Demystifying Sufi Politics in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey

• In Event: Religious Minorities

Abstract

This study compares the political involvement of Sufi orders in three Muslim majority countries where Islamists have been the main parties to power shifts since 2013. The Tunisian and Egyptian Sufis remained largely peripheral to the power shifts in their countries in contrast to the central roles played by Turkish Sufis, especially the Nakshibendi. In Egypt, the Sufis established political parties, however had a very poor showing during the elections of 2012, and supported the 2013 military coup. In the Tunisian case, despite becoming victims of extremist Salafi attacks, the Sufis remained much less politically involved. In Turkey, many Sufis supported the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in weakening the Kemalist secular establishment. On the other hand, Turkey also witnessed a spectacular falling between AKP and the neo-Sufi Gulen Movement—its arguably most influential ally against the Kemalist establishment between 2002 and 2012. Most other Turkish Sufi orders have continued to support the AKP government and some have started filling the vacuum left by the purging of Gulenists since 2014. Through historical comparative analysis, the paper illustrates how the prevalent branch of Sufi order in a polity matters more than the current day popularity of Sufism in general or the exclusionary/accommodationist state policies toward religion.

Author

• Etga Ugur, University of Washington Tacoma