Who is Muslim Democrat?

The Search for a Social and Political Identity:

The reason why I propose the "Muslim Democrat" conceptualization is this: There could be a new conception of social and political identity with historical foundations, which includes the Western discourse of human rights, the viewpoint of religion that identifies these rights with nature, and other spiritual values, the consciousness that preserves national reflexes. Because this is how the localization of local (religious and national) values ​​would be possible without being introverted and localized.

To do this is to think of the originality and specificity of what is different, the other, as a mercy and blessing of Allah; is to say that there are pluralistic universals that claim to know, meet, compete in goodness and beauty. That is why there is no alienation, no exclusion. In this, it is more than a kind of transparent mask that serves to keep social and political power relations out of sight by highlighting cultural differences.

“Muslim Democrat” can be an expression of the reflection of the concept of secularism in the field of beliefs of the pluralist dimension of democracy all over the world. If this is accomplished, Turkey; It will be able to bind a secular and democratic life style that respects moral values, with the strength of its historical experience, to rules that will not be interrupted by constant revolutions in the state order.

If we transform this structure, which is formed by reading national/particularly universal/international values, into a social identity and a social culture, the claim to set an example for all countries in the region becomes reality. In this respect, “Muslim Democrat” can be an expression of the reflection of the concept of secularism in the field of beliefs of the pluralist dimension of democracy all over the world.

Possible Political Implications of the Conceptualization of the “Muslim Democrat”:

What will happen if a conceptualization like the Christian Democrat, which takes into account the data of Christianity, is put into practice in Turkey? First of all, it will be a "conservative" contribution to Turkey, which is a secular, social state of law, as a democratic republic and a regional and international power. In addition, the claim that the European Union is an economic-political union, not based on religion, will be valid. Because Turkey, whose population is predominantly Muslim and whose administration is a secular state, can contribute theoretically and practically to the construction of a European Project that can live together with Christians, Jews, Muslims and Atheists. Because a large number of Turks and other Muslim peoples live in the European Union. It could have been better demonstrated by the concept of "Muslim Democrat", in which a pluralist, inclusive and inclusive liberal democracy was realized both in the awareness of constitutional citizenship and patriotism among these people with different cultural backgrounds.

After September 11:

Another important benefit could have been as follows: The way to prevent a possible war of civilizations, which came to the fore again after the September 11, 2001 attack, may be possible with a Turkey that makes the "Muslim Democrat" conceptualization functional. In this context, as Ambassador Ö.Sanberk said, “Turkey can carry out dialogue and cooperation by protecting the values ​​of Islam, a religion that rises on the basis of tolerance, without adopting the EU culture, by protecting our different/local cultural identity. Thus, it could/could make an important contribution to the creation of a common political framework”.

Otherwise, as Huntington, the theorist of the theory of the war of civilizations, said, it will leave the concept of civilizations instead of the modern nation-state understanding, and it will become an important factor in the determination of cultural identity. When people no longer see themselves as a part of a nation, but as a part of a civilization, it will be possible to present the events in the Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East as a requirement of the dividing line between civilizations.

The Huntington Look:

The only state that can tear this scarlet veil that determines Huntington's battlefields is the Republic of Turkey, which will realize its historical and cultural accumulation with new readings. Power centers, which turn political spaces into centers of cultural conflict, thus mask social conflicts.

Turkey can prove that cultural conflicts are target diversion; for Huntington's ideal is a country that has itself realized a world of different civilizations, each of which will have to learn to live with others. The state, which inherited a culture that has historically realized this, could again be a symbol of inter-civilizational harmony and unmask it.

When we look at Huntington's thesis, Turkey is the only state with a structure that can reject the isolation and introversion that he said for other cultures and civilizations, which was his first suggestion.

Again, Turkey is trying to modernize by accepting the Western values, which is Huntington's second suggestion, but seeing that this is not the solution either.

I said that no one except Perinçek and his team supports modernization by making an alliance with non-Western cultures and civilizations, which is the third proposal. 

