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The Islamic diversity that developed parallel to the Islamization of Anatolia from roughly the 12th century onwards and was called dervish religiosity, is often defined by its inattentive and indifferent attitude toward Shari'a, although some of its other features are mentioned more or less. However, in this dervish‐based religiosity, it draws attention that both the perception of Shari'a and some other religiosity practices are more related to the tawhid beliefs in pantheistic sense. This paper aims to analyze how both dervish religiosity and folk religiosity, which developed largely under its influence, are shaped through some mystical thoughts and spiritual experiences such as 'identification with God', 'immanence of God in man' and 'the human divinity'. The folk piety, which appears to be shaped within the framework of faith in saints, including high respect and various types of veneration that neglect the norms of Islamic worship, will be seen in relation to the pantheistic thoughts, as reflected in the understanding of seeing man as the qibla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers why despite mass displacement significantly affecting people from Muslim majority countries, Islamic understandings of refuge, protection and assistance remain de‐centered and made peripheral in formulations of asylum and refuge. The paper begins with an interrogation of how knowledge production on Muslim life‐worlds a priori gives emphasis to certain essential characteristics identified as Muslim. It is argued that this collapses understandings of the diversity of being and 'doing' Muslim in ways that make less visible everyday lived experiences attuned to the materiality, affect and emotion prompted by readings of Islamic tradition in displacement settings. To do so, I draw on Syrian experiences of displacement in Turkey and Greece to parse out the implications of this (in)visibility for Muslim responses to mass‐displacement and question whether they can be substantively different to modalities of humanitarianism and development anchored in liberal European ontologies. It is argued that by being attentive to the structures of feeling prompted by Islamic traditions pertaining to refuge and protection reveals ways of being and doing Islam outside of statist readings of humanitarianism. Here, the Islamic tradition of jiwār (a right of and to neighbourliness) provides a decolonial vocabulary to respond to state‐defined patterns of hospitality rooted in European knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers why despite mass displacement significantly affecting people from Muslim majority countries, Islamic understandings of refuge, protection and assistance remain de‐centered and made peripheral in formulations of asylum and refuge. The paper begins with an interrogation of how knowledge production on Muslim life‐worlds a priori gives emphasis to certain essential characteristics identified as Muslim. It is argued that this collapses understandings of the diversity of being and 'doing' Muslim in ways that make less visible everyday lived experiences attuned to the materiality, affect and emotion prompted by readings of Islamic tradition in displacement settings. To do so, I draw on Syrian experiences of displacement in Turkey and Greece to parse out the implications of this (in)visibility for Muslim responses to mass‐displacement and question whether they can be substantively different to modalities of humanitarianism and development anchored in liberal European ontologies. It is argued that by being attentive to the structures of feeling prompted by Islamic traditions pertaining to refuge and protection reveals ways of being and doing Islam outside of statist readings of humanitarianism. Here, the Islamic tradition of jiwār (a right of and to neighbourliness) provides a decolonial vocabulary to respond to state‐defined patterns of hospitality rooted in European knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article employs the Peace Journalism approach to examine news stories reported in the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot papers on matters relating to each other and to the Cyprus Conflict. It tests hypotheses about the negative headlines reported in the Cyprus media and the role of Cypriot journalism in peace building and reconciliation between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots. The emergence of Peace Journalism in the 1970s and its evolution during the first Gulf War in the 1990s are also noted.

The article discusses the historical background of the problems relating to kemalism, the official ideology of the Republic of Turkey. It notes kemalism's conflict and tension with religious and ethnic identities, specifically with the Kurdish identity. It traces the ethnic and religious-based problems to the pattern of modernization followed by political elites in late Ottoman empire and the Republican period. The possible solutions for these problems within a democratic system are also cited.

This article focuses on the life and thoughts of Mehmed Emin Bozarslan, a Kurdish mullah from Turkey. He was born in 1934 in a village in the district of Lice in Diyarbakir. Bozarslan's father was also a village mullah. His life story was described as a commitment to voicing his people's problems. He is said to be exceptional because he had a critical and oppositional voice and was in dialogue and debate with various social and political agents and institutions such as sheikhs, tribal chieftain and muftis as well as leftist intellectuals in Turkey. Bozarslan refers Islamic teachings based on the Qurʾān and the sayings of the Prophet as egalitarian in characteristic. Several books published by Bozarsland which earned hostile reactions from other Muslim leaders are mentioned.

The article discusses various essays on Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) published within the issue including its mission and vision, and the structure, legal basis, social and institutional functions of the PRA.

The article evaluates the Ottoman policy of religion seen in the Millet System, or System of Nation, Islamic religious services in the Ottoman Empire, the transition of the system from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, and lastly, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA), the legal basis of the Turkish state's perception of religion and its position as a governmental agency. The Ottomans had to find and enforce a suitable system to rule over Islam, Christianity and Judaism. This system would be the millet system, which granted non-Muslim subjects the right to organize into communities possessing certain delegated political powers under their own ecclesiastical chiefs.

