Disenchantment and Transgression: Post-Secular Religiosity Among Madrasa Dropouts in Turkey

This study examines the transformation of religiosity among individuals who leave traditional Eastern madrasas in Turkey unfinished, focusing on the existential rupture between traditional religious education and modern secular life. While the madrasa institution has historically served as a primary site of religious formation and cultural production in the region, the transition to civil life has led to a significant reshaping of the relationship between faith and practice. Utilizing a qualitative research design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 male participants in Batman to explore the impact of institutional departure on individual belief systems. The findings suggest that a curriculum weighted toward grammar and the presence of intense social pressures can affect perceptions of the sacred, triggering a shift in the individual’s attitude toward religious boundaries. Crucially, not being in a position that represents the religious status relieves individuals of the burden of representation, fostering a sense of conscientious flexibility toward abandoning worship. The study identifies a post-secular typology of believing but indifferent, in which belief persists as an ontological comfort zone while losing its regulatory power over daily life. These results indicate that, in the context of madrasa dropout, secularization manifests as the ineffectiveness and worldliness of belief rather than its outright rejection.