We observed that all these gains were abandoned and introversion, a kind of 3rd world country characterization, was seen as "honorable loneliness".

I have said that it is now an obvious reality that the people did not favor these and that they aimed to surpass the level of contemporary civilization by turning towards a pluralist democracy based on fundamental rights and freedoms and human rights, but unfortunately it did not happen. At that time I asked the following question:

Who is a Muslim Democrat?

What would be the political harms that would arise if a "Muslim Democrat" political and social identity vision, which is an effort to universalize local (religious and national) values ​​by interpreting them with the other historical accumulation of humanity, is prevented without localization/introversion? While establishing the new state, the East-West borders, which were largely abolished by Atatürk, are rebuilt. In addition, deficiencies may arise in democratization, which is the sum of individual rights and freedoms. In this case, it is certain that Turkey and the states in the geography where other Muslim rights live will not be the only losers.

As a matter of fact, it was like this, and the effect of the regional conflicts that started with the name of the 2010 Arab Spring carried over to our country. The values ​​of conservatism and Islam were emptied and the Salafist mentality began to be influential in the entire Muslim world simultaneously.[18] However, in today's Islamic world, while it was necessary to re-read and interpret Abu Hanifa's understanding of law, his system based on reason and vote, for legal, intellectual and political freedom, the opposite happened and the Salafist mentality was revived.

We were trying to create a new stance and attitude by confronting the problems posed by the colonial period and examining the knowledge and science/technology conceptions in today's Islamic world. While saying that religion should not be a tool of a hegemonic politics, all fictions began to be presented with conflicting Islamic conceptions. In the name of "Conservative Democracy", we saw following the EU harmonization process as efforts to exceed the level of contemporary civilization, and we were pointing out the possible mistakes here with our own concepts, so we kept our hope that the success rate of our country would increase.

In this context, while trying to re-territorialize philosophy in Anatolia, re-reading the cultural codes we brought from Turkistan/Atayurt and the knowledge we found in Turkey/Motherland, we encountered efforts to reduce and destroy the tradition of philosophy and theology, which started in theology faculties from the Nizamiye madrasahs.

Founding Philosophy of the Republic of Turkey:

In order to explain the founding philosophy of the Republic of Turkey, we stated that the identification of Kemalism and Kemalism and the weakening of our foundations through a conflicting Islamic vision is not consistent.

Reviving the tradition of ijtihad with critical attitudes to the way the Islamic Mind is buried in history and effective in political life could have been with a "Muslim Democrat" vision. Because, based on Muhammad Abid Jabiri, our efforts to establish that the biggest problem of the Islamic world is "Democracy" and that "There is no other form of modern democracy that is the legacy of all humanity in our age" was interrupted. In fact, the point I've come to is to think in terms of concepts created by the West, not playmaker in the final analysis, be it the concepts of "Conservative Democrat" or "Muslim Democrat". For this reason, the dominance of the Salafi mentality, which is the current presentation of the Wahhabi mentality, instead of reducing the relationship between Islam and democracy, indicates the time for a new conceptualization.

Grounding the Concept of “Religious Democrat”:

It is obvious that the change and transformation that started with the Justice and Development Party cannot be explained in the political arena with the concepts of "Conservative Democrat" and "Muslim Democrat". So, can a person who prioritizes religious values ​​take part in any political party that aims to serve Turkey?

However, why shouldn't there be "Religious Democrats" in parties other than the nationalist parties that say they prioritize local and national values, or the Felicity Party that prioritizes religious values ​​and describes itself as conservative, or the AKP, which generally addresses right-wing voters as conservative democrats?

Or, in the words of Atılgan Bayar, “If the CHP administration succeeds in correcting the İnönü 'Secular Illusion' that came after the Atatürk era, can the votes of many sects and Islamic schools also flow to the CHP?”[28] or we continue our questions based on the founding principles of the Republic. If we will; If the premise of "Atatürk Maturidi is dissident and those who do not know theology cannot rule the state", what kind of a political situation will arise if the premise is adopted outside of the right-centre parties? An important opening for Turkey's future is to return to the roots of the Republic's understanding of religion and the 'laicite' that it produced, and to discuss it again; maybe it can be reproduced?

