Alienation according to İsmet Özel

In the thesis, we have tried to study the view of İsmet Özel, a prolific pro-islamic intellectual, on alienation, one of the most important issues of contemporary man. Özel, first of all, with his writings related to science, technique, civilization and alienation makes a criticism of positivism. According to Özel, who has distinguished himself from the other pro-islamic intellectuals from the point of view of his writings ön science, technology, civilization and alienation; an alienated man Is the outcome of the understanding of West's materialist, atheist and humanist ideals. According to the humanist view; people can not be humanist unless they get rid of the idea of God from their lives, which protects them from being the real and sole representative of "Veritas". For people's being a humanist, they should be atheist. A non-atheist person, therefore a non-humanist person leads his/her life as an alienated being. A non-alienated man is a humanist person, therefore he/she is an atheist. However, Özel, in spite of the opinions mentioned above, claims the opposite and asserts that on the bases of alienation lie the notion of Western materialist, atheist and humanist ideals. Özel, with these claims mentioned above, talks about a humanist and atheist homogenous Western civilization. However, it Is not possible to talk about such a homogenous Western civilization. According to Özel, stating that technology, civilization and alienation are integrated and interwover issues and they are not independent of each other, since an alienated individual is an outcome of materialist, atheist, humanist western ideals, -since muslims can not possibly be atheist and humanist- it is not possible to find a place for the term, "alienation" in Islamic view. As for Özel, expressing that alienation is a meaningless term, in terms of Islamic view and that modern life style can not deteriorate any muslim as long as he/she knows how to differentiate the line between "faith" and "disbelief" (non- islamic life style); the issues; techonology, civilization and alienation are the most important problems of human beings, whether they are muslims who have not been able to draw "a straight line" between "disbelief" and "faith" or kâfirs (non-believers)107 According to Özel, claiming that human beings have been uprooted, depersonalized, commonized and turned into object, science has destroyed hummaniy values, the organization of society bused on techology (technic) has turned people into dehumanized beings, civilization has given the people the delicacy which imprisons them into a life style which does not belong to themselves and has picked up his/her sincerety. As for Özel, claiming that an unwanted concept is mentioned when the term, "alienation", is uttered whether in Turkey or in western world- view; alienation, one of the main issues of humanism, is misused by muslims. According to Özel, if the term, alienation, is liked to be expressed insistently a kind of "alienation" beyond alienation which Is conscious should be stated. The thing which Özel has meant a "conscious alienation" is; to remain alienated against the malevolance and necessary of the era. Özel, contributing such a meaning to the concept, has plucked the concept from the Western ideas conceptualization and has lost the chance of contributing an original meaning to the concept from the beginning. According to Özel, stating that technology, civilization and alienation issues can not be solved in their special fields, the solution of "the three issues" can only be possible in the fields of obedience and submission, excepting these three issues. According to Özel, these problems' being formulated in the sound way and finding solutions to these problems can only be achieved under the privilege of muslims. Özel, who sometimes offers no solutions to the alienation problem and who sometimes does not explain his suggestions about the problems clearly, repeats the motto which has been used both in the East and the West throughout the history: "submit yourself to God and be saved". Claiming that the individuals who do not get alienated are the muslims who wisely can draw the line between disbelief and faith, Özel can not comprehensively explain the answer to "the questions why it is imperative to be a muslim to be saved from alienation" in a satisfactory way. oas?mgmBgmsmmâ