Campagna - Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey

at Boston University

"Muslim Politics, Secular Predicaments and State Transformation"

Professor Berna Turam

Time:  5 PM (Lecture)

Date:  Wednesday 4 November 2009

Location:  225 Bay State Road, Boston on the Boston University Campus

* Co-Sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations

 ** About the Speaker:  Berna Turam is an Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Northeastern University. She received two B.A degrees from Sociology and Political Science departments at Bosphorus University, and her Ph.D. in Sociology at McGill University. Her specialization is in political sociology focusing on state-society interaction, and intersections of religion, urban space and gender.

*** For more information on the Campagna-Kerven lecture series see the webpage where you may read more about this year’s speaker, as well as see encores of recent lectures in streaming video.

 **** Seating is limited, and we usually have a full house for this annual lecture. If you plan to attend, please email Ms. Allison Goodwin Patenaude algoods@bu.edu to reserve a seat.

Video link: Mustafa Akyol's Boston U. lecture, April 15, 2009.

BUniverse - Yes, We Can! Toward a Brave New Turkey

"Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol discusses Turkey’s historical and contemporary struggle toward political and cultural modernity in the 2009 Campagna-Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey. Since 1996, the lecture series has brought leading scholarly and popular authorities to Boston University to speak on Turkey’s changing society and its role in the Middle East. Although the country has long sought to embrace Western values, Akyol argues, recent developments are causing many Turks to reconsider what “westernization” actually means.

"Akyol begins with an overview of the region’s history, from the Ottoman Empire to the creation of the Republic of Turkey in the 1920s to the present. He argues that many observers wrongly overlook the religiously and ethnically diverse — and surprisingly tolerant — Ottoman society when seeking an explanation for Turkish Muslim’s relatively progressive attitudes: “The sum of the dichotomies between Islam and democracy was actually sorted out by Islamic intellectuals back in the nineteenth century,” Akyol asserts. He explains the rise of the Republic in the context of Turkey’s tendency to equate modernization with westernization. Throughout the last century, he notes, liberals have tried to force social reforms on the Turkish people, while “democracy” has been equated with allowing people to live more traditional lifestyles (such as a Muslim woman choosing to wear a headscarf). Now, he says, the Turkish middle class is beginning to regard religious freedom as more of a Western idea than as enforced modern customs.

"After examining both historical and current episodes in Turkish life, Akyol concludes that, despite a growing Islamist sentiment within the country, religious struggles ultimately will not destabilize the nation. It is rising Turkish nationalism, he says, and not traditional Islam, that “has turned into a force which opposes anything that is new.” But, he says, the people who have corrupted Ataturk’s legacy — such as two retired generals who are now on trial for attempting a coup — are showing Turkish citizens that “the people who claim to be patriots can also be criminals.”"

BU Universe videos.

Mustafa Akyol at the Campagna-Kerven lecture, April 15, 2009--UPDATED

The 2009 talk was a splendid and lively overview of Turkish political history, beginning with the reforms of the late Ottoman empire and extending to the present. Among other themes, Akyol focused on the emergence of the Anatolian middle class, and the challenges it has successfully posed to the Kemalist elites that have dominated Turkey since the founding of the republic in 1923.
A streaming video of the lecture will be available in about a week, and WBUR "World of Ideas" will broadcast the entire lecture in the near future. Watch here for more details.

In addition to the comments below, readers may be interested in comments posted on Kamil Pasha. These comments discuss critically Akyol's position on "intelligent design," which was not the topic of his lecture. At least one commenter argues (see below) that Akyol's perspective on evolution disqualifies him as a speaker on politics and history. That is an untenable position at a university, however, because it would suggest that speakers should be screened to insure they accept a particular scientific orientation, or worldview.

Lieberman to become Foreign Minister (updated)

Bibi still has negotiations ahead of him, but Avigdor Lieberman is certainly at the front to the train. (Lieberman is secular and his avowal of civil marriage offends the Jewish fundamentalists, so Netanyahu still has some tough bargaining to do with the so-called religious parties.)

For comparably preposterous appointment in the U.S. context, imagine David Duke as Attorney General or Rush Limbaugh as Secretary of State. The new Netanyahu government should help to drive a stake through the claim that the U.S. and Israeli are linked by a robust affinity of interests.

