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100-599: Included in the opposition movement was a mosaic of ideologies, represented by democrats, liberals, decentralists, secularists , social Darwinists , technocrats, constitutional monarchists, and nationalists, to name a few. Despite being called "the Young Turks", the group was of an ethnically diverse background; in addition to Turks, Albanian, Aromenian , Arab, Armenian, Azeri, Circassian, Greek, Kurdish, and Jewish members were plentiful. Besides membership in outlawed political committees, other avenues of opposition existed in

200-506: A base for the desired strong government. After the CUP took power in the 1913 coup and Mahmud Şevket Pasha 's assassination, it embarked on a series of reforms in order to increase centralization in the Empire, an effort that had been ongoing since the last century's Tanzimat reforms under sultan Mahmud II . Many of the original Young Turks rejected this idea, especially those that had formed

300-728: A coalition with the Activists and founded the Committee of Progress and Union (CPU). This unsuccessful attempt to bridge the divide amongst the Young Turks instead deepened the rivalry between Sabahaddin's group and Rıza's CPU. The 20th century began with Abdul Hamid II's rule secure and his opposition scattered and divided. The Second Congress of Ottoman Opposition took place in Paris, France, on 22 December, 1907. Opposition leaders including Ahmed Rıza , Sabahaddin Bey , and Khachatur Malumian of

400-680: A global context, and starts with this sentence: "Secularism is a beleaguered doctrine." First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) The First Constitutional Era ( Ottoman Turkish : مشروطيت ; Turkish : Birinci Meşrutiyet Devri ) of the Ottoman Empire was the period of constitutional monarchy from the promulgation of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 ( Kanûn-ı Esâsî , قانون اساسى , meaning ' Basic Law ' or 'Fundamental Law' in Ottoman Turkish), written by members of

500-479: A heterodox group of secular liberal intellectuals and revolutionaries, united by their opposition to the absolutist regime of Abdul Hamid and desire to reinstate the constitution. Despite the name Young Turks , members were diverse in their religious and ethnic origins, with many Albanians, Arabs, Armenians, Circassians, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews being members. To organize the opposition, forward-thinking medical students Ibrahim Temo , Abdullah Cevdet and others formed

600-478: A legal hierarchy on the basis of religious belief or lack of religious belief. It is also associated with a separation of church and state, considering these to be two distinct entities that should be treated separately. State supremacy is a secular principle that supports obedience to the rule of law over religious diktat or canon law, while internal constraint is a secular principle that opposes governmental control over one's personal life. Under political secularism,

700-475: A major role in public life, while in Europe the impact of the church on public life is declining. Most societies become increasingly secular as the result of social, economic development and progress , rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement. Modern sociology has, since Max Weber , often been preoccupied with the problem of authority in secularised societies and with secularisation as

800-893: A means of defending their rights against the majority. State secularism is most often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and it plays a major role in Western society . Some of the most well known examples for states considered "constitutionally secular" are the United States, France, Turkey, India, Mexico, and South Korea, though none of these nations have identical forms of governance with respect to religion. For example, in India, secularism does not completely separate state and religion, while in France, secularism precludes such mutual involvement. Separationist secularism enforces

900-417: A means to curb tensions in the religiously diverse nation. The Indian model of secularism stressed equality of citizens regardless of faith before the law, along with some separation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in 1948, protecting freedom of religion in international law. In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government, often termed

1000-403: A new religion while calling it Islam". Positivism , with its claim of being a religion of science, deeply impressed the Young Turks, who believed it could be more easily reconciled with Islam than could popular materialistic theories. The name of the society, Committee of Union and Progress, was inspired by leading positivist Auguste Comte 's motto Order and Progress . Positivism also served as

1100-465: A periodic fluctuation or a larger trend toward long-term adoption of secularism. The principle of Laïcité , the French notion of strict separation, was enshrined into law in 1905. After the rise to power of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, Turkish secularism, or laiklik , became a state ideology under Kemalism , aiming to modernise the country. Turkey 's secular tradition prior to Atatürk's reforms

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1200-645: A rebellion among the Russian Armenians against the tsarist army in the event of a Caucasian Front. The Armenians were perceived to be subversive elements (a fifth column ) that would take the Russian side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, the Ottoman government embarked on a large-scale deportation of Armenians from Eastern Anatolia. Around 300,000 Armenians were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab and Marash . In

1300-595: A reinstatement of the Ottoman Parliament and the 1876 constitution, written by the reformist Midhat Pasha . Despite working with the Young Ottomans to promulgate a constitution, Abdul Hamid II dissolved the parliament by 1878 and returned to an absolutist regime, marked by extensive use of secret police to silence dissent, and massacres against minorities . Constitutionalist opponents of his regime, came to be known as Young Turks. The Young Turks were

