Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World pp 91–111Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Australia and Turkey in Postsecular Perspectives

  • Chapter

  • 73 Accesses

Abstract

The relationship of mutual respect that Australia and Turkey have built over the past century is remarkable, not just because it is the friendship of former enemies, but because it is the friendship of societies that, according to many social measures, are fundamentally different. This is evident when examining religion in Australia and Turkey Whereas individual and public religiosity has increased in Turkey in recent decades, were it not for ongoing large-scale immigration and the disproportionately higher birth rates of new Australians from the developing world, the decline of religiosity in Australia (according to every conventional social scientific measure) would be even more apparent than it is.1 Focusing on some of these measures, and viewing Australia from Turkey or Turkey from Australia, is like looking through a camera obscura. For example, Australians and Turks were asked in the World Values Survey whether the ‘basic meaning of religion’ is to ‘make sense of life in this world’ or to make sense of ‘life after death’.2 Three-quarters of the Australians interviewed replied that religion exists to make sense of life in this world and three-quarters of the Turks interviewed held that religion exists to make sense of life in the next. Yet the survey also shows that a significantly higher proportion of Turks view religion as the source of solutions to difficulties within family and society.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Phillip Hughes, Margaret Fraser and Stephen Reid (2012) Australia’s Religious Communities: Facts and Figures (Melbourne: Christian Research Association), 3–6.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Jürgen Habermas (2008) ‘Notes on a Post-Secular Society’, New Perspectives Quarterly, 25 (4), 17–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Charles Taylor (2007) A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 22.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Jürgen Habermas (2006) ‘Religion in the Public Sphere’, European Journal of Philosophy, 14 (1), 4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Nilüfer Göle (2012) ‘Globalization 2.0: Postsecular Turkey’, New Perspectives Quarterly, 29(1), 7–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Alper Bilgili (2011) ‘Post-Secular Society and the Multi-Vocal Religious Sphere in Turkey’, European Perspectives, 3 (2), 131.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gregor McLennan (2010) ‘The Postsecular Turn’, Theory, Culture & Society, 27 (4), 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Steve Bruce (2011) Secularization (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. James A. Beckford (2012) ‘Public Religions and the Postsecular: Critical Reflections’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51 (1), 3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Tariq Modood (2010) ‘Moderate Secularism, Religion as Identity and Respect for Religion’, The Political Quarterly, 81 (1), 4–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Adam Possamai (2008) ‘Australia’s “Shy” De-Secularisation Process’, in Basia Spalek and Alia Imtoual (eds), Religion, Spirituality and the Social Sciences: Challenging Marginalisation (Bristol: Policy Press), 23–35.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Tom Frame (2006) Church and State: Australia’s Imaginary Wall (Sydney: UNSW Press), 52.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Holly Randell-Moon (2008) ‘Section 116: The Politics of Secularism in Australian Legal and Political Discourse’, in Spalek and Imtoual (eds), Religion, Spirituality and the Social Sciences, 51–62.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kate Gleeson (2011) ‘Tony Abbott and Abortion: Miscalculating the Strength of the Religious Right’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 46 (3), 480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Marion Maddox (2006) God under Howard (Sydney: Allen & Unwin), 228–58.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Holly Randell-Moon (2011) ‘Social Security with a Christian Twist in John Howard’s Australia’, in Michael Bailey and Guy Redded (eds), Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio-Cultural Change in the Twenty-First Century (Aldershot: Ashgate), 203–15.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Michális S. Michael (2009) ‘Australia’s Handling of Tensions between Islam and the West under the Howard Government’, Asian Journal of Political Science, 17 (1), 45–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Commonwealth of Australia (2004) Transnational Terrorism: The Threat to Australia (Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), 2.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Gary Bouma (1995) ‘Emergence of Religious Pluralism in Australia’, Sociology of Religion, 56 (3), 286–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Ibrahim Abraham (2013) ‘Pentevangelical Youth Subcultures: Between Resistance and Compromise’, Youth Studies Australia, 32 (3), 3–12.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Gary Bouma (2011) ‘Tslamophobia as a Constraint to World Peace: The Case of Australia’, Islam & Christian-Muslim Relations, 22 (4), 433–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Michális S. Michael (2013) ‘Framing Interfaith Dialogue in Australia’s Multicultural Setting: Mounting an Interfaith and Intercultural Network in Melbourne’s Northern Region’, Religion, State and Society, 41 (1), 35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Gary Bouma (2006) Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press), 101–5, 162–5; Possamai, Australia’s “Shy” De-Secularisation Process’.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  24. Yıldız Atasoy (2009) Islam’s Marriage with Neoliberalism: State Transformation in Turkey (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 122.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  25. Ibrahim Abraham (2006) ‘Hijab in an Age of Fear: Security, Secularism, and Human Rights’, Australian Religion Studies Review, 19 (2), 169–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Directorate of Religious Affairs (2012) Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı Stratejik Planı 2012–2016 [Strategic Plan of the Directorate of Religious Affairs 2012–2016] (Ankara: Diyanet), 58–61.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Australian Human Rights Commission (2011) Freedom of Religion in Australia (Sydney: Australian Human Rights Commission), 68, 81;

