This volume brings together a number of distinct historians, political scientists, social anthropologists, and legal scholars from Turkey and the EU. The authors address questions such as the role of religion in EU membership debates, religious parties in Turkey and Europe, religion and European security, freedom of religion and minority rights in Turkey and the EU.

About the Author(s)

By Dietrich Jung and Catharina Raudvere

Dietrich Jung is a Senior Researcher and Head of the Research Unit “Religion, Social Conflict, and the Middle East” at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen. He studied political science, sociology, and Islamic studies and holds a Ph.D. from Hamburg University. Dr. Jung has been teaching at Aarhus University (Denmark), Bilkent University (Ankara), and the Universities of Copenhagen, Hamburg and Southern Denmark. He has published numerous scholarly articles on causes of war, theories of world society, on modern Turkey and on conflicts in the Middle East.Catharina Raudvere is professor of history of religions at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at Copenhagen University. She holds her Ph.D. from Lund University (Sweden). Professor Raudvere has previously taught at Lund University and been guest-researcher at UC Berkeley and in Istanbul. She has published research on Islam in Turkey and the Balkans, Sufism, Muslim ritual, religion and politics and the uses of history in contemporary cultural narratives. She has published the monograph The Book and the Roses. Sufi Women, Visibility, and Zikir in Contemporary Istanbul (2002) and edited Sufism Today. Heritage and Tradition in the Global Community (2008). 

Table of Contents

Introduction, Turkey: European Dimensions and the Status of Islam--Dietrich Jung and Catharina Raudvere * PART I: Turkey and the EU – Religion and Politics * Religion as an Argument in the Debate on Turkish EU Membership--Kemal Kirisci * Civilization and EU-Turkey Relations--Daniella Kuzmanovic * PART II: Turkey and the EU – Religion and History * Europe and Turkey: Does Religion Matter? --Nur Bilge Criss * Adnan Menderes, Islam and his Conflict with the One-Party Era Establishment--Mogens Pelt * PART III: Turkey and the EU – Religion and Security * “Secularism:” A Key to Turkish Politics?--Dietrich Jung * The Politics of Security and Secularism in Turkey. From the Early Republican Era to EU Accession Negotiations--Pinar Bilgin * PART IV: Turkey and the EU – Religion and Minority Politics * Religion, Politics and the Politics of Religion in Turkey--Istar Gözaydin * The Alevis – a “New” Religious Minority? Identity Politics in Turkey and Its Relation to the EU Integration Process--Elizabeth Özdalga *  Turkish Migrants, Social Capital and Culturalist Discourse in Turkey-EU Relations--Talip Kucukcan