State, Secularism, and the Management of Islamic Proselytizing Movement in Turkiye: The Case of Hayrat Vakfi Organization

Abstract

Da’wa (Islamic proselytizing) is not merely a movement focusing on religious rituals nowadays. It has transformed into organized groups that can mobilize people to become a pressure group in a Muslim democratic country. From several Muslim countries, Türkiye chooses secularism as a state character where religion is properly positioned far from the state. This condition makes the Islamic proselytizing movements in Türkiye differ from other religious movements in some Muslim countries that become the state’s partners in developing the state. This article examines how state, secularism ideas, and Islamic proselytizing movements interplay dynamically in a free public sphere. This article also looks at the management of the Islamic proselytizing movement in Türkiye by focusing on Hayrât Vakfı (Hayrat Foundation) in Türkiye. This research employs an anthropological framework to ethnographically examine the multifaceted relationship between the state and proselytizing movements. This article finds that Hayrât, a Turkish organization, cultivates public trust by prioritizing matters related to humanity, economics, and education. Hayrât intends to show that Islam is not a contradiction to modernity. Finally, the result of this article reveals that the management of the Islamic proselytizing movement in Türkiye shows a multidimensional relationship between secularism, political ideology, and religious movements.