Islam in Turkey and Iran has gone through various stages. Turkey has for a long time been inert towards the Muslim countries despite its Ottoman heritage. The Ottoman state emerged as one of the most powerful Muslim states and tried to enhance as much as possible its tolerance of all interpretations of Islam. However, the conflict between modernity and the Islamic world led to developments like a parliamentary system and debates about democracy, elections, legislation and parliament in the Muslim world. This resulted in the integration of religion into the democratic system and establishment of checks and balances through political authority other than religion.
The fact that Turkey was not colonized by the foreign powers may have made Turkish Islam be more self-critical leading to more intellectual productivity. Other Muslim countries, when the Ottoman Empire collapsed gradually fell under domination by the European powers leading to merged efforts amongst the countries to solve problems of backwardness and hostility to western powers through anti-western ideas.
In most of those countries, Iran being one of them, Islam and polities had a radicalizing effect on each other. Due to imbalance between religion and politics, creating a national caste of intellectuals and administrators became a difficult process. Due to a ban on Islam co-existing with modernity, many problems came about and reactionary, radical and violence-prone approaches became prominent (Sedat, 2005)
Turkish Islam does not use coercive measures; rather it utilizes cultural and social tools in place of political and military action. Most of Turkey’s population is Muslim, about 99 percent. The country has however undergone much secularization which began in the Ottoman Empire with the abolition of the caliphate, the supreme religious and political office of Islam. Following this other religious authorities had their secular powers reduced and later eliminated. Most religious foundations became nationalized and for some time even religious education was prohibited.
Despite secularizing at an official level, religion was still a strong force at the popular level and some leaders tried to use this by seeking support for programs that appealed to those with religious inclinations. Those efforts were however opposed by the political elite who viewed secularism as important. The situation became more polarized in the 1980s, with the emergence of educated but religiously motivated local leaders who challenged the secular political elite. They led to a revival of Islamic observance in Turkey. This has led to much admiration from other Islam countries which see Turkey as Islam and who also recognize the impact of secularism and western relations in enhancing Turkey’s economy.
The constitution of Turkey allows for freedom of religion. It however prohibits religious teaching schools so as to preserve secularism. The government is responsible for the running of a religious high school Imam Hatip Lisesi which prepares the graduates to be clerics rather than to seek higher education since it is perceived that they may later use religion to cause discrimination in society. Muslim religious facilities and education are overseen by the Government through its Presidency of Religious Affairs which appoints local and provincial Imams.
These are basically two cultural communities the Alevis, who have until recently hid their religious identity due to assimilation pressure from the government. Alevis are a Twelver Shia Islam sect but most Alevis do not see themselves as Muslims. Folk Islam derives its practices from Sufism which is characterized by veneration of pious individuals after death to be saints and pilgrimage to their graves and shrines. This is however discouraged by the government (World History, 2002).
Iran has had Islam as its official religion for a long time; with about 98% of Iranians being Muslim, 89% Shia and 9% are Sunni. When the Islamic Republic of Iran came to power, a revival of political Islam occurred. After World War II, Iran was among the first countries to adopt political Islam as its ruling ideology. The goal of Islam fundamentalism was to get power through Islamization of all the aspects of life. This was in response to the imposition of western models and outlooks through coercion by Western states. Most anti-western attitudes among Iranian Islamists are said to have roots in Marxism and communism rather than Iranian Islam. The new Islamic Republic of Iran through its Islamic foreign policy has led to the creation of Hezbollah, provides for subsidies to Hamas and is greatly involved in opposition to Israel (World History, 2002).
Islam has been responsible for much of the gender inequality in Iran. This can be attributed to the patriarchal nature of the Iranian society and Islamic religion. Many Islamists take strong positions on gender segregation in public areas as well as in issues that favor gender inequality such as those in legal discrimination and issues of unveiling and veiling. Generally, Islam laws show discrimination against women in issues of divorce, child custody rights marriage and inheritance.
In Twelver Shii Islam, the majority sect in Iran, a specified-time temporary marriage is permissible; however the laws are more stringent for women than men and a woman’s rights to child custody are limited to the first two years after the child is born (Kazemi, 2000).
Turkey is different in that the move towards secularism has reduced some of these social inequalities since Islamic law is not used much to govern the people’s way of life. The influence of past empires has been significant in the political and social trajectories of both countries. Were it not for the secularization that began in the Ottoman Empire Turkey may have turned out differently. Iran on the other hand has its origins in the Persian Empire and when the Arabs conquered this Empire, Arabic language but not Arabic culture was imposed on the people. Islam was at the time associated with the ethnicity of Arabs and consequently Persian cultural values remained. Later a shift from an Arab empire to a Muslim empire occurred and this resulted in adoption of Persian language and culture with the adoption of Islam.
Most of the dynasties in both Iran and Turkey were patriarchal in nature leading to a general inequality of genders. This has changed much in Turkey due to secularization efforts. In Turkey unveiling is supported by the government and often students have demonstrated while veiled to express their dissatisfaction with government pressures to assimilate and do away with veils. Iran is different in that veiling is a requirement for the women enforced by the state especially because of Islam ideology (Kazemi, 2000).
Islam in Turkey has made it a significant member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Turkey’s identification with Islam has made it a country that other Islam countries would like to emulate even with the adoption of democracies since the economic success of Turkey can be attributed to its largely democratic political system. Iran has not been able to achieve economic independence rather there have been numerous episodes of violence and abuse of human rights which can be linked to extremist Islamic views. Turkey may also have had various violations of human rights freedom of expression in attempts to make secularism official.
Works cited
Kazemi A, 2000, Gender, Islam and Politics, Iran Iran Chamber Society. Web.
Sedat L, 2005 Turkish Islam and Turkey’s EU Membership. Web.
World History 2002 Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents. Web.