Bargaining between Islam and Kemalism: an investigation of official Islam through Friday sermons

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to explore the Turkish state‟s attempt to regulate Islam through an analysis of the regulation of Friday sermons in Turkey. Drawing on the records of disciplinary measures implemented by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) and in-depth interviews conducted with imams in Turkey, the thesis argues that the Republic developed strategies to realize a state centralization of religion. This is corroborated by the high compliance rate of imams with the content of the sermons prepared by the PRA in the absence of serious inspection mechanisms until relatively recently. The compliance of imams to the sermons delivered by the state implies that a distinct (nation-)statist disposition has been approved by the imams themselves as well, and hence that the republic has managed to create the “republican” imams.