Ihsan Yilmaz

Deakin University · Alfred Deakin Institute

This chapter introduces the conceptual and theoretical framework for examining identity construction in Pakistan, a post-colonial Muslim-majority state. It challenges the notion of fixed identities and instead explores their fluid and multifaceted nature. By shifting focus from elite-driven analyses to public-level identity processes, it reveals ho...

The chapter explains the multifaceted historical processes through which different identities have been formed in Pakistan which are likely to influence the public discourse. Given that we are using the psychoanalytical concept of identification, with emphasis on the populist dichotomous structuring of “the people” versus “the anti-people” the chap...

This concluding chapter synthesizes the core findings of the book and reflects on the implications of the research on Pakistani identity and populism. It begins by revisiting the three distinct meanings of Pakistani identity identified throughout the book: the marginalized underdogs, the morally superior Muslim nation, and the sovereign democrats....

This chapter examines how Pakistanis articulate their identity as democratic citizens through key thematic discourses. The first section underscores the public's focus on their capacity to drive national change, predominantly through voting. The second section explores the diverse and fluid nature of democratic identity in Pakistan. It examines how...

This chapter analyzes the pervasive anti-elitism among the Pakistani populace, highlighting a profound disillusionment not only with the political elite but also with the broader governance framework, including state institutions like the judiciary, military, and media. Unlike previous research that has primarily focused on populist dissatisfaction...

This chapter highlights the ambiguity surrounding the merger of Islamism with state nationalism, which constitutes a central element in Pakistanis’ quest for identity and, consequently, their political discourse. It explains that in defining themselves as a nation, Pakistanis struggle with the complex interplay between Pakistani Muslim nationalism...

This paper investigates the entanglement of religious authority, religious populism, political narratives, and societal transformation within the complex terrain of Turkish politics, through the influential role of Hayrettin Karaman, an Islamist scholar closely aligned with the AKP government under Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Karaman’s fatwas and writing...

While it’s typical to associate right-wing populism in Western Europe with the narrative of Islam versus the Judeo-Christian West, there’s a nuanced and emerging form of civilisationalism that we term "anti-Western civilizational populism." This paper argues that anti-Western civilizational populism is present in the discourse of not only Turkish P...

How does Erdogan’s populist rhetoric resonate with his supporters? Our study dives into his use of nostalgia, threat, and unity to rally his base. We found that while Erdogan and his followers align on “threat” messaging—framing enemies as existential dangers—supporters amplify this far more than his calls for unity. Nostalgia for Turkey’s Ottoman...

Who do people trust in politics, and why? Our online survey experiment reveals that trust and credibility are driven less by emotional victimization narratives and more by partisanship. Political messages resonate most when they align with the audience's ideological beliefs, overshadowing the impact of emotional appeals. These findings highlight th...

Our agent-based simulations show that non-populist rhetoric, exemplified by former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, fosters societal cohesion through positivity, inclusivity, and broad audience engagement. By maintaining a “middle ground,” it promotes civil discourse and prevents ideological divisions from deepening into polarization. Inc...

Utilizing data from the Arab Barometer surveys, this study distinguishes between social media and the internet’s general use and their usage for political purposes, examining whether political engagement—obtaining political information and expressing political opinions—on these platforms bolsters or undermines democracy in authoritarian contexts. I...

The existing literature on Internet governance offers important insights on the relationship between state and society in China and the West. It is important to explore this relationship in the developing world. This study focuses on Pakistan, exploring the role of relevant legal frameworks, political authorities, and institutional structures in re...

This article explores the interplay between religious populism, religious justification and the systematic attempts to control cyberspace by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. Drawing from an array of scholarly sources, media reports, and legislative developments, the study unravels the multifaceted strategies employed by the ruling...

This article explores how China’s rise as a ‘civilization state’ encourages some European states to challenge US political dominance. While countries like Russia and Turkey have also employed civilizational populist rhetoric in domestic and foreign policy issues, this article focuses on Xi Jinping’s recent visits to France, Hungary, and Serbia and...

This paper explores the dynamic interplay of victimhood narratives, populism, and civilizational rhetoric in Turkish Islamist politics, centering on the tenure of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Tracing the historical trajectory of Islamist victimhood and its evolution, the study reveals how the AKP strategically fused domestic victimhood...

Blame avoidance, a strategic distancing from culpability following events resulting in the deaths of citizens of a country, has often been studied in democratic contexts, yet its manifestation in authoritarian scenarios remains understudied. This study addresses this gap by scrutinizing empirical data derived from Turkey's party in power, the AKP,...

The current Islamic studies literature focusing on women’s expression in Indonesia remains understudied. It still presents a scholarly challenge for current Islamic studies to address the issue of ideal expressed space for women. This mainly includes women’s positions and roles in society and their concerns about public issues. This gap often becom...

For centuries, Morocco’s so-called emir-ul-muminin, or leader of the faithful, has served as the country’s monarch. This shows that the state officially recognizes Islam as part of its identity. The Justice and Development Party (PJD) and other Islamist groups, such as Abdessalam Yassine’s Justice and Charity, are the focus of this chapter’s invest...

After its 1956 declaration of independence from France, Tunisia became a secular state. Islamist movements struggled for decades under authoritarian control, finding it difficult to function within the system unless they worked with other opposition parties. This chapter examines the rise of the Islamist party Ennahda and Islamism in Tunisia follow...

This chapter explores the origins and development of Islamism in Indonesia after the country's democratization and Reformasi initiatives of 1998 which led to the creation of Islamist parties. It also looks at how the plural nature of Indonesian society and politics affects the chances of Islamists enforcing a literal interpretation of sharia law. W...

This introductory chapter serves as the gateway to the book's core objective: a comparative analysis of the strategies employed by Islamist groups to confront established political structures through electoral processes and their subsequent governance practices if and when they assume power. By laying the groundwork for this comparative exploration...

Turkey became a secular nation–state under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk when the Ottoman Empire collapsed after the First World War. For decades, Islamist movements languished under authoritarian rule, unable to flourish under a system in which the state exercised absolute jurisdiction over religious matters through the Directorate of Religious Affairs, o...

This chapter concludes the book’s examination of the path followed by Islamist parties in various contexts. Following the literature on Islamism and the six-case studies that followed, this concluding chapter concentrates on the contention that the trajectory of Islamist parties is contingent on the success of their policymaking in the face of comp...

This chapter offers a contextual backdrop for the ongoing literature on Islamism by tracing the scholarly discourse surrounding it and examining case studies of Islamist governments in the twenty-first century. It discusses the relationship between Islam and politics, often referred to as political Islam, and explores how Islamist movements navigat...

This chapter investigates how the Islamist Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) has manoeuvred within Malaysia’s mostly competitive authoritarian system. It also examines the impact of electoral democracy on PAS and its ability to work together with other parties in achieving political success at the ballot box and also limiting its populist inclinations....

Beginning with Pakistan's partition from India in 1947 and continuing through the military dictator President Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization campaign, this chapter investigates the historical roots of Islamism in Pakistan until its current iteration. It examines the development of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) from an Islamist party that supported the military t...

This chapter analyses the transnational loyalties that Muslim communities feel towards their origin countries, the need and sense of belonging in the host countries, the identity crisis that religious and civic obligations may bring, as well as their perceived duties towards their origin country, their host country, as well as a global community of...

The existence and operation of unofficial Muslim civil courts in the West have been subject to debate and scrutiny. Different cases have emerged in countries like Britain, Europe, and the United States, where attempts have been made to accommodate or dismiss Shari’a courts. This chapter analyses this complex terrain between official and unofficial...

This chapter explores the issues of civic engagement, political participation, and the evolving Muslim identity within Western societies, in relation to unofficial Islamic law. By engaging in a discussion on topics such as citizenship, democracy, human rights, and political engagement, the chapter aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the spec...

This chapter provides an overview of fundamental Shari’a concepts and Islamic principles, highlighting its decentralized nature and the role of Muslims scholars (ulama) in its development. It explores the broad spectrum of Shari’a governance, including its application in diverse contexts such as marriage, inheritance, and criminal justice. Furtherm...

The chapter focuses on examining the role of the ulama, who are religious scholars responsible for safeguarding and transmitting the sacred texts of Islam and answers contemporary questions of Muslims. The chapter aims to explore the challenges faced by the ulama in maintaining their authority. These challenges arise from various factors, including...

This chapter focuses on the Muslims’ experience of unofficial Islamic law within Western democratic societies. The chapter examines how the Islamic legal tradition accommodates the needs of Western Muslims living in the United States, Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. The chapter lays down historical perspectives and debates on the Musl...

The present research is an introductory text to the subject of Western Muslim’s debates, discussions, and practices on the concept of Shari’a vis-à-vis real-life application of Shari’a-driven laws and practices, with a particular focus on the daily lives of Muslims, functioning as a comprehensive reader and handbook. In addition to analysing schola...

The application, perception, and interpretations of informal Sharia law in the US, Europe, UK, Canada, and Australia are critically examined in this book, with a focus on the complex interactions between social, legal, and historical aspects. Additionally, the study looks at how Islamic scholars have changed in how they interpret and defend Islamic...

This paper comparatively analyses the phenomenon of civilizationalism within the discourse of authoritarian populism in four distinct political contexts: Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, India under Narendra Modi, China under Xi Jinping, and Russia under Vladimir Putin. We find that “authoritarian civilizational populism” has become a prominent f...

This paper introduces an interesting aspect or variant of populism which we call ‘fluctuating populism’ through a case study of Prabowo Subianto Joyohadikusumo, the winner of the 2024 Indonesian presidential election, and a career politician for over three decades in the country. We define ‘fluctuating’ quality of populism as the strategic adjustme...

Prabowo Subianto Joyohadikusumo is the anticipated victor of the 2024 Indonesian presidential election, boasting a political career spanning more than three decades in the country. Over the course of the past decade alone, Prabowo has undergone significant shifts in ideological stances, rhetorical appeals, and electoral strategies. He has transform...

The upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Indonesia on 14 February 2024 are poised to involve over 200 million citizens out of a total population of 285 million. Among these eligible voters, approximately 115 million belong to the millennial or Gen Z demographic. Within this electoral landscape, the presidential race features a diver...

This chapter explores how some sections of the Pakistani elite, celebrities, and populist politicians including the ruling PTI leaders facilitated Turkey’s projection of soft and sharp powers in Pakistan by enthusiastically receiving, emulating, disseminating, and popularizing the Turkish Islamist civilizational populist TV drama ‘Resurrection: Ert...

This chapter summarizes the book’s findings and its contributions to the literatures on authoritarianism, populism and sharp power. The book has shown that in addition to its clear soft power dimension, the historical TV series exerts significant ‘sharp power’ upon its audience. This sharp power represents the show's direct influence on the viewers...

This chapter employs digital ethnography to examine the reception of ‘Resurrection: Ertuğrul’ within the Pakistani cyberspace. Utilizing data collected from various online platforms between 2020 and 2023, the chapter examines how memes, viral content, and fan interactions underscore the show's influence as a cultural and narrative force. The study...

As the book's central topic is the reception of Turkey's soft and sharp powers projected through the Islamist civilizational populist historical drama ‘Resurrection: Ertuğrul,’ this chapter first explores the complex relationship between religion, populism, and civilizational narratives in contemporary politics. It further analyzes the role of popu...

Based on 38 semi-structured interviews conducted in Lahore, this chapter examines the perspectives of the Pakistani viewers and non-viewers of the Turkish TV show ‘Resurrection: Ertuğrul.’ Using NVivo, we analyze how the viewers and non-viewers related to the show and applied these to their understanding of various aspects of domestic and internati...

This chapter explores the projection of soft and sharp powers in Turkish historical TV dramas produced under the AKP-led government, focusing specifically on ‘Resurrection: Ertuğrul.’ Through a thematic analysis of all episodes produced and broadcasted, this chapter examines how these series blend entertainment with ideological messaging aligned wi...

The recent Indonesian Islamic wave in Indonesia appears to be inclined towards a traditionalist turn. This turn specifically denotes the ascendancy of traditional Islamic teachings as the forefront in Indonesia. The resurgence of traditionalism has consequently led to a decline in the influence of conservatives, that has dominated public preference...

This chapter discusses the consequences of civilizational populism for democracy, pluralism, and social cohesion. Like other forms of populism, civilizational populism sacralizes the will of the people and therefore portrays liberal democratic checks and balances on majority power as anti-democratic. Equally, it portrays minority religious and cult...

This chapter investigates how the Justice and Development Party (AKP), an Islamist and populist political party lead by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has increasingly incorporated what we term civilizational populism into its discourse. It also examines the impact of civilizational populism on Turkish domestic and foreign policy under AKP...

This chapter provides an operational definition of civilizational populism. It examines how populists incorporate and instrumentalize notions of “civilization” into their discourses. It first discusses the literature on civilizational populism and shows how it has largely been described as a European and North American phenomenon. It then examines...

This chapter discusses civilizational populism in Pakistan. It begins by assessing the conditions that enabled religion to become inseparable from politics and for populists to thrive. The chapter also includes a brief introduction to populist parties and leaders from the 1960s and the 1970s, with particular attention to the populism of Zulfiqar A....

This chapter examines whether a “civilizational turn” has occurred among populist movements in Indonesia. It focuses on Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defender Front/FPI), and traces the FPI’s history and influence on Indonesian politics and society. This article argues that FPI has instrumentalized religious discourse and resulted in the civilizatio...

