Double Face of Islamist Anti-Westernism in Turkey: Rejection of the West and Opposition to Westernization

Date

2026-01-01

Author

Dağı, İhsan Duran

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Exploring Turkish Islamists’ historical and ideological positioning, this chapter argues that Islamist anti-Westernism is not simply a political or cultural discontent with the West but also a rejection of Turkey’s Westernization. Such a double face of anti-Westernism constructs the Islamic self in opposition to the West and grounds Islamist political activism with an aim of reversing Westernization. In the context of these two “others,” Islamist narratives of anti-Westernism have been based on victimhood, a conspiratorial mindset, and a quest for revenge. By examining these narratives, this chapter shows how Islamists instrumentalize anti-Westernism to transform popular and historical discontent with the West into an Islamic political stance directed not only against the West itself but also against what they regard as its domestic allies, the political and cultural actors who embraced secularizing and westernizing program of the Kemalist Republic.

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https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=105043983695&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119863

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Department of International Relations, Book / Book chapter