The Ottoman Empire (1280-1918) ruled over the Arab world for four centuries (1517-1918). Following its defeat in the First World War, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1923-1938) blamed the catastrophe on the ulama’s (Islamic scholars) resistance to innovation during the early modern era. Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation in 1517 enriched the European Renaissance and expedited the Industrial Revolution.
By contrast, Arab leaders blamed the defeat of the Empire on the abandonment of Islam by the Sultans. From such thinking, the Muslim Brotherhood organization was born in Egypt in 1928, and Wahhabism, the most extreme of the four Sunni rites, was made by Abdulaziz al-Saud the religion of the state he founded in 1932 and named after his family name.
In this article, I will address the role religion played in the defeat of the Empire, describe the Ataturk secularization that brought Turkey into the modern age, and contrast Turkey’s democratic governance with Arab rulers’ dictatorships. Finally, I will consider the challenges facing Arab democratic and religious reforms.
The Defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War (1914 – 1918)
The Martin Luther Revolution separated the Catholic Church from the European State. It freed the individual from the obtrusive control of the clergy. It enriched the renaissance in Europe and contributed to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. The Ottoman palace ulama feared scientific reasoning could erode their authority over the masses and encourage rebellion against the Sultans. They resisted modernization as sinful. They invoked purported Prophetic statements that discouraged innovation. For example:
The evillest of all matters are those that get modernized.[1]
Beware of innovation, for every innovation is heresy, and every heresy leads to the wrong path.[2]
The Prophet’s widow, Aisha, said that the Prophet had rejected any deviation from His teachings.[3]
Symptomatic of ulama’s impediments was the printing press, introduced to Europe in 1455. Until 1784, the Ottoman ulama regarded the printing in Arabic and Turkish an undesirable innovation. Bernard Lewis:
Seyh-ul-Islam Abdullah Efendi was persuaded to issue a fatwa authorizing the printing of books in Turkish on subjects other than religion. The printing of the Koran, of books on Koranic exegesis, traditions, theology, and holy law was excluded as unthinkable . . . Finally, on July 5, 1727, an Imperial Ferman [edict, or decree] was issued, giving permission for the establishment of a Turkish press.”[4]
However, fifteen years later, in 1742, the press was shut down, not to be reopened until 1784.
By the time Sultan Mahmut II (1808-1839) and his son, Sultan Abdulmecit (1839-1861), undertook certain modern reforms, it was too late.
The Kemalist Revolution
Between 1924 and 1935, Ataturk implemented an extensive program of fundamental change in Turkey. He abolished the Islamic caliphate on March 3, 1924. He also abolished Shari’a Laws and courts in 1926 and replaced them with modern personal status laws and courts modeled on the Swiss civil code and the Italian penal code. In equalizing the legal status of women with men, the Kemalist Revolution, enabled the democratic election of the first woman to the position of Prime Minister, Tansu Ciller (1993 – 1996).
Ataturk’s modernizations covered a wide range of other important areas. In 1925, the Western-style hat or cap replaced the fez. In 1926, the Western calendar replaced the Islamic calendar. In 1928, the Latin alphabet replaced Arabic, the alphabet of the Quran. In 1931, Western weights and measures were adopted. In 1935, Sunday replaced Friday as the day of rest.
The Erdogan Era
In the May 2023 parliamentary elections, Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the presidency by 52.2% of the vote cast and his Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its allies won 323 seats out of 600 seats. Mr. Erdogan formed the AKP in 2001, dominating politics in Turkey for the past twenty-four years.[5]
In his effort to join the European Union, Erdogan added to the Ataturk reforms. He adopted a series of fundamental judicial reforms to harmonize Turkey’s legal system with that of the EU. In January 2004, Turkey abolished the death penalty.[6] In 2009, the judicial provisions that allowed civilians to be tried in military courts were removed from the Turkish Constitution.[7] Judicial reforms were also adopted to restructure domestic judicial institutions in terms of their power and functions. The 2010 constitutional referendum expanded the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors from 7 members to 22.[8] Also, it granted Turkish citizens the right to individually apply to the Constitutional Court if government decisions, laws or the implementation of laws violate their basic rights and fundamental freedoms.[9]
Erdogan has not repealed Ataturk’s secular laws. The Swiss civil code and the Italian penal code are sacrosanct. Civil marriage, gender equality in divorce, custody of children, and inheritance continue to be secular. Polygamy is illegal. The changes Erdogan effected since AKP came to power have been modest: Construction of mosques, lifting the ban on wearing the hijab (scarf over a woman’s hair), encouraging enrollment in Islamic schools, restricting the sale of alcohol, and the introduction of Islamic banking.
Governance in Arab Countries
Arab kings and presidents are non-representative, non-participatory, and non-transparent dictators. Their rule is a family affair mired in tribalism, nepotism, and favouritism. Corruption is the glue that keeps Arab ruling groups together. Vulgar expressions of wealth and huge disparities of wealth between the ruling elites and the masses are the norm.
