Abstract
This chapter examines Islamic movements and their organizations and activities among Turkish populations in Belgium. The groups being studied are as follows: the Diyanet, Milli Görüş, the Süleymanlıs, the Nurcu Movement, the Gülen Movement, the Menzil Brotherhood, Shiism, and the Alevis. The chapter also includes the Ülkücü Movement, which engages with religious activities, although the movement is not a religious one. The chapter explains how these Islamic organizations mobilize Muslim communities by clarifying their historical trajectories and geographic and temporal variations in Brussels, Wallonia, and Flanders. All these organizations are nonprofit associations. These movements play roles in the organization of prayers and rituals. They also engage in convergent and divergent religious activities such as the founding of mosques, schools, youth and women’s education, and the propagation of Islamic mysticism.
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Notes
- 1.
Secularism became a constitutional principle in 1937.
- 2.
There were three types of Ottoman power: seyfiyye (military), kalemiyye (administrative), and ilmiyye (religious). The ilmiyye class, whose members studied in medreses (religious schools), was in charge of judicial, religious, and academic affairs. The Sheikh al-Islam was part of the ilmiyye class.
- 3.
Rather than arguing that the Diyanet secularized the state, it is more pertinent to discuss why and how the foundation of the Diyanet was part of the vast and complex process of secularization. Indeed, the existence of the Diyanet is sometimes interpreted as a contradictory element to laicism, since it is a state institution that governs religious affairs and provides religious services to society. The way one understands the role of the Diyanet depends on the way one interprets the often paradoxical historical processes. If one considers the Diyanet as an institution created following the abolition of the caliphate, the Sheikh al-Islam (and also as a result of reduction of the role of the ilmiyye class), its emergence does coincide with the process of secularization and relating the two appears pertinent. See on the process of secularization among the Turks, Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1964. For a discussion on secularism and Diyanet, see Ali Bardakoğlu, Religion and Society. New perspectives from Turkey, Ankara, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, 2009.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
For an overview of the Diyanet organization in Europe, see Thijl Sunier and Nico Landman, Transnational Turkish Islam: shifting geographies of religious activism and community building in Turkey and Europe, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
- 8.
http://www.diyanet.be/Kurumsal/Hakkımızda.aspx. The sources of this information need to be clarified. The site of the Diyanet in Belgium provides useful information; however, the researcher’s synthesis on this institution is not based solely on the website analysis, but mostly on observations made between 2015 and 2017 in Belgium.
- 9.
http://www.diyanet.be/Kurumsal/Hakkımızda.aspx. Even before 1982, there were certain Diyanet missions which temporarily sent imams, especially during the month of Ramadan. Their salary was paid by the people in charge of mosques in Belgium.
- 10.
According to the EMB website, “the CIB is a civic platform made up of institutions, federations, organizations and dome structures of the Muslim community in Belgium.” https://www.embnet.be/fr/conseil-de-coordination-des-institutions-islamiques-de-belgique
- 11.
Around thirty of these mosques are recognized by the Muslim Executive.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Niklas Luhmann, “Confiance et familiarité. Problèmes et alternatives,” Réseaux, n° 108, 2001/4, pp. 15–35. For the English version, see “Familiarity, confidence, trust: problems and alternatives,” in Diego Gambetta (ed.), Trust, Making and Breaking cooperative relations, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1988, pp. 94–107.
- 15.
Activity is understood here in the sense of Max Weber; it is an exterior or private act. Social activity is activity that relates to a collective action. By religious activity, I mean the practice carried out by men and women based on their religious beliefs. Max Weber, Economie et Société (Vol. I), Paris, Pocket, 1995 [1971], p. 28.
- 16.
For a study about youths, see Ural Manço, “Identifications religieuses et jeunes issus de l’immigration: une recherche menée avec les travailleurs sociaux de Schaerbeek (Bruxelles),” Forum, No. 128, 2010, pp. 39–48.
- 17.
Turkish-language instruction aims to strengthen commitment to the Turkish identity, although the teaching of French and Flemish languages aims at the integration of Turks into Belgian society.
- 18.
Felice Dassetto, L’iris et le croissant, Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2011, p. 55.
- 19.
Hasan Damar, Avrupa’da Milli Görüş Hareketi (Vol. I), Istanbul, Gonca Yayınevi, 2013, p. 180.
- 20.
The events of February 28, 1997 refers to a process launched by a decision of the National Security Council (Milli Güvenlik Kurulu) against “reactionarism” (irtica). The Council was particularly directed at that time by the military. The process gave rise to the resignation of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan (Refah Partisi) and to the dissolution of the government coalition composed of the party of Erbakan and the True Path Party (Doğru Yol Partisi) in June 1997. The process was characterized by the repression of Islamic organizations and their activities in social, cultural, and educational fields.
- 21.
