The protests in Turkey started on May 27 with a modest resistance movement against the destruction of Istanbul’s Gezi Park and the planned construction, in its place, of a replica of the Ottoman artillery barracks that formerly stood there (which, however, was also to include a shopping mall). The Occupy Gezi movement has since grown exponentially and spread to other Turkish cities, largely in response to police brutality and to the inflammatory speeches of Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The unprecedented scope and duration of the protests—and, even more importantly, the emergent movement’s pluralistic composition and inclusive political style—make it a genuinely new phenomenon in the ninety-year history of the Republic.
Posts Tagged ‘activism’
June 10th, 2013
Occupy Gezi, beyond the religious-secular cleavage
posted by Ateş Altınordu
June 10th, 2013
An excursion through the partitions of Taksim Square
posted by Jeremy F. Walton
Taksim Meydanı. Partition Square. Although it has taken on potent new resonances in recent days, the name of Istanbul’s throbbing central plaza commemorates a now-forgotten history, the function of the site during the Ottoman period as a point of distribution and “partition” of water lines from the north of the city to other districts. Already long the favored site of demonstrations in Istanbul, Taksim is now the scene of the largest anti-government protests in Turkish Republican history. And the name of the square speaks volumes—what better word than “partition” to describe the increasingly politicized cleavages that have defined Turkish public life over the past decade, finally achieving international reverberation with the current protests?
January 23rd, 2013
Global reflex
posted by David R. Swartz
As both Marcia Pally and David Gushee note, there is no historical reason why evangelicalism should identify with a single political orientation. There is also no global reason. Research on evangelicals in Asia, Africa, and Latin America is uncovering startling political diversity. Paul Freston, one of the most informed scholars on the subject, dismisses “facile equations of evangelicalism with conservative stances.” Historical and contemporary conditions, he writes, demonstrate “the distance of these actors—indeed, total independence of these actors—from the American evangelical right.”
December 12th, 2011
Faith and the Occupy movement: What would Jesus do?
posted by Wei ZhuFrom very early in the movement, spirituality and faith have played a role in the Occupy movement. Religious observances began happening at Occupy Wall Street and around the country, such as the Muslim Jumu’ah and the Jewish Kol Nidre. Religious leaders have come out in support of the Occupy movement, and its social vision, especially in the wake of the wave of crackdowns by local governments on the movement in November.
August 6th, 2010
Parodic politics
posted by Melissa Wilcox
Perhaps the upswing in religious individualism in this postmodern, postsecular period doesn’t herald the breakdown of community after all—nor does the rise of a postmodern culture mean the death of parodic political activism. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, though a small organization, may be indicative of larger patterns that we as sociologists have yet to thoroughly study: the roles of postsecular religiosities in community and activism, and the force of parody in postmodern politics.
June 28th, 2010
Carrying the blank banner
posted by Amanda KaplanFor the first time in over a decade, reports CNN, members of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church marched in NYC’s Gay Pride Parade under a blank banner.
November 16th, 2009
So you want to be a new atheist
posted by Kathryn Lofton
If you want to be a New Atheist, first and foremost, you need to possess an unrelenting desire to help. The desire may seem at times cruel, but you have to start focusing on a higher good: the goal here is to get the cannibals to put down their wafer and wine glass. It’s not for your wellness, but for the good of mankind.
November 17th, 2008
The case of religious environmentalism
posted by Roger GottliebIn response to the resurgence of aggressive, intolerant and even violent religious fundamentalism of recent decades, deep questions, often answered in the negative, have been raised about the place of religion in public life. Religion is often experienced and described as antithetical to public order, democracy, and progressive values. However, the example of religious environmentalism shows (once again) that religion in and of itself has no particular political identity—it is neither left nor right, democratic nor undemocratic. [...]
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