A FRESH LOOK AT ISLAMIC IDENTITY AND NATIONAL POLITICS

Fulbright Visiting Specialist Alev Cinar

Fulbright Visiting Specialist Alev Cinar, a political scientist from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, has an unusual perspective on Islam's relationship to national identity in the Middle East. In a world where "Islamist" movements are generally identified with traditionalism while secularism is identified with modernity, the current ruling party in Turkey represents a unique blend of Islamic and modern identities, Cinar says. She'll explore these issues in a lecture titled "Modernity, Islam and Secularism in Turkey" on Tuesday, Sept. 13, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Ely Room at Wyndham House. The talk is free and open to the public.

"Turkey is historically a secular country," Cinar says, "but a party I characterize as Islamist is in power right now. The governing party doesn't describe itself as Islamist, but its representatives are all publicly pious, and their wives all wear head coverings. It's the first time in history that Turkey's first lady has worn a head covering, and this public embrace of Islam has generated a great deal of controversy in Turkey."

According to Cinar, secularism is solidly established in Turkey, not just as a state ideology but as a part of national identity and a lifestyle. While the majority of Turks are Muslims, she says, many view the identification of Islam with Turkish national identity as incompatible with modernity. The governing party, known as the AKP, is effectively challenging that position.

"The government has a lot of support," Cinar says, "not so much for its Islamism as for its progressive politics. This is the group that has presided over Turkey's bid to enter the European Union and increased integration of Turkey into the global economy, and its endorsement of political liberalism has made inroads into the traditionally secularist left. The AKP doesn't argue for the establishment of Islam as a state religion, but it does argue against suppression of the cultural symbols of Islam, saying that Turkey can be modern and democratic, and at the same time acknowledge its historic identity as a Muslim country. But this is a very different model of Islamic national identity than, say, Iran's, and it's quite unfamiliar to most Americans."

Cinar has published widely on Islam, politics and urbanism in Turkey. Her book Modernity, Secularism and Islam in Turkey: Bodies, Places and Time, published this year by the University of Minnesota Press, has been praised for its introduction of "a new way of conceptualizing modernity based on the analysis of a non-Western context."

She is in residence at Bryn Mawr this fall as part of a program titled "Fulbright Visiting Specialists: Direct Access to the Muslim World," designed to "promote understanding of the Muslim world and civilization by providing opportunities for U.S. higher-educational institutions to host specialists from the Muslim world for short-term programs of intensive lecturing and public outreach." During her six-week tenure, Cinar will also participate in an outreach program offered under the auspices of Bryn Mawr College and Main Line School Night, and advise Bryn Mawr's newly formed Middle East Studies Initiative. Her duties also include co-teaching "Modern Middle East Cities: Spaces of Politics, Places of Identity" with Lecturer in Political Science Deborah Harrold. Cinar and Harrold met several years ago when they were both Ph.D. students, Cinar at the University of Pennsylvania and Harrold at the University of Chicago.

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