Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: In the midst of the newly emerging interest in Turkey's role in the Middle East, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks makes a timely contribution to the literature as it expands our knowledge about the recent influence that Islam had on the evolution of Turkish nationalism.The author constructs the general architecture of the book around a deepseated tension that she observes in Turkish society between collective belongings and liberal freedoms.She sees 'Muslim nationalism,' which is the name that she gives to the Islamic-rooted nationalists in Turkey, as loosening this tension by producing a shift from the old national paradigm, which was based on a narrative of bloodlines, to an alternative cultural outlook that includes 'a bewildering variety of choices of values, practices, and modes of affiliation' (187).It is in the spirit of such pluralism that the author gives a comprehensive account of 'competing and overlapping cultures of Turkishness and other forms of national subjectivity' (18).However, White is also critical of Muslim nationalism due to its tendency to impose its own hegemonic norms on such liberal plurality.These observations ultimately lead her towards a conceptual puzzle that opens up a new set of questions for the literature to consider.That is, how does 'the traditional nationalist emphasis on Turkishness remain intact' given that 'the meaning of being Turkish and being Muslim' (49) is radically altered?
DOI: 10.4000/ejts.4701
Author: Arda Güçler
Institution: Northwestern University
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3055065