Political and Religious Authority:

In this context, it is recommended to examine the relationship between the Seljuk Sultan and the Abbasid Caliph. In 1055, Tuğrul Bey, 

He went on a Baghdad expedition to save him from the hands of the Buyids, and from this date on, there was a separation between the political ruler and the religious authority. When he saved the Abbasid caliph from the Shiite Fatimid caliph, the caliph issued coins to Tugrul Bey and recognized his autonomy. Tuğrul Bey also provides subsistence and lodging of his palace.

In that case, our duty is to pay attention to Seljuk and Ottoman historical experiences and the concept of "Religious Democrat" contributes to reproducing the cultural codes of the Republic of Turkey, which was established in 1789 as a transition from monarchy to the Republic, from religious values ​​to a secular system and nation-state in accordance with the changing world paradigm. can be found. Otherwise, with the efforts of the radical left and radical Islamist discourses to "Explain the Establishment Philosophy of the Republic of Turkey with the Conflict of Kemalism and Islam", there is a risk of contributing to social and political polarizations by subjecting minds to ideological locking.

Yesevi Culture:

If we re-read our historical background, we can see that the symbols of the states established between the Seljuk and Ottoman states Turkistan/Atayurt and Turkey/Motherland have also been on the forefront of the Republic of Turkey, and they have declared this awareness to the whole world. The cultural texture that makes the conquered lands "homeland" and "homeland" is the Khorasan-Yesevi culture, which is the embodiment of the Hanafi-Maturidi Islamic interpretation.

If this point is forgotten, in a secular state that sees modernization and westernization as synonymous, why is the Presidency of Religious Affairs established as a constitutional institution? Why is a corpus of tafsir and hadith created to learn and teach religion from authentic sources? questions remain.

The Republic of Turkey was established as a new state in Anatolia. All the ideas and movements that emerged with their different contents were aimed at solving the problems in the relationship between nature and identity at the establishment stage. If we analyze these solution proposals and the differences between them, we can find the causes of today's conflicts and divergences. Thus, we can create a “threshold” that does not allow differences to turn into contradictions and strengthen our motivation to live together.

New Civilization Conception Proposal:

The CHP can realize this, update the practices of Atatürk and his friends, and contribute to the "Religious Democrat" vision with a system that is in harmony with religious values. Our suggestion is when we examine the socio-economic history of the Islamic world well, why the universe and man were created with spiritual/spiritual sciences in the language of Hanafi fiqh, Maturidi Akaidi, Ahmet Yesevi; With the methods of scholars like Biruni, we can create a new conception of civilization that can reintroduce the nature of the language of the universe with positive sciences, and the style of a virtuous/civilized administration (morality/fiqh/theology) as scholars like Farabi did.

We can strengthen the secular structure that does not use religion as a tool in economic-political wars such as the Salafi-Shiite conflict, by updating the rational solution proposals of Hanafi fiqh, with the liberal Maturidi theology and the example of Ahmed Yesevi, which is the implementation of these, that there is a Turkish Islam that has different qualities from Arab and Persian Islam. It is possible to get rid of the excesses of the external (Isid, Taliban, al-Qaeda), Batini (FETO, etc. esoteric structures) Shiite mentality. This is the way to stay away from power and economic-political wars in the Arab world under the name of sectarianism.

In this context, what happened after February 28, 1997 divided it into progressive-reactionary, secular-anti-secular/Islamic camps under the name of fighting against reaction. In the 15 July 2016 terrorist coup attempt, we observed that a community that was known to be together with the government, constantly talking about tolerance, dialogue and increasing the quality of education, turned into an organized political power (FETO), and even attempted a terrorist attack against the state in the presence of the government. The different two-dimensional trauma we experienced (1997/2016) also revealed that we need to make detailed analyzes on the language of religion.

