mind gymnastics

[schoolmaster1954]

Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State
September 2003
224pp
bibliog index

Christopher Houston
Paperback $27.95
ISBN 1859734774

Hardback $84.95
ISBN 1859734723



Reviews
'As a study of those who conceive themselves to be most mis-recognized by the Turkish Republic, this book could not be more thoughtful or timely. Houston weaves together political analysis and ethnographic nuance with a deft hand, bringing out from the troubled textures of everyday life in 'global' Istanbul not only diversity of cultural and political style, but subtle and unexpected resonances between contesting positions. Ranging amiably over the world of political rallies, football matches, neighbourhood strolls, cafe life and satellite TV, Houston's book reminds us of the life left in modernity, just when, on Europe's fringe, many assumed it to have run aground.'

Martin Stokes, University of Chicago



'This is the best intellectual history of Turkey to appear in two decades. Recommended for everyone interested in Turkey, the Kurds, Islam, or "globalization".'

Choice



'Houston focuses on an important question and offers detailed data … This is no small success.'

Middle East Journal



'A well-argued, well-researched, and profound analysis of an important issue.'

Journal of Islamic Studies



'A splendid guide through the warren of Turkish political and popular culture … Houston uncovers a new kind of diversity rising from the wreckage of modernity.'

The Global Review of Ethnopolitics



'Christopher Houston's book is that rare thing, a scholarly and sympathetic book about an Asian country that both opens a window onto the life of the country and subjects its culture and institutions to uncomforting critique … An antidote to sweeping and monolithic characterisations of Islam, his book could not be more timely.'

Thesis 11



'This work is a labour of love, to deliver which the author spent two years in Turkey … [it is] a significant interdisciplinary contribution to international thinking on one of the world's most pressing geopolitical problems.'

Anthropological Theory
Book Description
Can Islamism, as is often claimed, truly unite Muslim Turks and Kurds in a discourse that supersedes ethnicity? This is a volatile and exciting time for a country whose long history has been characterized by dramatic power play. Evolving out of two years of fieldwork in Istanbul, this book examines the fragmenting Islamist political movement in Turkey. As Turkey emerges from a repressive modernizing project, various political identities are emerging and competing for influence. The Islamist movement celebrates the failure of Western liberalism in Turkey and the return of politics based on Muslim ideals. However, this vision is threatened by Kurdish nationalism and the country’s troubled past.



Is Islamist multiculturalism even possible? The ethnic tensions surfacing in Turkey beg the question whether the Muslim Turks and Kurds can find common ground in religion. Houston argues that such unification depends fundamentally upon the flexibility of the rationale behind the Islamist movement's struggle.

About the author(s)
Dr. Christopher Houston Lecturer in Anthropology,University of Canterbury, New Zealand

[schoolmaster1954]

The unity of mankind is based on the belief in the Oneness of God, the Creator of the human race. He is the Lord over all human beings regardless of their colour, race, or beliefs. All humanity is entitled to share essential resources, thus everyone is EQUAL:

O' mankind, We have created you from a male and a female, and made

you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.

Indeed the most honourable of you in the sight of Allah is the one with

the most piety"
(Surah Al-Hujjarat 49:13)

[Vladimir]

Did you read it?

[Diri]

SchoolMaster - this forum is not an advertisement catalouge...

Do not post the SAME post more than necessary. You have posted that second post of yours in 3 other sub-forums too... What's the point? If people want to - they will comment it the first place...

[schoolmaster1954]

SchoolMaster - this forum is not an advertisement catalouge...

Do not post the SAME post more than necessary. You have posted that second post of yours in 3 other sub-forums too... What's the point? If people want to - they will comment it the first place...

SORRY BROTHER,
IT HAPPENED BY MISTAKE. I'M AN OLD MAN, SORRY!

[Vladimir]

And did you read it? It doesn't say Islam is the solution. Because Turkish Islamism is also mixed with Turkish nationalism.

[Diri]

SchoolMaster - this forum is not an advertisement catalouge...

Do not post the SAME post more than necessary. You have posted that second post of yours in 3 other sub-forums too... What's the point? If people want to - they will comment it the first place...

SORRY BROTHER,
IT HAPPENED BY MISTAKE. I'M AN OLD MAN, SORRY!

It's okey this time - but please don't do it again...

Where in Ankara do you reside?

[Vladimir]

You should buy the book schoolmaster.

A long time ago I was reading that book. It described also how in the past the Kurdish Muslim Mehmhet Pamak reminded Islamist listeners of the double dose of oppression that Kurds have experienced at the hands of the "democratic" Turkish Republic's rulers. He said Kurds have been discriminated against for being both Muslim and Kurdish. He illustrated this difference in a parable, in the expectation (like I did in this article: The Turkish politics of the republic of Kurdistanthat fiction cuts as deep as analysis.


"If there were a Kurdish Republic.
If the regime ruling the country named it Kurdey,
If Turkish were forbidden and if Turks were made to read, write and talk Kurdish (if education in Kurdish were compulsory),
If all the mountains in Turkish regions were decorated with the slogan "What happiness to those who say I am a Kurd',
If every morning in every school Turkish children were forced to shout, 'I am a true Kurd.. Let me exist as a gift to Kurdish existence',
If Turks who wanted their legitimate rights were made to eat filth and were subjected to every kind of torture.
If there were no modesty, honour, security of life or property in the Turkish areas,
If Turkish clubs and social organizations were banned, but Kurdish fraternities were encouraged to flourish and become centres for producing administrators and ideologues of the state,
If 'Kurdish nationalism' were guaranteed by the Constitution and idolized as unchangeable, unchallengeable principle of social life,
If everyone were forced to be a Kurd and the Kurdish president went on TV and announced to the whole nation, while looking into the eyes of Turks, that Kurdey was only for those who say 'I am a Kurd',
And worse - if Kurdish Muslims didn't perceive the level of trauma experienced by Turks but said, 'What difference does it make? We've all been oppressed you haven't suffered anything special.'

