Ihsan Yilmaz – författare

This book takes a comprehensive approach to investigate how Sharia influences and manifests in the everyday lives of young Muslims, aiming to unravel the meaning and relevance of Sharia-driven laws and practices in English-speaking Western societies. By focusing on the grassroots level, it provides a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of Muslims and their relationship with Sharia. The presence of Muslims in Western countries has a long history, with recent waves of migration and conversions contributing to their increasing numbers. This study recognizes the diverse nature of the Muslim community, comprising both migrants and local converts, who have become integral parts of the pluralistic fabric of multicultural societies. The research draws on in-depth interviews with 122 young Muslim individuals from diverse backgrounds representing three different Western countries: Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Diversity of participants allows for a broader exploration of the Muslim community and the inherent diversity of opinions, interpretations, and practices regarding Sharia. This approach moves beyond theoretical debates, providing concrete insights into the practical implications of Sharia for young Muslims in their respective Western contexts. The book also sheds light on the evolving landscape of information and knowledge acquisition in the age of digital technologies and cyberspace. It explores how young Muslims access and seek knowledge in the twenty-first century, recognizing the impact of changing sources and modes of information on their religious practices and beliefs. This aspect adds a valuable dimension to the study, capturing the dynamic nature of knowledge dissemination and acquisition among young Muslims in Western societies. The book will be fascinating reading for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Law, Political Science, Minority Studies, Religious Studies, and Islamic Studies.

This book takes a comprehensive approach to investigate how Sharia influences and manifests in the everyday lives of young Muslims, aiming to unravel the meaning and relevance of Sharia-driven laws and practices in English-speaking Western societies. By focusing on the grassroots level, it provides a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of Muslims and their relationship with Sharia. The presence of Muslims in Western countries has a long history, with recent waves of migration and conversions contributing to their increasing numbers. This study recognizes the diverse nature of the Muslim community, comprising both migrants and local converts, who have become integral parts of the pluralistic fabric of multicultural societies. The research draws on in-depth interviews with 122 young Muslim individuals from diverse backgrounds representing three different Western countries: Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Diversity of participants allows for a broader exploration of the Muslim community and the inherent diversity of opinions, interpretations, and practices regarding Sharia. This approach moves beyond theoretical debates, providing concrete insights into the practical implications of Sharia for young Muslims in their respective Western contexts. The book also sheds light on the evolving landscape of information and knowledge acquisition in the age of digital technologies and cyberspace. It explores how young Muslims access and seek knowledge in the twenty-first century, recognizing the impact of changing sources and modes of information on their religious practices and beliefs. This aspect adds a valuable dimension to the study, capturing the dynamic nature of knowledge dissemination and acquisition among young Muslims in Western societies. The book will be fascinating reading for academics, researchers, and policy-makers working in the areas of Law, Political Science, Minority Studies, Religious Studies, and Islamic Studies.

This book explores state–religion relations under a populist authoritarian ruling party in Turkey. In doing so, it investigates how the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) instrumentalizes state-controlled religion to further, defend, legitimatize and propagate its authoritarian populist political agenda in a constitutionally secular nation-state. To exemplify this, the authors examine the Friday sermons delivered weekly in every mosque in Turkey by the Turkish State’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). By analyzing all sermons delivered between 2010-2021, the book shows how the Diyanet has enthusiastically adopted AKP’s increasingly Islamist, authoritarian, civilisationist, militarist and pro-violence populism since 2010, and how it has tried to socially engineer beliefs in line with this ideology.

This book investigates Turkey’s departure from a ‘flawed democracy’ under Kemalist secularism, and its transitioning into Islamist authoritarian Erdoğanism, through the lenses of informal law, legal pluralism, and legal hybridity. In doing so, it examines the attempts of Turkey’s ruling party (AKP) at social engineering and gradual Islamisation of the Turkish state and society, by using informal Islamist laws.

To that end, the book argues that the AKP has paved the way for Islamist legal hybridity where society, state, and law, are being gradually Islamised on an ad hoc basis. Informal law and legal pluralism in Turkey have had a non-state characteristic which have permitted Muslims to solve disputes by seeking the opinions of religio-legal scholars. Yet under the AKP rule, this informal legal system has become increasingly dominated by conservatives, sometimes radical Islamists, which the governing party has taken advantage of by either formalizing some partsof the informal Islamist law, or using it informally to mobilize its supporters against the opposition.