ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in Turkey in terms of its modern history that has demonstrated that a secular, democratic constitutional democracy is possible in a social setting whose population is dominantly Muslim. The historical context in which this interest has occurred is what has come to be known as “the post-September/11 world” in which the rapid dissemination of inhuman and deadly terrorist attacks throughout the world and their link to Islam have become the central concern of international relations. Since September/11, 2001, world affairs have been increasingly framed by the discourse of “the clash of civilizations”, and fundamental to this discourse has been the codification of Islam as the negation of secular modernity and liberal democracy. In this context, it has been suggested by many that the possibility of success in the ongoing global fight against terrorism depends to a large extent on the possibility of the articulation of Islam with modernity and democracy. In political and academic discourse, this suggestion has been formulated differently and in various forms, ranging in a large spectrum from the idea of “the export of democracy through war and occupation, leading to the necessary regime change in failed states” to the calls for “global democratic governance” capable of establishing an effective foundation for the co-existence of different cultures and civilizations in a manner that involves tolerance, respect and responsibility as the guiding principles of social interactions in international, regional and intra-national relations.