Religious Democrat Concept:

If we can establish this new language of religion and internalize the concept of "Religious Democrat", religion can be an element of reconciliation, not conflict. With the understanding that the problem is political and economic, and religious and cultural differences are to provide legitimacy to the conflict in the energy centers, we can understand that the conflict thesis consists of misunderstanding, interpretation and prejudices. In this case, the necessity for the peaceful coexistence of civilizations and cultures will emerge. The logic of religion-centered conflict and the possibility of minimizing the risk of conflict will be strengthened. This will prevent global powers from using religion as a means of legitimating their hegemonic policies.

Because, can't the concept of "Religious Democrat" contribute to the production of solutions without destroying, breaking, and resorting to violence within the framework of the always positive movement that internalizes the meaning of Islam's well-being? Couldn't it reduce the risk of the consumption of religious data by certain right-wing parties and politicization? According to me, it reduces because Islam, say the concept of "Religious Democrat" should be functional when the fundamentalist, radical tendencies and organizations in the democracy, nomocracy, violence and other religious structures are considered.

In my opinion, we should continue our efforts to universalize our particular values ​​by paying attention to the fact that the recent introverted and totalitarian perspectives are not locality and nationality, but locality. At this point, the "universal criterion" that prevents relativism and introversion is "communicative rationality".

The content of a new concept of political development, the process of realizing one's own potentials as a free and rational individual and in this sense, the process of being a rational being will be determined within its own historicity/locality. However, this determination should be based on principles that allow interpretation and criticism in terms of rationalization and democratization standards, while accepting that every political and therefore culture-dependent social formation is unique in itself.

We need to do this because there may be a new vision that can prevent the recent developments and terrorist incidents, the terrorist attack of 15 July and the re-division of the country. If we do not want to experience the negativities caused by the use of religious arguments from two opposite angles, such as February 28, 1997 and July 15, 2016, again, it is time to talk about the possibility of developing a new religious language.

Political Parties:

The reason why I propose the concept of "Religious Democrat" is that it is not possible to meet the criticisms that can be attributed to the term "Muslim" in the face of recent practices and abuses in the national and international arena. The term “Conservative Democrat” was originally used to include the definition of Muslim and/or “Religious Democrat”. Thus, it aimed to be a "Religious Democrat" or mass right party like the DP, ANAP, AP, DYP, which included transforming from the Islamist Party into a "Religious Democrat" party.

But in my opinion, it has never been or did not want to be a centre-right party, and it can be said that the line from which its founders came out with the characterization of "Conservative Democrat" was not actually within a centre-right. Because this movement, which is based on the National Vision, continues along the lines of the National Order Party, the National Salvation Party, the Welfare Party, the Virtue Party and the Felicity Party. The Justice and Development Party did not take part in the last formation, but entered into a new political structure and tried to base it with the "Conservative Democrat".

However, the concept of "Religious Democrat" includes the concept of "Muslim Democrat", but it also includes different conceptions. It even points to wrong practices that can be done under the guise of religiosity. Thus, the “Religious Democrat” is the person who directs the criticism towards the actions of those who carry out such actions, so that the term Muslim has the quality of well-being, peace and security. Islam

Conclusion:

As the person who realizes the principle of justice, which is the sum of the virtues of wisdom, chastity, and courage of the Moral Philosophy, he will always be on moderation and positive action. In the same way, it will always be moderate and positive by centering on the basic principles of the independent and muktasit, "He will invite people to the way of the Lord with wisdom and goodness."

Moreover, although he is persecuted and oppressed in his "Religious Democrat" conceptualization, he certainly does not approve of oppression and oppression against others, and he cannot do it himself. Because it prioritizes justice, which is the sum of three theoretical virtues (wisdom, chastity, and courage), and always acts positively, and does not engage in an action that is offensive or disrupts social peace. He is aware of the fact that those who have been dealing with leadership and religion since the formation period of Islamic philosophy in which he grew up are the worst enemies of thought.