Bernard Bouwman, born in Everdingen, the Netherlands, in 1960. Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. Correspondent for NRC Handelsblad in Istanbul.
Journalist-in-Residence (1 September 2010 – 31 January 2011)
THE SEARCH FOR TURKISH ISLAM
During my stay at NIAS I wrote a journalistic book on Turkish Islam. Many in the West think that Islam needs to modernize and adopt a more favourable view of modernity. From that point of view, Turkish Islam is very interesting as many Turks believe that their country is indeed a laboratory of Islamic modernity. Turkey has, of course, a special history. During the Ottoman period many Turkish intellectuals had a positive view of European modernity and Europeanisation became one of the main vocations of the Turkish Republic. In my book I ask the question to what extent this ‘Islamic modernity’ has been progressing in Turkey.
Watch this video on Canadian television with Bernhard Bouwman: A portrait of Istanbul