| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The notion that Turkish potential membership has provoked-or exacerbated-an 'identity crisis' for the European Union is by now a familiar truism. This article is concerned with the specifically religious identity crisis sparked by the Turkish accession process to the (secular) European Union. It takes a broadly comparative approach to the role of Islam in the Turkish political sphere and the role of religion within the European Union, suggesting that a parallel examination sheds light on a number of telling similarities between the two pictures. Complex interplay between religion, secularism, national identity and European identity is a recurrent theme here. Placed within the broader framework of discussions on the place of religion in the European public sphere, this examination yields insight into the state of flux characterising religion in Europe, which, in turn, may bear repercussions for Islam in the Turkish political sphere, for Islam within the EU and for Turkey-EU relations
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