Ayşe Öncü

Packaging Islam: Cultural Politics on the Landscape of Turkish Commercial Television

Scholars of Islam in Turkish society have written penetrating analyses on the reciprocal influences and complementary relationships, as well as rivalries between, Alevi Islam, Sunni Islam, Islam of the Sufi orders, Islam of student activists, Islam of “Islamist intellectuals”, Islam as embedded in the oral culture and daily practices of the “mahalle”, Islam of the scriptures, and so on. There are clearly different ways of knowing Islam, distinct yet intertwined. My concern in the present study is with a particular knowledge of Islam—as constructed on the landscape of commercial television in Turkey.