The struggle of religious organizations for political power: The cases of Turkey and Egypt

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2578320_(Table of contents)

Religious organizations have been forming different relationships with state institutions to capture more power and reach more resources in many contexts. While providing social services regarding religion, education, health, and material aid, they realize their spiritual, economic, and social goals by broadening their scope of influence over the public and the economic and political spheres. This study examines how religious organizations seize political power, expand their supporter base, and become crucial actors in socio-political and socio-economic spheres. Two main strategies that the organizations follow are discussed in this study. First, the organizations may ally with an existing political party and stay out of the political arena as much as possible, as the Gülen Movement did. Second, they may choose to participate in politics either by forming a political party or nominating its candidates for any elections, as the Muslim Brotherhood had done throughout its experience within the Egyptian political context. The detailed examination of these strategies and their consequences has shown that the former was relatively more successful.