Two-week readings: Fitting Islam into Modernity, Insiders' Perspectives

The Turkey Case: 

Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey:  Bodies, Places, and Time by Alev was a wonderful piece of writing from an insider that taught us so many new things about modernity and Islam. Turkey illustrates an example where modernity from one part was seen compatible with the religion of Islam. What I enjoyed the most about this book is the Islamist and secularists perception of Islam and modernity. The book illustrates two sides that perceived the same thing such as the woman body in different ways. However it is worth to mention that modernity for Turks meant constructing a better ‘tomorrow’ it meant working towards a better future.  

For the secularists in Turkey, modernity was represented trough woman’s body. Since woman’s body represents traditionalism and conservatism, liberating the body was a sign of secularism and showing the public a new concept of liberalism. Hence, woman’s body was put under the public gaze and control to advocate for a certain ideology; the secularism ideology.

The Islamists, the counterpart of secularists still use woman’s body to show their Islamic ideology. The woman’s veiling was a method adopted by the Islamists to enforce the existence of Islam in the public sphere. While the secularists wanted religion to be a private matter to individuals; something that they practise inside their homes, the Islamist wanted the religion to be mix between the public and the private. While woman’s veiling always portray the idea of oppression and backwardness, the woman’s veiling represented the idea of resistance for existence. Women who were not allowed to wear veil resisted the law and kept fighting for it. Hence, unlike the generic thinking, the woman’s veiling or body in general in Turkey became an ideology to distinguish another idea of modernity , an idea perceived by the Islamists.

This reading shed light on something I have never thought of which is how one chooses religion to be part of his life; private or public.  As a Muslim, my perception of Islam is the relationship between Allah and yourself and how you maintain this relation through worshiping and fulfilling the religious duties. Yet, in the Turkey case, the Islamists aimed to introduce religion in the public sphere yet still make it in accordance with modernity. So here again; I find myself baffled with the definition of modernity and Islam.

Does modernity undermine the real principle of the religion?Al-Afghani thought in the Liberal Age

The bibliography of Jamal Al Afghani and was to read because they gave an exposure to insider’s perspective about Islam and modernity. Al-Afghani noticed decay in the Muslim civilization in the political and technological aspects. He also noticed a lack of unity between the Muslims. He claims that Muslim civilizations can be as modern as the western one. He interestingly sees Islam as a religion of reason and rationality which can be re-interpreted and renewed with the modern world and that is what he calls the real meaning of Al-Jihad. I enjoyed getting to know that Al-Afghani defends Islam and pave a way for illustrating that Qu’ran can be interpreted to be compatible with the now and hence modernity.  Yet this modern thought on Islam can undermine certain principles of Islam and question what is more important in the religion since renewal and the reinterpretation can similarly undermine the context in which rules principles emerged.

S.A.A