Negotiating Values: Diyanet and the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Abstract

If during the early Republican era migration was a controlled process serving nation-building, the on-going Syrian refugee crisis has reasserted, and, in the meantime, challenged Turkish national identity. This paper analyzes Diyanet’s religious narratives regarding the Syrian refugee crisis, its role in legitimizing the government’s refugee policy and the arising tensions between humanistic Islamic values and nationalism faced by the institution. Methodologically, I primarily relied on the content analysis of the Friday sermons released by Diyanet between 2011 and 2018.

Keywords

• Diyanet
• Syrian refugee crisis
• humanistic Islam
• nationalism

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