this important discussion, I do have a few questions for those having more familiarity with Turkey than I do. To what extent are “class” and the differences between urban and rural cultures operative in this issue?
I ask after spending about a month in Turkey this summer over two trips. I did not go east of Ankara, and outside a week in Izmir and a few days in Istanbul, I stayed in the small towns close to archaeological sites. Whenever I made a new good Turkish friend—male and female, I was given a headscarf as a gift –indeed had it tied on my head. And my friends would step back, look at me, and say, “Now, (you are) Turkish.” I understand there were many variables at work in these little ceremonies—including language. But I was touched and impressed by this symbol of friendship that was clearly NOT restricted to religious identity.
Urban spaces are simply that. I made the mistake of wearing my rural Turkish clothes when I traveled to Izmir and checked into the Ege Palais. Initially I was treated as any poor person in the US, trying to check into an upscale Manhattan hotel.
I mean no disrespect here--the issue of secularism is certainly too important to be confined in or defined by a couple of anecdotes. And it seems fairly obvious to me that there are real problems with the label “secular elite,” which has the not so faint ring of the US slur “liberal elite.” But it seems to me that a very broad range of economic and cultural factors are in play here. I hope they do not become as exploited as they have been in US politics (red/blue state ad nauseum).
At any rate, more of what is at stake in the issue is explored in another TDN opinion piece currently displayed-- “Ankara’s Sad Situation.”
Could someone tell me what Turkish words are used for "secular," “secularism”?
""Could someone tell me what Turkish words are used for "secular," “secularism”?""
Secular is "Laik"
Secularism is "Laiklik"
Headscarf issue is a very complicated issue which even the Turks have not been able to solve yet.
In Turkey especially in the country side rural/small town Turkish women mostly use headscarfs but they are more of the traditional/folkloric variety than being the religious variety,parts of your hair might be visible plus your neck .Secular Tursk have no issues with that kind of headscarfs although it is seen mostly as a rural/small town unsophisticated dress style.
This is also the typical Babushka style which was or maybe still is prevalant in rural Russia,Ukraine,eastern Europe and Greece .I suppose when your friends say that "now you look typical Turkish "they mean "a typical Turkish country girl "not a typical islamic Turkish girl.
The islamists on the other hand wear their headscarfs very tight which cover both their necks and the throats and islamic headscarfs are usually in 2 layers.This is seen as a type of "political islamic clothing" by the secular Turks and it is much resented thus creating great stress.
Currently in Turkey you can not be a female civil servant or an employee in a public workplace(schools,hospitals,post office,courts,etc..) wearing that type of headscarf.You can not enter into military buildings or even school grounds wearing islamic headscarfs.This covers female students as well as female teachers or female school staff.If you are a female lawyer you will have to undo your islamic headscarf before you enter the court room.You can not wear islamic headscarfs in the parliament building either so technically you can not be a member of the parliament if you are wearing islamic headscarf.
When in Turkey by looking at the women and the way they are wearing their headscarfs(if they are wearing any ) you can tell if it is of a religious/political variety or just traditional variety.This helps you to separate the islamists women from the regular traditional country women.
Also in Turkey as you climb up the social ladder you will see less headscarfs. The more middle class,urban,educated the women get the less likely that they will be wearing any headscarfs unless they are islamists, so it is also kind of a class issue.
that article was really interesting, thanks for sharing.
yet i was surprised that ataturk wasn't mentioned
Very interesting and thoughtful, GT - but then, I wouldn't expect any less from you.
As a muslim convert living in Britain [where I do NOT wear hijab], may I make another observation.
There are three main categories of muslim women living in Britain; those who wear hijab as a natural addition to their [modest] dress, those who don't wear hijab but dress modestly, and those who completely cover up in long coats, socks, gloves [sometimes] and hijab.
I have observed these every day and read about cases in the news of women [girls, really] at school demanding to wear this latter dress. In my opinion [and it's only that] such women are actually making a point; they are DEMANDING to be seen as muslims, as 'something special' and there's a lot of pride involved in this and a lot of passive agression also.
While I can understand that many converts want to be 'more muslim than the muslims' I see in this a total misunderstanding of the Koran. Women's clothes are for their protection. Though we may rail against the attitude that a woman in a mini-skirt is 'asking for it', nevertheless such women ARE more vulnerable.
I. for one, get very annoyed if a man dressed in tight t-shirt and crotch-popping jeans tells me I should be wearing a hijab. [It happened, once - I was so spitting angry I didn't trust myself to speak!]
However - in Islamic countries I always wear hijab, and this applies also to Turkey. Because I'm making a statement; I'm not a sex-seeking tourist. [Don't argue; many people think 'westerners' are all looking for sex and I just want to disabuse them of that as far as I'm concerned; I'm not prepared to 'convert' them all.]
I've been coming to Turkey off and on since 1969 and have seen many shifts in so-called 'Islamic' dress over that time. First time, there were almost no women at all on the streets, serving in shops etc.
When I returned in 1999 I was struck by the difference - women everywhere, who seemed to be either 'western'-dressed or wearing long, hot gaberdine coats topped by scarfs.
These days I'm seeing more hybrid types; modest 'western' dress plus hijab. I think it's an improvement!
"As a muslim convert living in Britain [where I do NOT wear hijab] "
Just curious,why are you not making your religious statement in Britain?
I take issue with the idea that the veil, hijab, or any sort of covering of women (and this is not solely confined to Islam) 'liberates' women. Surely the strategy should be to encourage men to not engage in behaviour to harass women, rather than mitigate it? Talking about the veil/hijab/niqab/jilbab as a 'liberator' is the same as saying that a prison 'liberates' people from having to work to provide for themselves.
I agree with GayTurk. If you travel in the Balkans, you see women in headscarfs - even younger women - as part of the landscape in the more rural or remote communities. I think this is part of the cultural backdrop and not seen as a religious statement.
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