The article examines Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) in order to understand religion, politics and the politics of religion. It particularly aims to identify the main actors who exercise power in the field of religion and state in Turkey in modern times. These actors' activities in the politics of religion, which apparently is composed of interactive processes among all the mentioned actors, actually shape each other, the article notes. It is explained that the Diyanet was formed as part of the Republic for the implementation of all provisions concerning faith and worship aspects of the religion of Islam, and the administration of religious institutions.

The article examines the relationship of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) with religious groups. The PRA is an institution that was established in order to provide religious services under the purview of general Turkish administrative state services, the article notes. Its aim is to teach religious truth to the public, protect secularism, keep religion outside the realm of politics, control religious duties without giving monopoly to any religious groups, strengthen the nation state and protect religion from being exploited. After the transition to democracy, the PRA did not properly meet the needs of either Alawis or Sunnites or any other religious groups. The first serious demand for religious representation pertained to Alawism and Baktashism, which are Sufi orders.

The article discusses the religious services provided by Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA). At its headquarters, the PRA established several different departments to fulfill its mission such as the Hajj Department, Religious Services Department, Religious Education Department, etc. In city and town centers the offices of muftis represent the PRA and organize its religious services. The organizational duty directive of the PRA describes the religious services to be provided including maintaining the mosques in their best shape for worship and providing five daily congregational prayer services in the mosques.

The article discusses the publishing activities of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA). It is noted that the PRA began its work by ensuring a modern basis of reference for its religious services. The PRA feels it is important to solve religious problems without neglecting traditional knowledge and in light of previous written resources. In fact, it has always been important in Turkish society to gain religious knowledge by consulting authentic resources and written texts. Former PRA President Ahmed Hamdi Akseki became the first writer of PRA religious publications through his own written works.

The article offers information on the Turkish Diyanet Foundation (TDF). Founded in 1975, TDF is a juristic entity under the supervision of the General Directorate of Foundations. Its aim is to help and support the Presidency of Religious Affairs in introducing Islam with its genuine characteristics and enlightening society about religion, building and equipping mosques in needed locations, opening and running medical treatment centers for the indigent, delivering the almsgiving made by Muslim citizens to the needy according to the rules, and developing social aid and relief services. The organs of TDF can be categorized under four main headings: the General Assembly, Board of Trustees, Auditing Committee, and Directorate General.

The article focuses on the Islamist works of Turkish Islamist intellectual Smet Özel In his extended autobiographical essay "Why Aren't You Here Waldo?," Özel places a response to Henry David Thoreau, who was at the time incarcerated for protesting against the Mexican-American war. Özel's portrayal of the exchange, and the association of his own life with Thoreau's, accentuate two pervasive characteristics of a new type of Muslim writer and writing emerging in Turkey since the late 1970s. His treatises and topics overlap with the works of Turkish Islamists of his same generation.

This article explores the nature of a religious movement launched by Fethullah Gülen in Turkey that challenges Samuel Huntington's assertion about the clash of civilizations. The movement's politics of representation is examined. The author argues that this movement is a successful example of a civil Islamic movement in the new global context. Several constitutive elements of the identity of the movement are critically elaborated.

Explores the relationship between Sufism and modernity in the teachings of Turkish theologian Fethullah Gülen. Overview of sufism; Details of the successful incorporation of Sufism into Gülen's thoughts and activities without going afoul of Turkish laws; Influence of Gülen on contemporary Turkish thought.

Focuses on Turkish theologian Fethullah Gülen's approach to the relationship between science and religion. Gülen's major sources of intellectual influence in his discussion of the relation of science and religion; Examination of Güen's understanding of the nature of religious and scientific truths in a comparative way; Overview of the Qur'an's approach to science.

Examines Turkish theologian Fethullah Gülen's paradox of combining personal commitment to Islamic religious principles. Components of Gülen's definition of Islam; Keys to Gülen's ability to combine commitment and tolerance; Description of the Gülen movement, which established schools in many countries.

Discusses the Islamic approach to peace and nonviolence through an examination of the Turkish experience. Overview of the hadith perspective on peace and nonviolence; Turkish Islamic figures who promoted peace and nonviolence through their teachings and activities.

Deals with the radical Islamic tendencies of Turk leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Biographical and educational background of Erdogan; Role of Erdogan in the consolidation of democracy in Turkey; Examination of the inclination towards political Islam of Erdogan.

Discusses the significance of the term exile in understanding Turkish politics. Analysis of its definition; Use of the exile phenomenon in the explanation of intellectual identity; Post-modern exiles in Turkey.

Discusses the challenges faced by missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Anatolia and Ottoman Syria in the 19th century. Goal of the missionaries; Response of the Eastern churches and the Ottoman government to the efforts of the missionaries; Attempts made by other churches against the missionaries.

Discusses the complex relationship between the cult of Khidr or al-Khidr and the sacred sanctuaries in pre-Ottoman Anatolia. Role of the zawiya of Elwan Celebi in linking Khidr sites in northern Anatolia; Significance of the sacred sites in pilgrimage routes.