İsmet Özel's Islamism thought

In the most general term, Islamism aims to make Islam dominant over all aspects of life and tries to realize Islamic transformation for every level of social life. It has been accepted one of the most important movements of thoughts in Turkish intellectual life since 19th century. Thinkers belonging to Islamism movement tries to propose Islamic solutions for problems which were socially hard to solve. Historicity of Islamism thought, starting from Ottoman period and reaching the present day, can surely gives us starting point about general characteristic of Islamism and source of this movement. But the aim of this study is neither to give a full account of the historicity of Islamism nor characteristics of this movement that makes themselves more prominent in the course of history. Additionally, individuals who made contribution to Islamism thought in the Ottoman or Republican period are not examined in this study. The aim of this study is to interpret and understand İsmet Özel's Islamism thought in a holistic way which occupies a unique place in Republican period Islamism thought. For this reason, in this study, basic parameters of İsmet Özel's Islamism thought, his proposal about solving social, economic and political problems in Turkey, his integration of nationalistic discourse with Islamism thought, and paths that he takes while establishing his discourse can try to make more understandable. Hence, for this reason, secondary literature about Islamism thought and İsmet Özel is examined and critical literature review is held. It can be argued that Özel aims a kind of Islamic thinking and living practice which has very strong relationship with the main sources of İslam. In addition to this, Özel by reinterpreting Turkey's history in a unique way, tries to describe Turkishness in a new way. In this attempt, he tries to propose a solid solution to the debate about national identity. Özel transforms Islamism thought to a nationalistic discourse by the help of his historical reinterpretation.