Lieberman, often described in Israel as a racist, resides in Noqedim, a West Bank settlement. Recall that one of President Envoy George Mitchell's objectives is to see a halt in the continuing colonization of the West Bank by Israeli settlers. Fat chance!

Some European reaction.

And this from Ken Silverstein: Uzi Arad, who is expected to serve as national security adviser in the next Israeli government, has been barred from entering the United States for nearly two years on the grounds that he is an intelligence risk. Mr. Arad, a former member and director of intelligence for the Mossad, Israel’s spy service, is mentioned in the indictment of Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst who pleaded guilty in 2005 to providing classified information about Iran in a conversation with two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Adam Shatz: The Clarion Fund and its Obsession

As many of you know, in recent weeks a shadowy group tied to the tax-exempt Clarion Fund have circulated 28 million copies of "Obsession", a 2006 video. The video is designed to heighten fears about violent Muslims and raise the alarm about "radical Islam."

The film is complementary to efforts by other activists to alert the public of "Islamo-facism," a term that is indiscriminately applied to denote a variety of Muslim groups and activities. Shatz has done a bit of detective work to determine who stands behind the Clarion Fund. He notes that the group avoids an express endorsement of John McCain, but its narrative fits well with whispering campaigns intended to lined Barack Obama to Islam and to Muslim extremists. Even so, it remains to be determined whether the group's effort to influence the upcoming U.S. election is a violation of IRS regulations. Tax-exempt groups under section 501 (c) 3 of the IRS Code are specifically prohibited by IRS regulations from seeking to influence political campaigns.

Here is the relevant IRS standard:

"Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes."
LRB · Adam Shatz: Short Cuts

Jon Stewart on pandering

This gutsy June 5 segment of the Daily Show is a suitable backdrop to the Obama's visit to Israel, where he was at pains to underline his fealty to Israel, and his empathy for the challenges Israelis face.
Indecision 5768 | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Belongs on the Ballot, Not Behind Bars - Forward.com"

Those who do not follow Egyptian politics closely may be tempted to dismiss Essam el-Erian's depiction of the Mubarak regime's disrespect for freedom and the law as exaggerated, but to do so would be quite wrong. The writer is a leading member of the Muslim Brothers (MB), a man respected for his moderation and good sense. His description is measured and quite accurate.

I last lived in Egypt in late 2006 and early 2007, for six months, and I have been there many times over the past decades. There is no doubt that the scope of freedom in Egypt has been steadily constricted particularly since 2001. The insecure and calcified regime that dominates public life is unwilling to tolerate any credible political opposition. No doubt, the Muslim Brothers are the most important opposition movement in the country, as el-Erian notes, but other respectable opposition groups have suffered the same fate as the MB. In addition, even liberal intellectuals are finding themselves tightly monitored and controlled.

The constriction of freedom has often been rationalized as incidental to the puzzle of succession. Gamal Mubarak is widely understood as the likely successor to his father, but one continues to hear reports of unease about the younger Mubarak in important military and security circles. The result is a truly stultifying political environment, one that bears a closer resemblance politically to Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe in the 1970s than to a Mediterranean democracy.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Belongs on the Ballot, Not Behind Bars - Forward.com"

Mark your calendar if you are interested in Turkey

The Campagna-Kerven Lecturer for 2008 has just been named. He is Professor Henri Barkey, one of the foremost experts on Turkish politics in North America. If you are going to be in or around Boston, Massachusetts on April 16, 2008. You are most welcome to attend. This annual lecture, now in its second decade, is usually a premier event.

Egyptian Islamists draft political programme

FT.com / World - Islamists draft political programme

"A fresh wave of Egyptian government crackdowns against the main opposition movement has been directed against a varied range of targets – a students’ “summer camp” on the Mediterranean coast, an evening meeting of senior officials at a businessman’s Cairo residence, and the more typical dawn raids on members’ houses.

"On Wednesday, it was the turn of two members of parliament to be detained.

"The result has been dozens more members of the Muslim Brotherhood finding themselves behind bars in recent weeks. Brotherhood officials say more than 500 members are in detention, including 40 on trial in a military tribunal facing charges of money-laundering and terrorism."