LIBERAL & CONSERVATIVE LIBERAL & CONSERVATIVE ISLAMISLAM

Turkey --- Saudi Arabia Turkey --- Saudi Arabia

But first, some definitions---But first, some definitions---

• Fundamentalism:Fundamentalism:– A form of a religion that upholds belief in the strict,

literal interpretation of scripture.

• Orthodox:Orthodox:– Accepting and closely following the traditional

beliefs and customs of a religion

• Secular:Secular:– The state of being separate from religion

• …

Comparison…Comparison…

Conservative- Conservative- Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia

• Liberal:– Favorable to progress or re-

form, as in political or re-ligious affairs.

– Noting or pertaining to a pol-itical party advocating mea-sures of progressive political reform.

– open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.

• CIA factbook: Turkey• BBC Country Profile: Turkey

Liberal- Liberal- Turkey Turkey

• Conservative:– holding to traditional attitudes

and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.

– disposed to preserve exist-ing conditions, institutions, or  to restore traditional ones,

• CIA factbook: Saudi Arabia• BBC Country Profile: SA

The Women…The Women…

• Unshackling themselves:– http://

www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21602249-saudi-women-are-gaining-ground-slowly-unshackling-themselves

• Huffington Post Blog:– http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/saudi-arabia-women

• Wadjda:– http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/16/wadjda-oscars-saudi-

arabia• Women will vote:

– http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/world/middleeast/women-to-vote-in-saudi-arabia-king-says.html?pagewanted=all

• Women who dared to drive:– http://www.ted.com/talks/manal_al_sharif_a_saudi_woman_who_d

ared_to_drive.html

WahhabiWahhabi• Wahhabi:Wahhabi:

– a member of a strictly orthodox Sunni Muslim sect from Saudi Arabia; strives to purify Islamic beliefs and rejects any innovation occurring after the 3rd century of Islam; "Osama bin Laden was said to be a Wahhabi Muslim"

•The Wahhabi Ulama reject reinterpretation of Quran and Sunna in regard to issues clearly settled by the early jurists. Wahhabi jurists also reinterpret areas not decided by the early jurists. • By rejecting the validity of reinterpretation, Wahhabi doctrine is at odds

with the Muslim reformation movement of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. – The Muslim reformation movement sought to reinterpret parts of the Quran and

Sunna to conform with standards set by the West, most notably standards relating to:

• gender relations•family law•participatory democracy

• Ulama: a body of Muslim scholars recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology

How popular? (Stephen Schwartz on Islam and Wahhabism. How popular? (Stephen Schwartz on Islam and Wahhabism. ))

• ARABIAN PENINSULA:– Wahhabism is official in Saudi Arabia. – It is influential in Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. – It has a substantial following in Yemen, which also has many

Shia Muslims. – It is unpopular in Bahrain and irrelevant in Oman.

• Outside the Peninsula:– Wahhabism is generally unpopular. But where trouble is found,

Wahhabism may thrive. Hamas in Israel represents pure Wahhabism. Forms of neo-Wahhabi or Wahhabized ideology have been powerful in Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood) and in Pakistan — in both countries neo-Wahhabis lead attacks on other Muslims and other faiths. But in both countries mainstream Muslim scholars continue to struggle against Wahhabism. Wahhabi aggression was defeated in Algeria and Tajikistan.

Frontline:Frontline: Saudi Time Bomb?Saudi Time Bomb?• For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has

been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Qur’an. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. Critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

• Wahhabism's explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Culver City, California. Here are excerpts from FRONTLINE's interviews with Mai Yamani, an anthropologist who studies Saudi society; Vali Nasr, an authority on Islamic fundamentalism; Maher Hathout, spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Southern California; and Ahmed Ali, a Shi'a Muslim from Saudi Arabia. (Also see the Links and Readings section of this site for more analyses of Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia.)

TurkeyTurkey

Comparison…Comparison…

Liberal- Liberal- TurkeyTurkey

• Liberal:– Favorable to progress or re-

form, as in political or re-ligious affairs.

– Noting or pertaining to a pol-itical party advocating mea-sures of progressive political reform.

– open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.

• CIA factbook: Turkey• BBC Country Profile: Turkey

Conservative- Conservative- Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia

• Conservative:– holding to traditional

attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.

– disposed to preserve exist-ing conditions, institutions, or to restore traditional ones,

• CIA factbook: Saudi Arabia

• BBC Country Profile: SA

2013: Protests2013: ProtestsWhat Happened?What Happened?

• What started as a peaceful sit-in over plans to demolish a park (GEZI PARK) in central Istanbul has grown to become the biggest protest movement against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he was elected more than 10 years ago.

• The police crackdown on the park demonstrators set off the wider unrest. Now, the scope of the protests shows there is a bigger issue, about freedom of speech and accusations of heavy-handed government, at stake.

• Elected to power than a decade ago, Erdogan is the most powerful politician Turkey has seen in generations, but his approach to leadership doesn't sit well with all Turks.

• WON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN 2014

• What’s next?– CNN (with pictures) (with pictures)– Live Protests via Social Media

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoganErdogan• “Concerns at creeping

Islamisation spilled over into mass protests in various cities in the summer of 2013, to which the police responded with violence and the government with a confusion of bluster and apology. For the first time in his decade in power, Prime Minister Erdogan began to look politically vulnerable.”- BBC Country Profile

• Alcohol banned:• EndEnd to Turkey’s Headscarf• White Turks/ Black Turks

– The StoryThe Story

Turkey Today…Turkey Today…

Riots and protests have highlighted an underlying schism in Turkish society reaching back to the 1920s when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk forged a secular republic from the ruins of an Ottoman theocracy.

He banished Islam from public life, replaced Arabic with Latin script and promoted Western dress and women's rights.

””the the path”path”

• Islamic Code of Laws based on: No separation between Church and State!

• 4 Main sources of Sharia– The Qur’an– Sunna: teachings of Muhammad

– Ijma- Perceptions of religious Scholars– Qiyas- methods that arose when jurists agreed on new legal

principles

Directly from Muhammad

Not from

Muhammad’s

teaching

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SHARI’A PRACTICED???SHARI’A PRACTICED???

• Government under God.Government under God. In those Muslim countries where Islam is the official religion listed in the constitution, Sharia Law is declared to be a source, or the source, of the laws. Examples include:– Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, where the

governments derive their legitimacy from Islam. – In Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, among others, it is also forbidden to enact legislation

that is antithetical to Islam. – Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia employs one of the strictest interpretations of sharia. Women are

not allowed to drive, are under the guardianship of male relatives at all times, and must be completely covered in public. Elsewhere, governments are much more lenient, as in the United Arab Emirates, where alcohol is tolerated. Non-Muslims are not expected to obey sharia and in most countries, they are the jurisdiction of special committees and adjunct courts under the control of the government.

• Completely Secular.Completely Secular. Muslim countries where the government is declared to be secular in the constitution include:– Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tajikistan, Chad, Somalia, and Senegal. Islamist parties run

for office occasionally in these countries and sharia often influences local customs. Popular Islamist groups are often viewed as a threat by existing governments.

– TurkeyTurkey: Under the suspicion that the majority party, the Islamist Justice and Development Party, was trying to establish sharia, Turkey's chief prosecutor petitioned the constitutional court (Economist) in March 2008 to bar the party from politics altogether. One of the politicians indicted, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Newsweek, "Turkey has achieved what people said could never be achieved--a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity."