ABSTRACT: \'MODERN MUSLIM\': A POSSIBILITY OR A PARADOX?

ABSTRACT
MODERN MUSLIM: A POSSIBILITY OR PARADOX?

Vildan Özertürk Sofu
April, 2015

Jurgen Habermas sees the project of modernity as an unfinished project in his same-titled essay. Even though this project was formulated originally as a project of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, it by no means stayed in the eighteenth century alone, but extended its influence further onwards in different contexts to describe different periods of history and aspects of life. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about the modernity, but rather, as Shmuel Eisenstadt introduces the concept, there are multiple modernities. Setting out from this concept, this paper aims to discuss modernity's relation to religion by focusing on their confrontations, clashes and/or crossroads. In order to comprehend this relation better, the paper uses the context of Turkish society, specifically its practicing religious community as its research setting.
Starting with the first modernization efforts in the nineteenth century of the late Ottoman era, and peaking in the early Republican periods, modernization and 'being modern' were perceived to be a must for the Turkish State to rise up to the level of developed civilizations. Consequently, this goal was attempted to be achieved through a series of reforms, which mostly concentrated on the appearance –to be modern, one should look modern. Since then in the Turkish context, modernization efforts have mainly tended to be interpreted over the visual, namely the clothing, and especially over the clothing of the women. In line with this tendency, this paper touches upon the common perceptions of 'what is modern, and what is not' that are profoundly embraced by the secular elite within Turkish society, who have a tendency to oppose being modern with being religious. However, the focus of the paper is on the perception of 'modern' by the conservative Turkish population. This perception is specifically portrayed (but not claiming as all-representative) over the headscarf-wearing women through a survey analysis as well as a case study on the rising popularity of 'tesettür fashion' in recent years in Turkey.
All throughout the study, the paper questions the possibility of 'modern Muslim', and eventually suggests ways to overcome the modern/anti-modern tension profoundly present within Turkish society. The paper, however, does not associate headscarf as the only way of being "modern Muslim", but rather provides an open floor for discussing its possibility through other cases and definitions.

Keywords: modernity, religion, Islamic modernity, tesettür fashion, Turkey