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Religion as an authoritarian securitization and violence legitimation tool : The Erdoğanist Diyanet’s framing of a religious movement as an existential threat
Yilmaz, Ihsan Albayrak, Ismail
Yilmaz, Ihsan
Albayrak, Ismail
Author
Abstract
The paper shows how a state controlled religious institution used religion, fear, trauma, insecurity, grievances, and conspiracy theories to dehumanise a religious community, and presented it as an existential threat to the nation, the global community of believers and religion, by investigating the case of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs’ (the Diyanet) securitizing role under the authoritarian Islamist Erdoğanist rule. The article provides an empirically rich analysis of the Diyanet’s construction of the Gülen Movement (GM) as a source of sedition (fitne), corruption (fesat), mischief, a social disease, and finally, as a traitor and puppet of the West that constantly conspires against Turkey, Islam, and the Muslim World. By securitising the movement, the Diyanet legitimised the authoritarian and violent actions of the Erdoğanist regime against the alleged movement members.
Keywords
securitization, Islamism, Erdoğanism, Diyanet, Turkey, authoritarianism, violence, Gülen Movement
Date
2021
Type
Journal article
Journal
Religions
Book
Volume
12
Issue
8
Page Range
1-14
Article Number
Article 574
ACU Department
School of Theology
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
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Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open