"Islamic Calvinists" in Muslim Anatolia

Executive Summary

Among Europeans who are sceptical of Turkish membership of the European Union, it is common to hear the view that Turkey has two souls, only one of which is Western. They contrast the cosmopolitan outlook of Istanbul with the vast Turkish interior, which is seen as backward, impoverished and 'non-European' in its values.

Central Anatolia, with its rural economy and patriarchal, Islamic culture, is seen as the heartland of this 'other' Turkey. Yet in recent years, it has witnessed an economic miracle that has turned a number of former trading towns into prosperous manufacturing centres. This new prosperity has led to a transformation of traditional values and a new cultural outlook that embraces hard work, entrepreneurship and development. While Anatolia remains a socially conservative and religious society, it is also undergoing what some have called a 'Quiet Islamic Reformation'. Many of Kayseri's business leaders even attribute their economic success to their 'protestant work ethic'.

This report explores these social and economic changes in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, home to one million people. It presents detailed case studies of a number of strategic sectors: the emergence of Kayseri as Turkey's leading cluster of furniture manufacturers; the rise of Orta Anadolu, producing one percent of the world's denim; and the success of the Kayseri sugar refinery and its impact on local agriculture. These case studies illustrate how industrial capitalism emerged from a predominantly rural and merchant society within a single generation. They also demonstrate how policy failures by successive governments caused the 1990s to be a 'lost decade', and how the economic crisis of 2000/01 and the structural reforms which followed it have marked a decisive turning point for the Turkish economy.

The report also explores how over the past decade individualistic, pro-business currents have become prominent within Turkish Islam. It looks closer at Kayseri's most successful small town, the industrial district of Hacilar, whose 20,000 inhabitants have given birth to 9 out of Turkey's top 500 companies. It finally examines the position of women in this evolving Anatolian society, and why this could prove to be the Achilles heel of continued rapid development.

Today's governing party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Abdullah Gul (Kayseri's most prominent politician), and its political philosophy of 'democratic conservatism', are very popular in Central Anatolia. AKP's Kayseri headquarters was one of its first to be established, and in the 2004 municipal elections in Kayseri it won an overwhelming majority of 70 percent, its highest in the country. Democratic conservatism embraces many goals reminiscent of centrist political parties across Europe.

The report concludes that economic success and social development have created a milieu in which Islam and modernity coexist comfortably. It is the Anatolia shaped by these values that is now pressing its case to join the European Union.
-> http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=69

"Islamic Calvinism" and industrialisation meet in Turkey
Istanbul - In the last decade, Kayseri has become one of the industrial centres of Turkey. But what is remarkable is that economic success has gone in hand in hand with adherence to Islamic principles.
-> http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=20708&lan=en&sp=0

Turkey: "Muslim Calvinists" in Anatolia Show How Piety Can Blend with Modernity
July 23, 2008 - 7:00pm, by Nicholas Birch
"Tell me where Allah is and I will give you an orange. Tell me where Allah is not and I will give you an orange grove." This particular Koranic phrase graces a whiteboard at the entrance to the third biggest company in Gaziantep, a city of 1 million close to Turkey's border with Syria.
-> http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav072408a.shtml

'Protestant work ethic' in Muslim Turkey
KAYSERI, Turkey — As the muezzin heralds the noon prayers on Friday, a small army of workers fans out from an industrial park to take their places on mats in a nearby mosque. Fifteen minutes later, the prayers are over and the teachings of the Koran have given way to the demands of the factory floor.
-> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/business/worldbusiness/11iht-wbturkey.2450036.html

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Kayseri, a Central Anatolian province:





@Kaptaan You might be interested in this topic.

@Zulkarneyn I'd like to hear your opinion about this topic.

I would say the term "Islamic Calvinism" is basically wrong because it leads to false associations; it's rather an originally Ottoman/Anatolian work ethic.

There is no "Islamic calvanism" here. Only traditional Islam that has been part of the region for centuries.

What's with idiots (especially from amongst Muslims) trying to explaing Islam using Christian terms? Islam is a different faith with different evolution. Trying to use Christian terms totally presents a wrong picture of Islam to the audience.

I recently read how "Muslim puritans" were against extra marital sexual relations. I was like oh boy, there are in for a big surprise because they think that is "puritans"--well, 99.9999% Muslims in the world might be puritans then

Dumb Europeans and dumber wanna-be Europeans distort Islam for their own agendas.

I've mentioned this topic a number of times on PDF, i'll start with with quoting what i wrote here before.

