Sabri Ciftci - Islam, Justice, and Democracy (Religious Engagement in Democratic Politics)

Islam, Justice, and Democracy

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Religious Engagement in Democratic Politics, edited by Paul A. Djupe

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Islam, Justice, and Democracy

S ABRI C IFTCI

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122

tupress.temple.edu

Copyright 2022 by Temple UniversityOf The Commonwealth System of Higher Education

All rights reserved

Published 2022

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: ifti, Sabri, author.

Title: Islam, justice, and democracy / Sabri Ciftci.

Other titles: Religious engagement in democratic politics.

Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2022. | Series: Religious engagement in democratic politics | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Explores Islam and democracy through historical and empirical treatments of Muslim political attitudes and conceptions of justice, focusing on Muslim agency and placing values at the center of its inquiry Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021015324 (print) | LCCN 2021015325 (ebook) | ISBN 9781439921494 (cloth) | ISBN 9781439921500 (paperback) | ISBN 9781439921517 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Islam and justice. | Islam and politics. | JusticeReligious aspectsIslam.

Classification: LCC BP173.43 .C54 2022 (print) | LCC BP173.43 (ebook) | DDC 297.2/72dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015324

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015325

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992

Printed in the United States of America

987654321

For Semra

and

Bahadr, Yusuf, brahim, and Yiithan

Contents

Figures

Tables

I started working on this book in 2013, the year marking the return of authoritarian systems and conflict to the Middle East after two years of protests and regime transitions. The Arab Spring took many by surprise. More recently, protests erupted in Sudan and Algeria with similar demands of justice and democracy. Much has been said about these waves of mass mobilization and their causes and consequences. However, scholars and pundits did not offer much about the culture of these protests, especially about the values and attitudes of ordinary men and women risking their lives chanting for freedom and justice in the Arab squares. As a student of Islam and democracy, I am truly fascinated by the discourses of rebellion and liberation. The Arab Spring presented an opportunity to examine these discourses in action. In my initial research, I learned that social justice was the most significant element in protesters chants. Therefore, I wanted to understand how Islamic conceptions of justice shape perceptions of ordinary men and women taking to the streets. This was no easy task as I quickly realized that there are deep historical and philosophical roots of conceptions of justice shaping individual attitudes and orientations. Islamic justice discourses may support rival claims about legitimate political orders, sometimes democratic and sometimes authoritarian. I wanted to understand how Islam shapes peoples conceptions of justice and how these conceptions affect their views of democracy and authoritarianism. I wrote this book to provide new insights about justice and democracy from the perspective of devout Muslim men and women.

This book is indebted to many people who have motivated and supported me during its development and writing stages. I presented early drafts of this project in the 2014 and 2017 Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association (APSA). On both occasions, I got constructive feedback from my colleagues, who encouraged me to study this subject. One useful suggestion concerned the need to get into the field to understand how religious people interpret their faith principles to inform their values and perceptions about justice and democracy. A seed grant from the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, Global Religion Research Initiative (GRRI), helped me get on the field and conduct interviews in stanbul, Turkey. I am grateful for this funding and, especially, the support provided by Christian Smith, professor of sociology and director of GRRI at Notre Dame (Award #BG5225). I would also like to thank the University Research Compliance Office staff at Kansas State University (KSU) who reviewed and approved the field research proposal (IRB approval #8776).

My field research would not have been successful without the support of many people. To start with, I would like to thank Halil brahim Yenign, who has inspired me with his commitment to Islamic social justice and also introduced me to the members of new Islamic movements. My friends at Islamic Think House (DE, stanbul Dnce Evi) and various social justice organizations in stanbul were very helpful in the success of the field research. They challenged me intellectually with their intriguing ideas about Islam and justice. I especially thank Yusuf Enes Sezgin, Ammar Kl, Kadir Bal, and many others for their valuable comments and support in the fieldwork stage. These individuals helped me understand the true meaning of social justice and benevolence from an Islamic perspective. I am indebted to over two dozen individuals who talked to me for hours to share their understanding of Islam, justice, and politics. Attending the Ramadan dinners in Istanbuls Tarlaba neighborhood was an eye-opener for me. It helped me develop an appreciation of how devotion and charity are related. Especially, the social activist Mehmet Abi left a deep impression on me by demonstrating what true benevolence looks like in practice. As part of field research, I also used the library of lmi Etdler Dernei (LEM) housing the archives of Islamist journals. I am grateful to LEM for opening this archive to the researchers. I especially thank Muhammed Yasir Bodur, for his valuable research assistance and for spending hours in LEM libraries in completing the archival text collection. Muhammed Yasir is also a social activist who provided many insights about Islamic justice conceptions while working as a research assistant for me.

I would also like to thank several colleagues who engaged with me regularly throughout my career and during the writing stage of this book. Thank you, Mark Tessler, for inspiring me to study the attitudes of ordinary Muslim men and women and for your continued support of my research. I am grateful to Amaney Jamal for inviting me to present one of the first drafts of this book in the After the Uprisings conference in Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton University and Michael Robbins for a second invitation to American University in Beirut to attend the Social Justice in the Arab World conference. I am also grateful for the comments provided by Michael Platow, the president of the International Society for Justice Research (ISJR) during the 2018 ISJR meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The participants in two APSA meetings also provided helpful comments, including Ariel Ahram at the 2017 meeting. My colleague John Warner helped me understand the Western justice theory and patiently responded to my emails about reading recommendations. I especially want to express my gratitude to Michael Wuthrich and Ammar Shamaileh for encouraging me throughout the process, reading drafts of different chapters, and providing valuable feedback about these chapters. Finally, I thank Dale L. Smith who has been a lifelong mentor and has always shown deep interest in my work.