TRANSIMAMS · Spreading Whose Word? Transnational Imams, Religion and Politics in Turkey’s Mosques Abroad (France, UK, USA)

Spreading Whose Word? Transnational Imams, Religion and Politics in Turkey’s Mosques Abroad (France, UK, USA)

This research project investigates the religious policy of the Turkish state towards its diasporas and the global Muslim communities in the UK, France, and the USA. The ethnographic examination focuses on translational Turkish mosques and their imams sent by the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). The project evaluates the modalities and limits of the Turkish religious policy by concentrating on the training, motivations, mobility, and achievements of transnational imams and their mosques, as well as the various ways they are perceived by the local Turkish and global Muslim communities who host them. The research provides a comprehensive picture of Turkish religious policies and its quest for global Muslim leadership in transnational settings. Ethnographically grounded examination of this Islamist transnational ideology and its reception on the ground helps us to better understand some of the pressing issues and debates around Islam and Muslims in the West, Islamophobia, and transnational religious ideologies and mobilisations. Therefore, the research findings and outputs will benefit the interested scientific community, the wider society, and policy making. The overall objectives are; 1. critical evaluation of the so-called “Turkish soft power” and its religious dimension to question the limits of the Turkish state policy towards Muslim diasporas. 2. an innovative approach to the circulation of a Turkish version of political Islam through the mobility of its main vectors, the “transnational imams.” 3. a qualitative analysis of the reception of this religious policy in the Turkish diaspora and the global Muslim communities settled in France, the U.K, and the U.S. The main conclusions of the research are; 1. Turkish mosques are not just an apparatus of transnational governmentalities but important hubs for the social, cultural, and religious affairs of Turkish diasporas. 2. Although the Turkish state's religious policies aim to broaden the influence of Turkish Islam among the global Muslim communities, this influence is limited because a. of the neo-Ottomanist and neo-imperial ideals of the Turkish state, circumventing its reach beyond ethnic Turkish communities. b. of the human resources capacity of the Diyanet imams who are not equipped to fulfill the political goals of the state c. of the ethnic, religious, political and cultural diversity of the global Muslim communities and their varying needs going beyond the capacity of the Turkish mosques to accommodate such needs. 3. Generational differences, gender, class, and ethnicity shape the reception of the Turkish religious policies, resulting in a plurality of perspectives.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union