1400-489: A secret organization named the Committee of Ottoman Union , which grew in size and included exiles, civil servants, and army officers. In 1894, Ahmed Rıza joined Ottoman Union, and requested it change its name to Order and Progress to reflect his Positivism . They compromised with Union and Progress. Rıza being based in Paris, the organization was organized around Meşveret and its French supplemental. The CUP became

1500-405: A secular society, or adopt the principles of secularism, although secularist identity is often associated with non-religious individuals such as atheists. Political secularism encompasses the schools of thought in secularism that consider the regulation of religion by a secular state . Religious minorities and non-religious citizens in a country tend to support political secularism while members of

1600-456: A series of policies involving the disarming of Christians and preventing them from buying property, Muslim settlements in Christian territories, and the complete Ottomanization of all Turkish subjects, either by persuasion or by the force of arms. By 1913, the CUP banned all other political parties, creating a one party state. The Ottoman Parliament became a rubber stamp and real policy debate

1700-457: A sociological or historical process. Contemporary ethical debate in the West is often described as "secular", as it is detached from religious considerations. Twentieth-century scholars, whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters, include Carl L. Becker , Karl Löwith , Hans Blumenberg , M. H. Abrams , Peter L. Berger , Paul Bénichou and D. L. Munby , among others. There

1800-712: A truly organized movement with the CUP as an organizational umbrella. They recruited individuals hoping for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in the Ottoman Empire. In 1906, the Ottoman Freedom Society was established in Thessalonica by Mehmed Talaat . The OFS actively recruited members from the Third Army base, among them Major Ismail Enver . In September 1907, OFS announced they would be working with other organizations under

1900-455: A virtue. Secularists also support freedom from religion as an extension to freedom of religion. Secularism in practice has existed since ancient times. In societies such as Ancient Greece , a limited secularism was practised in which religion was not involved in governance, though it was still prevalent in public life. In Europe, secularism emerged in the early modern period . Due to functional differentiation , religion changed from being

2000-477: Is a list of opposition groups founded until the Young Turk Revolution. Secularists Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion . It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize

2100-469: Is a total ban on religion. Under this system, the state enforces laws that do not allow religious practice or the expression of religious beliefs in society. Unlike other secularist frameworks, state atheism does not permit freedom of thought or the separation of government from personal belief. Because of this distinction, state atheism may or may not be considered a form of secularism. It is typically associated with Marxism and Communist states , in which it

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2200-476: Is described as " scientific atheism ". In studies of religion, modern democracies are generally recognized as secular. This is due to the near-complete freedom of religion (religious beliefs generally are not subject to legal or social sanctions), and the lack of authority of religious leaders over political decisions. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that surveys done by Pew Research Center show Americans as generally being more comfortable with religion playing

2300-968: Is indifferent towards religions per se but also advocates for the states to operate on purely a rational basis of evidence-based policy and a focus on human needs and welfare, entailing non-discrimination between peoples of differing religions and non-religious philosophical convictions throughout society. A third "liberal" or " pillarized " form of secularism holds that governments may in some instances express sympathy to, provide funding to, licence state services to, or otherwise allow unique special treatment of religions (common in German-speaking and Benelux secular states), so long as states nevertheless treat these convictions equally, and are neither hostile nor preferential towards any particular set of religious or non-religious philosophical convictions such as humanists . In these countries, secular humanist organizations typically receive state funding according to

2400-467: Is more common, such as in Western Europe, demographics of secularists are closer to even. How a society considers what is secular may also change, where nominally spiritual beliefs become part of public or private life without being recognized as religious. As secularists are a minority in most communities, secularism is often stigmatized. Proponents of religious society challenge secular society on

2500-411: Is not one singular secular culture, as different people identify as secularists for different reasons and under different belief systems. Secularism is typically associated with progressivism and social liberalism . In democratic countries, middle and upper class white urban males with high education are more likely to identify as secularist than any other demographic group. In societies where secularism

2600-528: Is now used to characterize an insurgent trying to take control of a situation or of an organization by force or political maneuver, and various groups in different countries have been designated "Young Turks" because of their rebellious or revolutionary nature. The term "Young Turks" comes from the French Jeunes Turcs , which international observers tagged various Ottoman reformers of the 19th century. Historian Roderic Davison states that there

2700-416: Is quoted on the front page of the 1 August 1926 The Los Angeles Examiner as denouncing the Young Turks and especially the CUP (the "Young Turk Party"): These left-overs from the former [Committee of Union and Progress] Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred, have been restive under

2800-418: Is reflective and critical, publicly intelligible and rational, as a secular argument; [...], Nevertheless, a central feature of political liberalism is that it views all such arguments the same way it views religious ones, and therefore these secular philosophical doctrines do not provide public reasons. Secular concepts and reasoning of this kind belong to first philosophy and moral doctrine , and fall outside

2900-480: Is the nature of morality in a material universe. Secular ethics and secular morality describe systems of right and wrong that do not depend on religious or supernatural concepts. Much of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is developed in response to this issue. Under secular ethics, good is typically defined as that which contributes to "human flourishing and justice" rather than an abstract or idealized conception of good. Secular ethics are often considered within

3000-523: The American Revolution , Thomas Jefferson and James Madison incorporated the ideas of John Locke into the government of the United States, including his secularism, though a true secular state was not achieved until the 20th century. French secularism in the Age of Enlightenment was based on Gallicanism , which emphasised state supremacy, as well as anti-clericalism and materialism . Revolutionary France opposed Catholic influence in

3100-640: The Armistice of Mudros was signed aboard a British battleship in the Aegean Sea. On November 2, Enver, Talaat and Cemal fled from Istanbul into exile. Following the war, the Freedom and Accord Party regained control over the Ottoman government and conducting a purge of Unionists. Freedom and Accord rule was short-lived, and with Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) stirring up nationalist sentiment in Anatolia ,

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3200-473: The Center for Inquiry . Religious fundamentalists often oppose a secular form of government, arguing that it contradicts the character of historically religious nations, or infringes on their rights to express themselves in the public sphere. In the United States, for example, the word "secularism" became equivalent to "anti-religion" due to such efforts. Religious minorities, however, often support secularism as

3300-524: The Dashnak Committee were in attendance. The goal was to unite all the Young Turks and minority nationalist movements, in order to bring about a revolution to reinstate the constitution. They decided to put their differences aside and signed an alliance, declaring that Abdul Hamid had to be deposed and the regime replaced with a representative and constitutional government by any means necessary, without foreign interference. The Young Turks became

3400-618: The Hamidian massacres . In August 1896, cabinet ministers aligned with the CUP conspired a coup d'état to overthrow the sultan, but the plot was leaked to the palace before its execution. Prominent statesmen were exiled to Ottoman Tripolitania and Acre . The year after, Unionist cadets of the Military Academy schemed to assassinate the Minister of Military Schools, and this plot was also leaked to authorities. In became known as

3500-484: The United States Constitution as supporting this system during the 20th century, based on the ideas of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. Laïcité is a secularist framework developed and used in France. Under this system, the state has legal supremacy over religion and enforces the restriction of religion in the public sphere. It was established by a 1905 law , and subsequent laws have restricted

3600-680: The Young Italy political movement, the Young Turks had their origins in secret societies of "progressive medical university students and military cadets," namely the Young Ottomans , driven underground along with all political dissent after the Constitution of 1876 was abolished and the First Constitutional Era brought to a close by Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1878 after only two years. The Young Turks favored

3700-534: The Young Ottomans , that began on 23 December 1876 and lasted until 14 February 1878. These Young Ottomans were dissatisfied by the Tanzimat and instead pushed for a constitutional government similar to that in Europe. The constitutional period started with the dethroning of Sultan Abdulaziz . Abdul Hamid II took his place as Sultan. The era ended with the suspension of the Ottoman Parliament and

3800-687: The ulama , Sufi lodges , and masonic lodges . By and large, Young Turks favored taking power away from Yıldız Palace in favour of constitutional governance. Many coup d'état attempts associated with Young Turk networks occurred during the Hamidian era, repeatedly ending in failure. In 1906, the Paris-based CUP fused with the Macedonia-based Ottoman Freedom Society under its own banner. The Macedonian Unionists prevailed against Sultan Abdul Hamid II in

3900-510: The " Sacrifices of the Şeref " (Şeref Kurbanları ) the largest single crackdown of the Hamidian era resulted in more than 630 high-profile arrests and exiles. Under pressure from Yıldız Palace, French authorities banned Meşveret , though not the French supplemental, and deported Rıza and his Unionists in 1896. After settling in Brussels , the Belgian government was also pressured to deport

4000-458: The 1895 massacres of Diyarbekir . However the violence worsened after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution , despite Assyrian hopes that the new government would stop promoting anti-Christian Islamism. The Sayfo occurred concurrently with and was closely related to the Armenian genocide. Motives for killing included a perceived lack of loyalty among some Assyrian communities to the Ottoman Empire and

4100-566: The 1908 Young Turk Revolution . With this revolution, the Young Turks helped to establish the Second Constitutional Era in the same year, ushering in an era of multi-party democracy for the first time in the country's history. However, in the wake of events which proved disastrous for the Ottoman Empire as a body-politic (such as the 31 March Incident of April 1909, the 1912 coup , and the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913)

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4200-682: The Armenian genocide, assassinated the exiled Talaat Pasha in Berlin and was subsequently acquitted on all charges by a German jury. Cemal Pasha was similarly killed by Stepan Dzaghikian , Bedros Der Boghosian , and Ardashes Kevorkian for " crimes against humanity " in Tbilisi , Georgia. Enver Pasha, was killed in fighting against the Red Army unit under the command of Hakob Melkumian near Baldzhuan in Tajikistan (then Turkistan). The following

