The fact of religion and the interpretationof othering in Nilüfer Göle's works

A self-conscious person needs another while constructing his self and defines himself in the mirror of another (Other). Starting from his family, to which he is attached with a sense of belonging, in the environment where he socializes, the person wants to find a place for himself, and turns to the one who is similar to himself with the motive of being safe. Groups of people brought together by similarities, "we"; those who are different create the "other". While social categorizations and prejudices cause separation over time, the "other", which is always present in our lives and does not have a negative meaning, is excluded and marginalized. In traditional societies through the ages, religion pervades all human life, from the personal to the social. It creates self-definitions with the various meaning patterns it creates. It performs both the identity constructor function and transforms into an identity representation. However, in the process that started with the Enlightenment in Western Europe, a series of developments such as rationalization, humanism, scientific revolution, industrialization, and the spread of liberal values provide the transition from traditional society to modern society. Religion in the modernization process; is pushed out of social life, the modern public sphere becomes secularized. Religious symbols and practices are suppressed in public spaces. In the 1970s post modern thought emerged as a critique of new social movements and modernism. With globalization and migration, the homogeneous structures of modern nation-states begin to erode. Modern secular public spaces are forced to change by the demands of multiculturalism. The rapid increase in the Muslim population in Europe and the convergence of differences bring about cultural conflicts and disagreements. Nilüfer Göle, one of today's sociologists; deals with modernity, secularism, global square movements and tries to find the codes of the causes of conflict in both Turkish and European public spaces. The aim of this study; Seeing the conflicts between the religious-religious and the modern-secular, the processes of othering, and Göle's understanding-interpretive sociological approach that takes into account the interpretations of social actors, and Göle's frequently asked "How to live together?" to draw attention to the question. In this study, content analysis was carried out using qualitative research method. Keywords: Identity, Othering, Islam, West, Modernity, Secularism