Wednesday February 16 2011 / Internationalization
Democracy in Turkey and the Netherlands: Religion, Identity and Citizenship
The secular world view associated with modernity in Europe is under pressure. An illiberal backlash against the presence of migrants from different religious backgrounds threatens the principle of freedom of religion in Western Europe. In Turkey, the dominant secular ideology of the nation state is being contested by the pious Muslim middle classes with the governing AKP as their spokesman, but also minority groups such as Alevis, Christians and Jews whose religious freedoms are being restricted by the state. In the Netherlands, the debate focuses on a redefinition of religious freedom in an equally sensitive political climate.
The relationship between religion, citizenship, and democracy is hotly debated, both in Turkey and in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the debate is on how to deal with a widely defined freedom of religion, whereas in Turkey the parameters of this freedom themselves are contested. Although the Turkish and Dutch contexts may seem to differ widely at first glance, an open, critical and comparative discussion will offer an opportunity to draw parallels as well as differences and identify common challenges facing the two societies.
Selim Deringil (Department of History, Boğaziçi University) will open the conference with an introduction on the historical development of religion, society and state relations in Turkey, followed by Erik-Jan Zürcher (International Institute of Social History - IISG) with a similar historical analysis of the Dutch case.
Paul Scheffer (Publicist, special lecturer on Urban Problematics, University of Amsterdam) and Etyen Mahçupyan (TESEV Democratization Program and Zaman newspaper) will subsequently discuss the contemporary challenges in Turkey and the Netherlands, followed by a public discussion. Moderator: Markha Valenta (University of Amsterdam).
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