Suchergebnisse

This chapter contrasts the evolution of secular models in two post-Ottoman Muslim- majority countries in Europe – Turkey and Albania. Both countries, and their respective secular models, have historically developed under the heavy influence of European ideals. Their secular arrangements, established especially during their founding moments in the early twentieth century, reflected these new states' engagement with modern European concepts such as nation- and statebuilding, central-state authority, and rational differentiation between state and religion. They also reflected the urge the builders of these new states felt to secure their identities as European states by downplaying and controlling the contested role of Islam in a lukewarm, and predominantly Christian, European geopolitical context. Furthermore, secular arrangements in these countries were affected by their peculiar social-demographic, ideational and historical-institutional settings.What kind of secular models did Turkey and Albania develop under the influence of Europe? How do these models relate to European secular ideals? What are the institutional devices to discipline and manage the role of Islam? And how have Islamic actors operated within these models – adapted to, contested but also benefited from existing institutional frameworks?