Search Results (2)

The enduring narrative of Islamist victimhood, particularly for those who call for a just governance system on behalf of devout Muslim society, which they claim has been systematically repressed and forced underground by the Kemalists, has been prominently echoed in both Turkish and Western scholarship from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. Scholars argued that loosening the hegemonic Kemalist grip on state institutions would promote democracy and civil rights; however, when Islamists took control of the state apparatus in the 2010s, it became evident that this support contributed to the rise of an autocratic electoral regime with Islamist overtones, worsening democracy, which became more repressive than ever after the Kemalist threat was removed. Despite the prominence of these victimhood narratives, the origin and credibility of these claims have not been critically and systematically examined. Through a detailed analysis of biographies, official texts, and personal memoirs, this study assesses the validity of the foundational Islamist victimhood narratives. The findings challenge the narrative of widespread repression, demonstrating that many religious figures continued to operate openly under the Kemalist regime, using the closure of Sufi lodges as a tool to construct a narrative of collective victimhood for political leverage. This study is significant because it highlights how academia can fall into similar “victimhood traps” elsewhere in the world by amplifying victimhood narratives without fully understanding their dynamics or verifying their factual basis, ultimately worsening the situation. Full article

There is a knowledge gap in the contribution of socio-cultural work in Islamic organisations to the participants’ learning and development. This article focuses on the role of the socio-cultural work of Islamic organizations as a form of non-formal education. Education is the internal process of a person which leads to a better understanding of themself and their situation, a critical appreciation of their situation and a conscious and targeted use of the possibilities in their social situation. Therefore, what volunteers learn when they participate in socio-cultural work in mosque organizations will be investigated. The research is based on the case study of a Turkish faith-based organization Milli Görüş Amsterdam-West (MGAW) and its volunteers. The method of the research is ethnographic field research. The research focuses on a specific group of participants, namely, the volunteers who are active at the MGAW. One of the results of the research is that the participants who follow the social-cultural activities of MGAW for a certain period develop a cohesive worldview whereby volunteering becomes a virtue. Full article