The Politics of Secularism

"This book tackles a question central to the literature on secularism and religion and offers a comparison that critically reflects on the binaries of radical versus moderate religion, and rigid versus moderate secularism. Turkey is the longtime critical case of whether (and how) secularism can travel to a Muslim majority country. France is the critical case in Europe whose history has constituted many of the political ideals of western modernity and has set an example for many countries. There is a strong claim in the literature that Turkey is one of those countries following the French model; therefore, an in-depth comparison of these cases can address the general question of how secularism travels that is central to multiple modernities debates. The relevant IR literature has predominantly argued that secularism in Turkey has followed French laïcité and that both Turkey and France struggle between rigid forms of secularism and challenges of diversity. Akan's objective is to resolve this deadlock and explore the possibility of a shared political field which can account for trajectories of secularism across the boundaries of Europe" --

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.