    Google Scholar 

  28. James Jupp (2011) ‘Religion and Integration in a Multifaith Society’, in Michael Clyne and James Jupp (eds), Multiculturalism and Integration: A Harmonious Relationship (Canberra: ANU E-Press), 142.

    Google Scholar 

  29. İren Özgür (2012) Islamic Schools in Modern Turkey: Faith, Politics, andEducation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  30. Ali Çarkoğlu and Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (2009) The Rising Tide of Conservatism in Turkey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan);

    Book  Google Scholar 

  31. Birol A. Yeşilada and Peter Noordijk (2010) ‘Changing Values in Turkey: Religiosity and Tolerance in Comparative Perspective’, Turkish Studies, 11 (1), 9–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Pew Research Centre (2013) The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society (Washington, DC: Pew Research Centre), 64, 117.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (2010) ‘Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey’, in Nathan J. Brown and Emad El-Din Shahin (eds), The Struggle over Democracy in the Middle East (London: Routledge), 156–9.

    Google Scholar 

  34. E. Fuat Keyman and Ahmet İçduygu (2003) ‘Globalization, Civil Society and Citizenship in Turkey: Actors, Boundaries and Discourses’, Citizenship Studies, 7 (2), 219–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. M. Hakan Yavuz (2009) Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 262–3.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  36. See Jenny White (2002) Islamist Mobilization in Turkey (Seattle: University of Washington Press); and (2012) Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Erik J. Zurcher (2004) Turkey: A Modern History, 3rd edn (London: I.B. Taurus), 226–7.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Olivier Roy (2012) ‘Is “Islamism” a Neo-Orientalist Plot?’, in Amel Boubekeur and Olivier Roy (eds), Whatever Happened to the Islamists? (New York: Columbia University Press), 22.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Ahmet Yıldız (2008) ‘Problematizing the Intellectual and Political Vestiges: From “Welfare” to “Justice and Development”’, in Ümit Cizre (ed.), Secular and Islamic Politics in Turkey (London: Routledge), 41–61.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Anna Crabb (2009) ‘Invoking Religion in Australian Polities’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 44 (2), 259–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Rodney Smith (2009) ‘How Would Jesus Vote? The Churches and the Election of the Rudd Government’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 44 (4), 613–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Clive Bean (1999) ‘The Forgotten Cleavage? Religion and Politics in Australia’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 32 (3), 552–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. John Warhurst (2007) ‘Religion and Politics in the Howard Decade’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 42 (1), 20–3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. David Marr (2012) ‘Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott’, Quarterly Essay, 47, 1–135.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Smith, ‘How Would Jesus Vote?’; David Marr (2010) ‘Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd’, Quarterly Essay, 38, 56–67.

    Google Scholar 

  46. John Rawls (1999) ‘The Idea of Public Reason Revisited’, in Samuel Freeman (ed.), John Rawls: Collected Papers (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 573–615.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Cihan Tuğal (2010) Passive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press), 49–55.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Cihan Tuğal (2008) ‘The Greening of Istanbul’, New Left Review (Second Series), 51, 65–80.

    Google Scholar 

  49. World Health Organization (2011) Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (Geneva: World Health Organization).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Menderes Çmar (2011) ‘The Electoral Success of the AKP: Causes for Hope and Despair’, Insight Turkey, 13 (4), 113–15.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Michele Dillon (2010) ‘Can Post-Secular Society Tolerate Religious Differences?’, Sociology of Religion, 71 (2), 153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. John Rawls (1999) ‘Interview with John Rawls’, in Freeman (ed.), John Rawls, 620.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Ibrahim Abraham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Umut Parmaksız
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University, Australia

    Michális S. Michael (Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Director) (Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Director)

Copyright information

© 2015 Ibrahim Abraham and Umut Parmaksız

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Abraham, I., Parmaksız, U. (2015). Australia and Turkey in Postsecular Perspectives. In: Michael, M.S. (eds) Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-49315-6_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation