The natioal outlook and its youth in the 1970s

Abstract

This thesis examines the Islamist politics of the 1970s in Turkey in thelight of the historical evidence about the National Outlook movement and itsaffiliate youth organization, the Raiders. In this thesis I argue that the debate onthe relation between modernity and Islam has a temptation to ahistoricize thephenomenon of political Islam as ?essentially anti-modern or not? while whatdetermines the political nature of Islamist movements is not Islam per se but thevery socio-historical contexts in which they find themselves.From the center-periphery paradigm, it is argued that ?the secular centre?in Turkey has to integrate ?the Islamic periphery? to the regime by toleratingIslamist politics. This thesis challenges this argument in a number of ways andargues that the injection of Islam to ?the central political culture? of Turkey doesnot necessarily ensure social reintegration between the elites and the masses. Infact, as this thesis strives to expose, historically the official attitude towardIslamist politics have vacillated as a strategy of power.The centre-periphery paradigm asserts that the National Outlookmovement has assumed the role of ?conveying the peripheral Islamic groups? to?the center,? thus contributing to democratic development. On the one hand, inmy view, this paradigm generally neglects that the elites of the movement havealready established close ties to ?the secular center? and integrated themselves tothe very targets of ?modernizing society and creating a homogenous nation.? Theanalysis on the narrative of the Raiders shows that their objective was not to selfintegrateto ?the center,? which resulted in the controversies between them and theheadquarters of the National Outlook.