The monarchies were created by European powers around the time of the First World War. The presidents seized power through military coup d’etats. Kings and presidents govern until they die of natural causes, forcibly removed from office, or killed in palace intrigues or a military putsch.
To pretend popularity, the presidents contrive farcical non-contested referendums, with near 100% approvals. The royals receive mile-long lines of happy looking men (no women) pledging their allegiance on religious and national festivals.
Having no political legitimacy to rule, a huge cult of personality replaced separation of governmental powers, political parties, and free press. Parliaments, if they exist, are rubber stamp assemblies. The judiciary is compromised. Fear of torture in police dungeons terrifies the most hardened of parliamentarians and the most fearless of judges.
Having no political legitimacy, Arab royals and presidents exploit Islam to justify and maintain their hold on power. They mobilize the palace ulama to teach and preach Quranic and Sunna injunctions [Prophetic sayings (Hadith) and actions (Sira)] and age-old jurists’ opinions to obey the ruler blindly, even if he is cruel and unjust. They threaten disobedience with hell’s fire.
The Qur’an’s 4:59:
Obey God and obey God’s messenger and obey those of authority among you.
The Hadith collection of Muslim (d. 875), quotes the Prophet as saying:
He who obeys me obeys God; he who disobeys me, disobeys God. He who obeys the ruler, obeys me; he who disobeys the ruler, disobeys me.[10]
Taki Eddin Bin Taymiyya (1263-1328), advocated that the essence of government was:
The power of coercion… The ruler… could demand obedience from his subjects, for even an unjust ruler was better than strife and dissolution of society.” [11]
By contrast, non-Arab Muslim Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey, more than a half of world Muslims, hold democratic elections and allow women to become prime ministers and presidents. To non-Arab Muslims, democracy is compatible with the tenets of Islam.
Does poverty and short experience with democracy explain why Arab rule is dictatorial and non-Arab Muslim rule is democratic? The answer is no. Bangladesh, formed in 1971 and relatively poor, is democratic and has had more than one female prime minister. Pakistan, established in 1947, also relatively poor, has had periods of democratic governments and a female prime minister more than once. Indonesia, which gained independence in 1945, is relatively poor, democratic and had a woman president. Turkey, as indicated above, defeated and devastated in 1918, was secularized and democratized in the 1920s and had a woman prime minister.
Turkey is in a privileged position to guide Arab societies into democratic governance. The Ottomans ruled the Arab World for four centuries. During this long duration, Arabs and Turks shared religious affinities and the Arabic language of the Qur’an. Turkish and Arab families were drawn together through marriage. They also shared food, music, dance, customs and habits. Additionally, Turkey’s border with Syria and Iraq is long: 900 kilometers with the former and 360 kilometers with the latter.
The challenges facing Arab democratic and religious reforms
There are three challenges:
1. US strategy to control global crude oil exports. In a world addicted to crude oil, control of oil exports is a non-lethal weapon of mass destruction. It is far simpler for Washington to deal and protect a few dictators in Arab oil exporting states and surrounding countries than contend with political parties and democratic parliaments and institutions.
2. US strategy to defend Israel. In a pro-Palestinian Arab world, it is far simpler for Washington to deal with a few Arab dictators, willing to accommodate Israel, than contend with hostile democratic parliaments and institutions.
3. Arab Rulers’ use and Abuse of the Islamic Creed.
Arabs feel they are the guardians of an Arabic religion. The Quran was revealed in Arabic (43.3). It describes Arab Muslims as the best evolved to mankind (3:110). The Prophet, His Companions, and the Sanctuaries in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem are all Arabic. As indicated above, Arab kings and presidents exploit Islam to justify and maintain their dictatorships.
Footnotes
[1] The Six Books, Sahih al-bukhari, tradition 7277, p. 606.
[2] Ibid. Sunan Abi Dawood, tradition 4607, P. 1561 and Sunan Ibn Maja, traditions 43 to 46, P. 2479.
[3] Ibid. tradition 4606, p. 1561 and Sunan Ibn Maja, tradition 14, p. 2477.
[4] Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1961), P. 51.
[5] Stefano Fella, Nigel Walker, “Turkey under Erdoğan: recent developments and the 2023 elections”, UK Parliament, House of Commons Library, (July 7, 2023), https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9806
[6] Turkey Agrees Death Penalty Ban, BBC,(January 9, 2004).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3384667.stm
[7] Meltem Mü üler-Baç, Judicial Reform in Turkey and the EU’s Political Conditionality, (Mis)Fit between Domestic Preferences and EU Demands,Maximizing the integration capacity of the European Union, MAXCAP Working Paper No. 18, January 2016, PP. 13-14. http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/kfgeu/maxcap/system/files/maxcap_wp_18.pdf
[8] Ibid. P. 15.
[9] Ibid. P. 16.
[10] The Six Books, Sahih Muslim, traditions 4746 to 4763, pp. 1007-1008 and traditions 4782 to 4793, pp. 1009-1010.
[11] Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1789-1939, Cambridge University Press, P. 19.