Cosmopolitan Islamists in Turkey: Rethinking the Local in a Global Era

Abstract

Yildiz Atasoy also critiques the dualism of contemporary theorizing which posits the traditional/local and modern/global and cultural opposites. Atasoy's discussion of Islamism in Turkey explodes these oppositions; some Islamist groups, she argues, utilize their religious beliefs to advance their participation in the global economy. Islam, therefore, is not a force inherently opposed to globalization, but one whose moral force can be utilized as a strategic resource for capital accumulation. Muslim values here are not an obstacle but an element in competitive strategy.