In this chapter, civilizational populism is defined as a group of ideas that together considers that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people, and society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite” who collaborate with the dangerou...

This chapter examines how populism and religion exist in Muslim-majority contexts in electoral democracies, where ‘the people’ and ‘the others’ are cast and mobilized with the use of emotions and civilizational divides. We look at the idea of Islamism , which is used by populist actors. Islamism o ers ‘material and cultural understandings of religi...

AKP’s ruling de facto coalition with the ultranationalist, nativist far-right MHP is a significant manifestation of authoritarian populism, which has anti-Western, anti-Semitic inclinations and substantially employs conspiracy theories. The AKP–MHP regime defines Turkish people narrowly since its populism is not inclusive, and designates individual...

With the Pakistani government implementing rules and regulations to control the online sphere, particularly through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), digital authoritarianism has emerged as a significant governance tool in the country. Concerns have been raised regarding potential abuses stemming from the vague definitions of cybercri...

This chapter explores how young Muslims understand and relate to their faith, and the role it plays in their day to day lives and Muslim community. The findings reveal the diversity of Muslims’ relationship with Islam, and the variety of ways in which they connect with faith, ranging from Islam being a cultural element in their lives, to religion h...

This chapter describes the diverse ways in which young Muslims participate in political activities. The chapter finds that participants engage in a variety of conventional (e.g., voting) and non-conventional (e.g., political activism) means to make their voice heard and create change in the Western societies in which they live. Although some partic...

This chapter investigates young Muslims’ expression of multiple identities, with various indicators of identity studied. The chapter’s thematic analysis revealed a complex expression of identity among young Muslims including a strong sense of individuality in each respondent. Interview responses brought forward subthemes of multiple expressions of...

This chapter introduces the key aspects of this book. It explains that rather than deeply engaging with the rich and arguably over-saturated literature on Muslims in the West, the book aims to present the lived reality of young Muslims from their own perspectives. Using semi-structured interviews with 122 young Muslims in Australia, the United King...

This chapter aims to provide a new perspective on one of the most misunderstood and feared parts of Islam and Muslim identity in the West: sharia law. The word sharia itself is so heavily loaded with negative connotations that little effort is made to understand its diffrent meanings to and relevance for Muslims. To address this gap, the interviews...

This chapter investigates how young Muslims engage within their home (Australia/UK/USA) country. The interviews conducted for this chapter reveal how young Muslims’ engagement with the world around them takes shape via social interactions such as volunteering for religious and secular causes, joining special interests or professional groups, and pe...

This chapter explores young Muslims’ understanding of socio-political realities beyond their country of residence, allowing interviewees to express several ways in which they connect with global debates and issues faced by humanity pertaining to issues such as human rights, climate change, peace, and conflict. The thematic analysis consequently all...

This chapter explains the focus of the book that is directed toward the lived experiences of young Muslims in Australia, the UK, and the USA, including how the post-9/11 climate has shaped their views and interactions in the world. The dominant ethnocentric manner of viewing Muslims in the West has created a huge gulf between the reality of Islam a...

This chapter seeks to understand young Muslims’ lives as a targeted minority in the Anglophone West, and the challenges they face due to the prevalence of Islamophobic and hostile attitudes and behaviors toward Muslims. The chapter finds that discrimination, in varying intensities and forms, is part of the everyday lives of all Muslims, and that th...

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between religious populism and the legitimization of digital authoritarianism in Turkey. Specifically, it investigates how the ruling party, AKP, has strategically linked Islamist values to state policies as a means of justifying its repressive control over digital technology. Through an examination...

This article investigates whether Turkish populism has undergone a 'civilizational turn' akin to what Brubaker, Haynes, Yilmaz, and Morieson have described occurring among populist parties in Europe and North America. The article applies Yilmaz and Morieson's definition of 'civilizational populism' to Turkey under the rule of the governing Justice...

This paper examines the emotional motives behind the reproduction and maintenance of Kurdishness as a transnational social identity among Kurds from Turkey residing in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing from 15 face-to-face, in-depth interviews with members of the Kurdish diaspora, we argue that the collective victimhood experienced by Kurds in response...

This article examines the use of religion by an authoritarian ruling party to delegitimize political opposition through securitization. The case study presented is the ruling AKP in Turkey, which initially promised to desecuritize the Kurdish issue to co-opt the Kurdish opposition but eventually resorted to the demonization narratives and repressiv...

Civilising Kemalist elites of Turkey in early twentieth century employed state law as an ideological apparatus of top-down social engineering to construct a new secularised Muslim Turkish citizen identity. Unlike other Muslim countries in the world, they decided to completely get rid of Islamic laws by transplanting the Swiss Civil Code and by crim...

