Secularism: The Turkish Experience DVD project started as a term paper for a Middle Eastern Studies class during my Masters of Liberal Arts studies at University of Pennsylvania. I wanted to produce an interactive educational piece of work for my capstone project as my graduation thesis and I decided that the topic of Secularism in my home country of Turkey would make an excellent starting point.

My aim in creating this Academic DVD was twofold. First, I wanted to look into research questions about the role of religion in the Turkish public sphere and what these findings might mean for other societies such as in United States of America or France. Secondly, I tried to push the envelope in the presentation of the material. The so-called Visual Footnotes are an attempt towards this ambition. With the Visual Footnotes the viewer is given a secondary non-linear progression, where they can check out definitions and terminologies to then return back to the main story after they are done exploring the specific focus area.

It is my hope that my project can be considered as a simple prototype for the future academic "writings" and catch on as an additional format of expression for research. I am grateful for all the people, who have contributed their time and effort into this project. It's been amazing making it, I hope that you will feel the same watching it.

Omer Baristiran - Producer

The Academic DVD is divided up into logical chapters which can be viewed independently of each other depending on the desired focus. I suggest that the DVD should be seen in smaller sections to give the audience time and space to reflect. The sections are especially aimed for classroom use.

The DVD-ROM Extras such as the Historical Timeline, Interactive Transcript, Extended Bibliography, Weblinks, Cartoon will allow the users to jump into the presented issues more in depth. Below you will find the summaries of each chapter in the DVD.

The struggle to balance worldly desires and demands against the promises and hopes of life in the afterworld, defines the essence of secularism in modern day Turkey . Turkey claims to be the only secular country in the Eurasia region with a 99 percent Muslim majority.

Today, the 80 year old social experiment of the Turkish Republic is facing many challenges to build her own identity looking back to a rich history, while marching forward into contemporary times.

Secularism was one the ideological pillars of the Turkish Republic at its foundation in 1923. Yet, the roots of secularism lie further back in history, when the Ottoman ruling elite recognized the need to restructure the legislative, military and judiciary systems to cope with their new political rivals in Europe. For the last 80 years, the Turkish national secular identity has been transformed more than once to deal with new challenges.

The current, conservative democrat government of Justice and Development Party claims to have stuck a balance between secular and pragmatic policymaking and a health dose of ethics and influence from Islam in politics. Does this new formula have potential for the future of a more tolerant political system in Turkey ?

The political sphere is currently polarized between the secularists and the conservatives. Does this phenomenon carry over to the society or is the society able to live together within tolerant terms?

The Turkish State claims to be a strictly secular nation-state, yet the system embodies an office to look over all of religious activity in Turkey , called Directorate of Religious Affairs. What is the function of this entity in the state mechanism?

How does a secular education system deal with teaching religion as a subject matter in the national curriculum? The Turkish education system offers Religious Culture and Moral education to the students, yet many families find this education to narrow or one-sided and choose to send their kids to so called vocational Imam Hatip High Schools where more religious instruction is provided.

Compared to other nation-states in the Eurasia region, Turkey encountered much less challenges with religious fundamentalism. One of the crucial reasons for this situation is the observation that Islam was able to find expression not only in the political area but also in the economy and social spheres of life.