Islam in Turkey

Overlooking the Atatiirk boulevard in the new planned city of Ankara, the imposing Germanic façade of the Faculty of Language and History of the University of Ankara bears in bold letters the inscription "Science is the Truest Guide in·Life. M. K. Atatürk." It would seem that nothing could be more uncompromisingly secularist. Where other and older institutions invoke divine illumination, the university founded by Atatürk seems to pin its hope on human science. Yet that university has also had since the war a Faculty of Theology and all the defenders of the Kemalist revolntion are at one in proclaiming that secularism is not to be equated with atheism. Tbey even go further and assert not ouly that it is compatible with the Islamic religion, but that it is almost the best environment in which that religion can flourish in its purest form. It is this contention which I propose to examine theoretically and practically.