I wonder what Turks, especially Muslim Turks, would feel?
(Pamak 1996 translated by Christohoper Houstan in "Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State)

Everybody should check out that book.

[schoolmaster1954]

You should buy the book schoolmaster.

A long time ago I was reading that book. It described also how in the past the Kurdish Muslim Mehmhet Pamak reminded Islamist listeners of the double dose of oppression that Kurds have experienced at the hands of the "democratic" Turkish Republic's rulers. He said Kurds have been discriminated against for being both Muslim and Kurdish. He illustrated this difference in a parable, in the expectation (like I did in this article: The Turkish politics of the republic of Kurdistanthat fiction cuts as deep as analysis.


"If there were a Kurdish Republic.
If the regime ruling the country named it Kurdey,
If Turkish were forbidden and if Turks were made to read, write and talk Kurdish (if education in Kurdish were compulsory),
If all the mountains in Turkish regions were decorated with the slogan "What happiness to those who say I am a Kurd',
If every morning in every school Turkish children were forced to shout, 'I am a true Kurd.. Let me exist as a gift to Kurdish existence',
If Turks who wanted their legitimate rights were made to eat filth and were subjected to every kind of torture.
If there were no modesty, honour, security of life or property in the Turkish areas,
If Turkish clubs and social organizations were banned, but Kurdish fraternities were encouraged to flourish and become centres for producing administrators and ideologues of the state,
If 'Kurdish nationalism' were guaranteed by the Constitution and idolized as unchangeable, unchallengeable principle of social life,
If everyone were forced to be a Kurd and the Kurdish president went on TV and announced to the whole nation, while looking into the eyes of Turks, that Kurdey was only for those who say 'I am a Kurd',
And worse - if Kurdish Muslims didn't perceive the level of trauma experienced by Turks but said, 'What difference does it make? We've all been oppressed you haven't suffered anything special.'

I wonder what Turks, especially Muslim Turks, would feel?
(Pamak 1996 translated by Christohoper Houstan in "Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State)

Everybody should check out that book.

Dear muslim brother,
I understand you very well. We lived the same feelings during ex-Soviet Unions. There were many slave Turkish muslims. In Sportive Competitions, they raced in the name of Russians. They played with Turkish dialects and produce artificial languages. This is a lerge matter. It can't be told in a shot writing. It makes a good article.
I remembered something when I was a young man. I was walking at the seashore in Silifke. I met a gruop of Turmen students. I wanted to speak to them but they were very afraid of Saddam. Their teacher didn't let them speak with me. I cried then. How fearsome man was Saddam!!!!!!
Turkey's politics is very hypocritical one. Once, Greece didn't accept the chosen Mufti. They appointed an offical one. Turkey wanted the chosen Mufti to work even Turkey itself didn't let muslims choose our mufti.
Wassalam.

[schoolmaster1954]

You should buy the book schoolmaster.

A long time ago I was reading that book. It described also how in the past the Kurdish Muslim Mehmhet Pamak reminded Islamist listeners of the double dose of oppression that Kurds have experienced at the hands of the "democratic" Turkish Republic's rulers. He said Kurds have been discriminated against for being both Muslim and Kurdish. He illustrated this difference in a parable, in the expectation (like I did in this article: The Turkish politics of the republic of Kurdistanthat fiction cuts as deep as analysis.


"If there were a Kurdish Republic.
If the regime ruling the country named it Kurdey,


If Turkish were forbidden and if Turks were made to read, write and talk Kurdish (if education in Kurdish were compulsory),
If all the mountains in Turkish regions were decorated with the slogan "What happiness to those who say I am a Kurd',
If every morning in every school Turkish children were forced to shout, 'I am a true Kurd.. Let me exist as a gift to Kurdish existence',
If Turks who wanted their legitimate rights were made to eat filth and were subjected to every kind of torture.
If there were no modesty, honour, security of life or property in the Turkish areas,
If Turkish clubs and social organizations were banned, but Kurdish fraternities were encouraged to flourish and become centres for producing administrators and ideologues of the state,
If 'Kurdish nationalism' were guaranteed by the Constitution and idolized as unchangeable, unchallengeable principle of social life,
If everyone were forced to be a Kurd and the Kurdish president went on TV and announced to the whole nation, while looking into the eyes of Turks, that Kurdey was only for those who say 'I am a Kurd',
And worse - if Kurdish Muslims didn't perceive the level of trauma experienced by Turks but said, 'What difference does it make? We've all been oppressed you haven't suffered anything special.'

I wonder what Turks, especially Muslim Turks, would feel?
(Pamak 1996 translated by Christohoper Houstan in "Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State)

Everybody should check out that book.

How can I get that book, dear brother? Can I read it online?

[Vladimir]

You can order it online. You cannot read it online.

[schoolmaster1954]

You can order it online. You cannot read it online.

Turkey is not free enough to discuss Kurdish problems. I might be thougt I'm for PKK. It is very dangerous.

[Vladimir]

It's just a book. You can get Kurdish books at Kurdish institute in Istanbul too. It's an objective book.

[schoolmaster1954]

It's just a book. You can get Kurdish books at Kurdish institute in Istanbul too. It's an objective book.

Sorry, I don't know Kurdish. I speak Turkish and English.

[Vladimir]

It's just a book. You can get Kurdish books at Kurdish institute in Istanbul too. It's an objective book.

Sorry, I don't know Kurdish. I speak Turkish and English.

It's a scientific book about Kurds in Turkey. Is Turkey so bad, that you get problems for reading a book? I cannot imagine that.