ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Turkish laiklik has been refashioned by Muslim religious activists. It discusses how they have been using, over the last decade, a rights-based discourse to propose an alternative understanding of laiklik to the one implemented by the Turkish state and Kemalist elites. The chapter analyses the discursive shift that has been happening in Turkey among devout Muslims. Indeed, because of the economic and political liberalization undergone by Turkey over the last decades, individuals have been challenging the terms of the secular settlement established by Kemalists, as well as the place of religion in that settlement. The chapter explores in detail why and how activists have been using a rights-based discourse to challenge state secular scripts. It focuses on the religious activists who have been actively using a human rights discourse and human rights international mechanisms to challenge state secular scripts and ask for greater religious freedom.
