In November 2002, Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the majority of the votes in the general elections and formed the government. AKP's electoral victory was a major development in Turkish politics, one that was the culmination of the growing importance of Islamic identity since the 1980s, but it also reflected the impact of the liberalization of the country's economy and politics in the 1990s. AKP was formed by a breakaway faction of the main Turkish Islamic political movement, disavowing that movement's more contentious Islamic demands in order to adopt a moderate and democratic platform. The meteoric rise of a party with origins in Islamic activism in the most secular Muslim country, one that has served as the paragon for secularism across the Muslim world, is a member of NATO, and is an aspirant to membership in the European community, has raised a number of interesting questions. There is much in the example of Turkey that is instructive for the study of Islamic activism, but there has so far been a dearth of studies on the subject. Hakan Yavuz's seminal study seeks to fill that lacuna.

The AKP phenomenon reinforces belief in the ineluctable victory of Islam over secularism, yet challenges many of the dominant assumptions about the unchanging nature of Islamic activism and its attitude toward politics. Yavuz's central thesis is that in Turkey, Islamic activism has flourished in the crucible of democratization and economic liberalism, and has its base of support among those who favor globalization and Turkey's integration into the European community. This is possible in Turkey because its Islamic identity is both culturally plural and “modern.” Yavuz sees the nature of contemporary Islamic activism in Turkey as a product of state–society relations. The Kemalist state sought to dominate that relationship but has failed. Still, in the process, it has greatly influenced Turkish society and, hence, the nature of Islamic activism in it. This is an important point, which the author could have explored more fully.

Yavuz instead seeks to show that the growing prominence of Islam in Turkey is a consequence of the weakening of Kemalist ideology and its sources of support in state institutions—suggesting that secularism, far from having grown roots in Turkish society, has remained largely dependent on state fiat, which is now on the decline owing to the shrinking of state control of the economy and politics. Islam had never really lost the cultural battle to secularism; it was rather Turkish society that had lost ground to the state. With the weakening of the state in recent years, Islam has once again become a central force in the public space. The victory of secularism was therefore only temporary. What makes Yavuz's work interesting is that it goes beyond the usual approaches to Turkish politics that have been focused on the study of Kemalism and have accepted much of its claims about Islam and its place in politics at face value.

Yavuz provides a rich history of Islam in Turkey beginning with the Ottoman period, but most importantly, during the Republican era about which very little is known. The analytical narrative then moves on to developments after the military coup of the 1980 and the liberalization era of the 1990s. The author analyzes the roles of the various actors: the Kemalist elite, the intellectual classes and Islamic social and religious networks associated with Naqshbandi Sufi orders and the Nur movement, and finally the new bourgeois elite and democratic forces. He provides a historical framework that allows the reader to relate the transformation of what he calls “Turkish Islam” in the context of changes in state and society, thus explaining why Islamic activism in Turkey draws its power from the very forces of modernity—the new business elite and democratic forces—contrary to conventional wisdom on the subject.

The Turkish case sheds new light on the study of political Islam. Here, Islamic identity is rooted in economic progress. It is facilitated by educational opportunities and the growth of new media outlets. Islamic activism is open to modernity and is receptive to the influence of its economic, social, and political expressions. Turkish Islam, as explained by Yavuz, is less rigid and ideological—in fact, it is surprisingly divorced from the Islamist discourse in the rest of the Muslim world. Its reference points are Ottoman rather than early Islamic history. Its political vision is inclusive of secular ideas and practices and sidesteps the uncompromising demands of Islamist dogma and its goal of creating an Islamic state. Neither is Islamic activism in Turkey directed at the creation of such a state, nor does it view the Islamic state as the guarantor of survival and propagation of Islamic values in society. In fact, as the rise of AKP suggests, Islam in Turkish politics is rapidly adapting itself to the demands of a democratic and economically liberal Turkey. All this may be true, but AKP does not exclude extremist elements that continue to draw inspiration from Islamist ideology on a par with their Arab or Uzbek comrades. Yavuz, however, believes that extremist and ideological approaches to Islam in Turkey are of marginal importance to the larger forces that are shaping state and society in the country.

If it is indeed true that a more moderate and inclusive form of Islamic activism has managed to dominate the political scene at the expense of extremist elements, then the Turkish case is indeed worthy of particular attention. This is exactly what Yavuz argues, and as such, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey will generate much debate. This is an important book, which not only examines the relation of Islam to politics anew and from a very different perspective but also provides a fresh look at Turkish politics. For those who are interested in state–society relations, it provides a wealth of information with historical depth of direct relevance to the theoretical discussions on the subject.