Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Is it possible to establish a radical separation between religion and politics in constitutionally secular states? In many countries, religious people are becoming activists, trying to change the policies based on their believes or get a share from the state power. Their claims are sometimes within the democratic structure of the country, and sometimes outside of it. This study considers data collected from open sources such as newspapers, statistics, survey results in Turkey, in order to find the reply for these questions. Turkey is the first Muslim country which has made secular ideology clear in its Constitution, and state-religion relationship was/is always a controversial issue in Turkey. Since the victory of AKP, religion has become visible in the public sphere. This visibility of religion will be elaborated based on the dimensions of religion by Ninian Smart which are: Doctrine/Philosophy, Ritual, Mythic/Narrative, Experiential/Emotional, Ethical/Legal, Social, Material.