THE CONCEPTS OF STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN ISLAMIC AND MUSLIM SOCIETIES: A HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Year 2021, Volume: 9 Issue: 26, 385 - 401, 17.03.2021

Deniz Aşkın

https://doi.org/10.33692/avrasyad.895757

Abstract

This study focuses on governmental institution in Islamic and Muslim societies and the
role of civil societies in them. In the period from the early years of Islam until today's nation-state
structures, the stance of the civilian people as an organization against the state has previously
differed to a certain extent, but these differences have largely disappeared today. In the Islamic
tradition, placing the state and power discourses on sacred ground and the measures taken by
the groups holding political power from the past to the present to protect the survival of state
have led civil society to remain more passive compared to the Western societies of today.
Therefore, in Islamic and Muslim societies, the foundations, which can be defined as civil
society, are different from the civil organizations that occur in Western societies. In these
societies, although some groups such as clergy and merchants gained partial autonomy before
nation-state structures, today they are able to find space for movement only to the extent that
they are allowed by the government in power. In this context, this study seeks to reach a causeand-effect relationship in the light of historical events by analyzing the debates about how civil
society is positioned in İslamic and Muslim societies where the states and government in power
have acquired a sacred image in general.

Keywords

Civil Society,, Authority,, Muslim Society,

References

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