Currently what Muslim countries should focus on is national consciousness and development in national stage. On this forum i've repeatedly underlined the importance of islamic calvinism, how it progresses societies, if you want an example of this look up Turkey and anatolian tigers, and their place in Turkey's rising economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolian_Tigers
http://www.globalinvestormagazine.com/Article/3374077/Rise-of-the-Anatolian-Tigers.html
http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...-turkeys-silent-revolution/article3364873.ece

In short the recent (last couple decades) huge economic success occured simoultanously with sunni values that we hold dear in Turkey: Discipline, honesty, punctuality and being strenuous in your job.

This is just the economic aspect. I hope people know Max Weber's hugely influential thesis on the protestant ethic and capitalism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism
In the book, Weber wrote that capitalism in Northern Europe evolved when the Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprisesand engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, the Protestant work ethic was an important force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated emergence of modern capitalism.

Another essential aspect is how religion itself is viewed and operated by the state. On this i wrote a segment on PDF many years ago.
https://defence.pk/threads/islamic-and-western-thought-in-turkey-a-problem-yet-not-solved.163606

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I am Kayserili as well and have relatives who live in Kayseri and own some factories - what's explained in those articles are a great starting point, however, i think people from Asia and Middle East of Muslim origin ought to visit Central Anatolian cities, the Anatolian Tiger economies to witness this for themselves.

AUz said:

There is no "Islamic calvanism" here. Only traditional Islam that has been part of the region for centuries.

What's with idiots (especially from amongst Muslims) trying to explaing Islam using Christian terms? Islam is a different faith with different evolution. Trying to use Christian terms totally presents a wrong picture of Islam to the audience.

I recently read how "Muslim puritans" were against extra marital sexual relations. I was like oh boy, there are in for a big surprise because they think that is "puritans"--well, 99.9999% Muslims in the world might be puritans then

Dumb Europeans and dumber wanna-be Europeans distort Islam for their own agendas.

Click to expand...

I dont think using their terms for the sake of reference distorts or stains islam or Muslim values. It's mainly for the sake of reference and understanding the concept

@KediKesenFare @Zulkarneyn First of all thank you for sharing this with us. It's pretty profound stuff and I am going to read this - I might even decide to see the central Anatolian region for myself. I have already been to Antalya few years ago but I did not really go much beyond the tourist zone.

I don't think people quite appreciate why Turkey is important to us. I find the path that Turkey is walking along as familiar. Living in UK and brought up in secular and highly developed soceity throws up pretty similar challanges as Turks face. We are on the same flightpath as it were.

While the economic miracle that is taking place in middle of Anatolia is exciting but I never thought that mating economic success with Islam was a anathema. What I look forward to and the thing that I have thus far not seen anywhere in Islamic world is the mating of secular law with Islamic conservatism. That is the real rubiks cube. I have done lot of reading including Dr Allama Iqbals works on "Reconstitution of Islamic Thought" but I have not seen anythong that sufficiently addresses the issue as yet. I look to Turkey to see how things are resolved.

How do we secure Islamic conservatism with the framwork of society? As law is the frame that binds society and defines it to my eyes it is imperative that this question is resolved. Specifically family law and personal law are vehicles that sustain and institutionalize Islamic conservatism in a formal setting. In a informal setting, rural traditions resting on the agrarian socio-economic order sustain Islamic conservatism. This can be seen by the fact that even after nin decades of Kemalism the rural heartland of Anatolia has remained true to Islamic conservatism. I would argue that the reason for this was the socio-economic order. Now that it is going through a revolution it wil augur change in the habits, mores and religiousity of those who are now going through a economic revolution.

What I mean it economic change will undermine the socio-economic order that sustained the Islamic conservatism despite years of acidic Kemalism. Will economic success unto what Kemalism failed to do? That is the big question. My own feeling is it will. I am using UK and the history of methodists, Anglicans etc over the last century. All over British towns you see empty, elaborate and beautiful churches built by hard working Christian industrialists in the Victorian era. They stand testimony to time when hard work, church and family were centre of life. But no more. Century of economic change has eaten away at the morals of society leaving a atomized family with members being increasingly athiest.

Anyway we will see how it plays out.

Zulkarneyn said:

I dont think using their terms for the sake of reference distorts or stains islam or Muslim values. It's mainly for the sake of reference and understanding the concept

Click to expand...

It matters nought what you call the concept. That is just a synonym for a idea. To cry on about the nomenclature only betrays lack of deep thinking.

So-called Islamic Calvinism or any other western flavoured reformism about Islam is synonymous for FETÖ terror organization in Turkey and the other parts of the Islamic world. A Hardworking, Entrepreneur and Honest Muslim tradesman is just a Muslim, a good one for sure. They don't need namings originated from history of Christianity.

Cities like Eskisehir, Kayseri and Konya made huge leap in the last decade and exporting products all over the world which is good since Istanbul isnt able to grow anymore.