Politicisation of Islam in a Secular State: The National Salvation Party in Turkey

Abstract

One of the many witticisms of Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the National Salvation Party (NSP) (Milli Selamet Partisi) is a term he often used to describe his opponents. He labelled them as members of the ‘Western Club’: a club for people of short memory who have forgotten their past in the whirlwind of a misdirected quest to embrace Western culture and civilisation. According to Erbakan and the NSP, the rejection of Islamic in favour of Western civilisation has stripped Turkish intellectuals and statesmen of a political vision. Politicians of the ‘Western Club’, insofar as they lack a sense of history, are doomed to failure in their efforts to lead the country out of the underdeveloped world.