The Academic Studies Association (ILEM) launched the Islamist Journals Project in 2013 in order to address the adventure of Islamist publishing in Turkey. In the second phase of the project, Islamist journals published before 1960 were analyzed. In this context, the 2nd Islamist Journals Symposium on “Islamist Thought and Journals Before 1960” was organized by İLEM and Üsküdar Municipality on 11-12 March 2017 at Bağlarbaşı Cultural Center.
In the first phase of the Islamist Journals Project initiated by ILEM in 2013, 3500 issues of 50 journals published between 1960-1980 were digitized and cataloged. The project also organized a symposium on the period and published a book of proceedings. In 2016, in the second phase of the project, Islamist journals published before 1960 were analyzed. In this period, nearly 5000 issues of around 60 journals were digitized and cataloged. In addition, the 2nd Islamist Journals Symposium on “Islamist Thought and Journals Before 1960” was organized on 11-12 March 2017. Until the end of 2018, the project aims to contribute to the rethinking of Islamism by bringing a new dimension to the thought of Islamism and the discussions on it.
Today, the debates around Islamism continue to be lively. Recent developments, especially in the Islamic world and Turkey, have brought Muslims and the idea of Islamism back to the center of discussions and have led to a significant increase and mobility in the studies and publications in this field. The fact that the idea of Islamism is such a lively subject is influenced by the fact that it affects different areas of life in a sense. However, one of the biggest handicaps of discussions on Islamism, as in every issue that is discussed and talked about a lot, is the problem of repetition. In order to overcome this problem, it is necessary to turn from studies that deal with the issue in general terms to more specific and detailed studies. Within this framework, the 2nd Islamist Journals Symposium aims to examine the birth of the idea of Islamism in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the ideas of Islamists in the transition from the Ottoman to the Republican period and the early history of Islamist thought through Islamist journals published before 1960.
In this context, the journals that had important functions in the formation, development and transmission of Islamist thought were discussed. In these journals, the birth of Islamism, what kind of issues it brought to the agenda at the time, and how it approached current political, economic, social, etc. issues were analyzed comparatively. In this way, in a sense, the first nuclei, production and discussion forms of Islamism thought in Turkey will be revealed, and in this way, a bridge was tried to be built between the past perspective of Islamism and its future vision. In this symposium consisting of an opening special panel and 10 sessions, the continuity, similarities and ruptures in Islamist thought in the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic, Sırat-ı Müstakim and Sebilürreşad, which are the pioneering publications of Islamist publications, the first examples of Islamist publications, Islamist thought in the II. Islamist thought and journals in the Constitutional Monarchy period, religious issues addressed in Islamist journals, the issue of nationalism and anticommunism in Islamist thought, pioneering names of Islamist thought, Islamist thought, journals and important personalities in Turkey during the Multi-Party period, and various papers on education and politics in Islamist journals. In addition, the Pre-1960 Islamist Magazines Exhibition, which includes 80 images taken from magazines published before 1960, was presented to participants and visitors for two days.
