Legacies of Modernization: Sufi Politics in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey

• In Event: Race, Ethnicity, and Minoritized Groups in MENA

Abstract

This study compares the political involvement of Sufi orders in three Muslim majority countries where Islamists were critical parties to the power shifts that took place in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The observed Sufi political behaviors of anti-Islamism in Egypt, non-partisanship in Tunisia, and pro-Islamism in Turkey during this particular period are in line with the general patterns of Sufi political attitude in these countries’ modern history: conformism, ambivalence, and activism. To explain this cross-national variation, the paper develops an analytical framework to situate Sufi politics in their national context by studying several explanatory variables: the current day popularity of Sufism in general in each country, the Salafi rivalry with and threats to Sufi orders, the organizational characteristics of Sufi orders, and the state policies toward religion in general and Sufi orders in particular. Through historical comparative analysis, the article underscores the formative roles played by the 19th century institutional modernization in each country prior to the establishment of their independent national polities in the 20th century.

Author

• Etga Ugur, University of Washington Tacoma