Book Review: Turam, B. (2007). Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
Abstract
Ahmet T.Kuru San Diego State University In the aftermath of 9/11, Islam's relations with the secular state has been avidly debated in both academia and policy circles. In some Muslim countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, versions of political Islamist ideology are the bases of state struc- tures rejecting any notion of secularism. In some other countries, such as Tunisia and Syria, the state does not allow any Islamic political activity. Turkey constitutes a unique case in the Muslim world by combining a secular state with a multiparty democracy (despite the military interventions), which allows political participation of Islamic groups. During the past decade, Islamic groups in Turkey experienced a substantial transformation by developing a positive attitude toward Turkey's democ- ratization and its membership to the European Union. This transformation promises some global implications in terms of democratization of Islamic groups in other parts of the world. Yet there is still a limited number of studies on the subject. Some analyses focus on the societal aspect of the changing Islamic attitudes in Turkey (Yavuz & Esposito, 2003), whereas others examine its political dimension (Yavuz, 2006). Few works stress the connection between these two sides (Kuru, 2005). In