Milli Görüş or Saadet Partisi should not be thought of as a political party in Belgium or in Europe. Saadet Partisi in Belgium operates like an association, its activities similar to other Islamic associations and federations. It plays a more political role when campaigning for the party in Turkey. Political characteristics become clearer regarding Turkish issues during the legislative or local elections in Turkey. Despite this political aspect, its political activities remain less important than its religious activities. Indeed, while there are 2000 members of the Milli Görüş political party in Belgium, its religious movement is, in general, much more significant.
- 22.
Information obtained in the field work in 2016.
- 23.
[Anonymous] IGMG Tanıtım Katoloğu, Cologne, IGMG – Islamische Gemeinschaft Millî Görüş, 2014, p. 11.
- 24.
Its website is https://www.igmg.org/camia/
- 25.
On the other hand, several national federations affiliated with the IGMG in Europe are structurally separated in different regions (for example, in Germany there are fifteen regions, in France five regions, in the Netherlands two regions, and in Austria three regions).
- 26.
In addition, the Diyanet needs more imams, because the number of mosques affiliated with the Diyanet is twice as high as the number of mosques affiliated with Milli Görüş.
- 27.
Ecole libre confessionelle is a specific type of school in the Belgian education system. Its organizing power is a private entity and such schools are generally initiated by religious networks.
- 28.
It is a book of three volumes which contains particularly knowledge on kelâm (or kalâm, the science that studies Islamic doctrines), fıkıh (or fiqh, namely jurisprudence), and tasawwuf. İmam-ı Rabbani Ahmed Farukî Serhendî, Mektûbat-ı Rabbânî (3 volumes), Istanbul, Akit, 1998.
- 29.
The life of Said-i Nursi has been the subject of several studies. See, for example, Şerif Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey. The case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1989.
- 30.
Tönnies, Communauté et société: catégories fondamentales de la sociologie pure, Paris, PUF, 2010.
- 31.
Ibid. Tönnies makes this point on friendship, but it also seems indispensable to mention brotherhood, which produces informal ties and thus contributes to the formation of religious groups.
- 32.
The Talebe of Nur are those who read Risale-i Nur, a collection of books written by Said-i Nursi.
- 33.
He grew up in a religious family and his father was an imam. Gülen did not continue his studies after primary school. He followed religious training in the medreses, permitting him to become an imam.
- 34.
Dershane is an institution of preparatory classes, formulated for students who are competing for acceptance into high schools and universities in Turkey.
- 35.
The website for Betiad is www.betiad.be
- 36.
See, for example, Pierre Bouillon, “Secondaire: il manque 13 écoles, dont 12 à Bruxelles,” Le Soir (the blog), 4 May 2012.
- 37.
Bozkurt was also the title of a Turanist, pan-Turkist magazine published in 1939–1940.
- 38.
The rupture inside the MHP in Turkey gave rise to a new party in 2017, called İyi Parti (The Good Party, directed by Meral Akşener). The party won some supporters of the Grey Wolves in Belgium, showing that the break-up of the Turkish nationalist movement in Turkey impacted the nationalist social base in Belgium.
- 39.
One can also translate menzil (manzil singular and manâzil plural in Arabic) as an “initiatory home” in English. Ibn al-ʿArabî uses the term quite frequently in his texts. See Ibn al-ʿArabî, al-Futûhât al-Makkiyya (9 volumes), Bayrût, Dâr al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyat, 1999.
- 40.
Tekke is a place where Muslim mystics gather.
- 41.
This is a Persian term meaning poor.
- 42.
Istanbul also harbors part of the Shia community, as people immigrated from Kars and Iğdır.
- 43.
The use of the term Turkmen is at times contested by scholars, who argue that the term is not appropriate to distinguish historically the majority of Anatolian Turks and Turks living in Syria, Iraq and Central Asia.
- 44.
This is also what I noted about the Turkish and Kurdish Alevis and would perhaps apply to other cases.
- 45.
The Turkish community in Belgium extends to the Balkan countries and the Caucasus, despite the majority coming from Anatolia.
- 46.
Orientalism judges Alevism as heterodox. Heterodoxy and orthodoxy are terms used in Christianity. Their use within other religions should be clarified. One can employ the term heterodoxy only in a sociological sense to signify the minority aspect of the Alevi confession.
- 47.
Michaël Lebrecht, Alévis en Belgique. Approche générale et étude de cas, Brussels, Academia-Bruylant, 1997.
- 48.
For example, in addition to common figures and historical events such as the event of Karbala and Pir Sultan Abdal among the Alevis, the revolt of Koçgiri and the massacres of Dersim and Maraş occupy a place in the collective imaginary of the Alevi Kurds, which is not the case among the Turkish Alevis.
- 49.
Imam Hüseyin was the son of Imam Ali and the grandson of the Prophet of Islam. He was killed in Karbala by the army of the Umayyad dynasty. Karbala, located in Iraq, is one of the holy places of Shiism and is located in Iraqi territory.
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Orhan, M. (2020). Religious Movements Among the Turks in Belgium. In: Islam and Turks in Belgium. New Directions in Islam. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34655-3_2
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