Insight Turkey
Insight Turkey
Challenging ideas
On Turkish politics and International affairs

Author

Zeynep Yanaşmayan

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, zeynepyan@yahoo.com
Zeynep Yanaşmayan
Role of Turkish Islamic Organizations in Belgium: The Strategies of Diyanet and Milli Görüş
January 1, 2010
Immigration of Turkish guest-workers to Western European countries in the 1960s and 1970s laid the ground for the emergence of various transnational religious organizations. This paper examines transnational organizations of Turkish origin that gained major support and membership in their host societies. Drawing upon a case study on Turks in Belgium, it shows that in the last four decades these organisations went through various transformations depending on the dynamics in their respective immigrant communities, host societies and countries of origin. This essay captures the role and self-adaptation process of Turkish Islamic organisations vis-à-vis the changing environment both in their host countries and countries of origin. It focuses on two Turkish transnational organisations in Belgium: The Islamic Federation of Belgium (IFB) and the Turkish Islamic Foundation of Belgium (TIFB). This essay concludes that political structure in the countries of origin constantly induces transnational organizations to further adopt and position themselves according to changing circumstances.

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