This chapter investigates the motives employed in the AKP regime’s securitization of the leftists, Kemalists, and pro-Western secularist sections of society who have been dubbed as White Turks, the privileged elite. The chapter first highlights the main characteristic of the AKP’s securitization, which is based on authoritarian right-wing populist...

Authoritarianism is complex and involves multiple strategies and actors. However, one of the most important drives of authoritarianism is survival of the incumbent regimes. To ensure this survival, among many other tools, authoritarian regimes employ securitization, which legitimizes their use of any means necessary to vilify a constructed enemy. T...

This chapter analyses the Turkish state’s relations with the Alevi community through securitization theory framework. The chapter firstly looks at the Alevis from a historical context, analysing both Kemalist and Erdoğanist policies, highlighting that despite the ideological differences between the AKP and the previous governments, for Alevis much...

This chapter analyses the AKP regime’s approach to the dissident Kurds and Kurdish political movement through the lens of securitization theory. Kurds’ experience of securitization under the AKP regime has been quite different. Despite a brief period of de-securitization by the AKP, the Kurds were later re-securitized when it became clear that the...

This chapter focuses on the securitization of Islamic groups and movements in opposition such as the Gülen Movement, the Furkan Foundation, and the influential figures such as once Erdoğan’s closest confidants, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, former President Abdullah Gul, and former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, some of whom formed the...

Securitization is done for a purpose. It is a tool rather than a goal. That has been the case with Erdoğan’s Turkey. This chapter discusses briefly how Erdoğan has used securitization as a tool to grab the power in Turkey and ensure its authoritarianist grip of power. Erdoğan and the AKP employed securitization to change the regime, which they succ...

This chapter explains the theory of securitization in detail and how it is being instrumentalized as a strategy for authoritarian survival. The chapter starts with the background of the theory and the main discussions in the growing literature on this theory and its expansion. It connects the introduction chapter to the rationale and explanatory po...

This chapter sets the historical scene contextualizing the variants of securitization that have been used in Turkey since the birth of the Kemalist Republic in 1923, with particular focus on the past two decades of the AKP governments. It aims at revealing the background of the traumas and insecurities shaping security conceptions of people in Turk...

With the outbreak of World War Two, Muslim men temporarily working in Australia were recruited and co-opted into Australia’s Defence Forces. For the Indonesian indentured pearl divers that survived the war, the promises of naturalisation for their services were betrayed. For Albanian rural labourers, their service became a pathway to belonging and...

With the recognition of populism emerging in varied forms across the Global South, the lacuna of research on populism in Asia is gradually filling. Yet, research on populism in Pakistan is still limited and focused mostly on the singular case of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his political party Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). There is much...

This chapter describes how the civilizational populist necropolitics can be used to comprehend the ways in which the ruling AKP government in Turkey uses, encourages and deals with death, and by doing so legitimizes and perpetuates its authoritarian rule. The chapter therefore describes how authoritarian governments, such as the AKP, fetishize dyin...

In creating collective myths and memories, martyr-icons have become one of the essential tools for authoritarianism in both the secularist Kemalist and Islamist Erdoğanist regimes. Erdoğan and his AKP have been using the revised religio-nationalist martyrdom understanding and concept inherited from the secularist Kemalists. Thus, it is important to...

Turkey’s history and politics allow populism and Sunni Islamist civilizationalism to thrive. The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) use of Islamist authoritarian populism in its second decade of power has widened its “otherization” of political opponents, non-Muslims, non-Sunnis, ethnic minorities, vulnerable groups, and all those who rej...

In the Islamist version of civilizational populism, the emotional backlash against the rise of secularism, multiculturalism, progressive ideas, and ‘wokeness,’ has been skillfully employed. While for the populists, populist far right and civilizational populists in the West, usually the Muslims are the civilizational other, we argue in this article...

Authoritarian regimes do not only target and oppress their opponents at home, they also try to repress dissident diaspora members abroad. The literature on transnational (extraterritorial) repression has shown that authoritarian regimes normally use transnational organs of the state such as intelligence services as part of their usual transnational...

This chapter discusses civilizational populism in Israel. The chapter shows how leading Israeli politician and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party, incorporates civilizationalism into populism by using the notion that Jewish civilization predates all others in the region to establish the legitimacy of the state of Is...

This chapter discusses Christian-based civilizationalism across a variety of societies. It begins with a discussion of the historical relationship between Christianity and politics, and the impact of secularization on European societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chapter then describes the rise of right-wing populism across Euro...