ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the making of millet at a micro-level, which operates through the definition of new subjectivities in and through housing areas. It argues that the Islamic nation – millet – is constructed through two major operations: the making of a neoliberal civility and the Islamization of public life. The Ottoman millet system found its physical expression in the mahalle, which was initially controlled by the religious leader and later the muhtar as the head of the neighborhood. The rebuilding of an Islamic nation – millet – has rested on the making and the strategic management of this Islamic habitus through architecture and everyday life in addition to economy. The characterization of the new Islamist millet rests on a vague definition of middle classness comprising elements of modernity, nationalism, Islamic cultural values, and neoliberal agency.
