Transnational Conspiracy Theories and Vernacular Visual Cultures: Political Islam in Turkey and America

Pelin Gurel, Ph.D.*

“Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth,” states an epistemological folk theory. Successful theories of conspiracy – those that are ultimately true as well as false – all depend on what Stephen Colbert would call “truthiness”: “the quality by which you know something purely by feeling, without regard to logic, evidence, or intellectual examination.” While visual documentation, including photographs and charts, has long been used as “proof” in conspiracy theorizing, the role unrealistic images might play in generating feelings of truthiness has not been subjected to sustained analysis. This gap is even more jarring in the case of contemporary conspiracy theories regarding political Islam, given the importance of “looking” Muslim to both hate-crimes and conspiracy theorizing. An even larger gap in scholarship exists in terms of images and conspiracy theories regarding political Islam in Muslim-majority countries like Turkey.

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How Turkey is emerging as a development partner in Africa

Prof. Alpaslan Özerdem*

A displaced Somalian man walks away with food
 at a centre run by Turkish aid agency in the
Howlwadaag district of southern Mogadishu.
Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters

Turkey has emerged as a generous donor for humanitarian crises across the world over the past five years, especially in the context of Africa.

In 2011, while official development assistance (ODA) fell in 16 DAC countries, Turkey's net ODA increased by over 38%. Following the 'Turkey – Africa Co-operation summit' in Istanbul in August 2008, the African Union declared Turkey a 'strategic partner' and in May 2010, Istanbul was the venue for the 4th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

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New book looks closer into Hizmet Movement with questions, answers

A newly published book by Professor Muhammed Çetin, a sociologist who has done extensive academic work on social movements and who now serves as a lawmaker in the Turkish Parliament, offers comprehensive information on the faith-based Gülen movement, answering hundreds of questions on the movement.

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The effect of ‘soft power' on Turkey's rapid development

Bülent Keneş

While every country in the world has its own sources of soft power, only some are really aware of these sources. As for Turkey -- which possesses a vital geopolitical position and military strength, a deep-rooted history and a rich culture and sees the future of economic and socio-political development as being intertwined with such universal values as basic human rights and freedoms, the superiority of justice and a liberal economy -- it is a country with extremely rich sources of soft power.

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Exploring Turkey in seven days

Pat Yale

It would take years to see all the great sights of a country as large as Turkey.

Unfortunately many visitors must make do with a rushed seven days, which makes careful picking and choosing particularly important, especially bearing in mind the long distances between the must-see attractions.

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Muslim Politics Without an "Islamic" State: Can Turkey's Justice and Development Party Be a Model for Arab Islamists?

Ahmet T. Kuru

As Islamist parties assume power in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, many – in both the West and the region – have turned to the experience of Turkey’s pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) for lessons on negotiating the relationship between Islam and the state.

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