4300-633: The Balkans, started implementing policies, beginning in 1897, which brought on the last stages of the Balkanization process. By 1903, there were discussions on establishing administrative control by Russian and Austrian advisory boards in the Macedonian provinces. Abdul Hamid was forced to accept this reform package , although for quite a while he was able to subvert its implementation. However, eventually, signs were showing that this policy game

4400-500: The CUP "government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens and unarmed Christian minority population. More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches." The genocide of Assyrian civilians began during the Ottoman occupation of Azerbaijan from January to May 1915, during which massacres were committed by Ottoman forces and pro-Ottoman Kurds . Previously, many Assyrians were killed in

4500-695: The CUP, through highly secret diplomatic negotiations, led the Ottoman Empire to ally itself with Germany. The conflicts at the Caucasus Campaign , the Persian Campaign , and the Gallipoli Campaign affected places where Armenians lived in significant numbers. Before the declaration of war at the Armenian congress at Erzurum , Unionist emissaries asked Ottoman Armenians to facilitate the conquest of Transcaucasia by inciting

4600-400: The Empire soon collapsed. A guiding principle for the Young Turks was the transformation of their society into one in which religion played no consequential role, a stark contrast from the theocracy that had ruled the Ottoman Empire since its inception. However, the Young Turks soon recognized the difficulty of spreading this idea among the deeply religious Ottoman peasantry and even much of

4700-741: The Empire's problems such as separatism from non-Muslim minorities such as the Armenians , alienating himself from the CUP. The First Congress of Ottoman Opposition was held on 4 February 1902, at the house of Germain Antoin Lefevre-Pontalis a member of the Institut de France . The opposition was performed in compliance with the French government. Closed to the public, there were 47 delegates present. It included Rıza's Unionists, Sabahaddin's supporters, Armenian Dashnaks and Vergazmiya Hunchaks , and other Greek and Bulgarian groups. It

4800-518: The Freedom and Accord Party against the CUP. Other opposition parties against the CUP like Prince Sabahaddin's Private Enterprise and Decentralization League  [ tr ] and the Arab Ottoman Party for Administrative Decentralization , both of which made opposition to the CUP's centralization their main agenda. The Young Turks wished to modernize the Empire's communications and transportation networks without putting themselves in

4900-547: The Humanist Heritage website notes, Holyoake provides a definition of secularism "much akin to modern definitions of humanism ... broader than just atheism." More modern definitions of secularism are likely to pertain to separation of church and state rather than personal beliefs. Many Christian countries began to undergo societal secularisation during the 20th century, with levels of belief and practice declining. Sociologists disagree as to whether this represents

5000-459: The Indian tradition of religious and ethnic pluralism. One source of disagreement regarding accommodationism in India is the right of Muslims to live under both the civil code and Sharia simultaneously and the complications that result from this. Accommodationism also has a history in the United States , and the U.S. has increasingly moved toward accommodationism in the 21st century. State atheism

5100-534: The Republican rule. […] They have hitherto lived on plunder, robbery and bribery and become inimical to any idea, or suggestion to enlist in useful labor and earn their living by the honest sweat of their brow… Under the cloak of the [Progressive Republican Party] opposition party, this element, who forced our country into the Great War against the will of the people, who caused the shedding of rivers of blood of

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5200-544: The Tanzimat with ethnically non-Turkish members participating at the outset, the Young Turks embraced the official state ideology: Ottomanism . However, Ottoman patriotism failed to strike root during the First Constitutional Era and the following years. Many ethnically non-Turkish Ottoman intellectuals rejected the idea because of its exclusive use of Turkish symbols. Turkish nationalists gradually gained

5300-602: The Turkish youth to satisfy the criminal ambition of Enver Pasha, has, in a cowardly fashion, intrigued against my life, as well as the lives of the members of my cabinet. Historian Uğur Ümit Üngör , in his book The Making of Modern Turkey : Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia , has claimed that the "Republican People's Party, which was founded by Mustafa Kemal, was the successor of CUP and continued ethnic cleansing policies of its predecessor in Eastern Anatolia until

5400-520: The West, like the French, Benelux-German, Turkish, and American models, and beyond, as in India , where the emphasis is more on equality before law and state neutrality and equidistance from all religions rather than a complete blanket separation. The latter in the case of India, is termed as interventionist secularism, wherein the state intervenes to abolish practices of religion which it considers against constitutional principles, although this equidistance has been constitutionally understood to not exclude

5500-483: The Young Turks remained in the CUP. The groups' power struggle continued until 1913, after the CUP took over following Mahmud Shevket Pasha 's assassination. They brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of the Central Powers during the war. During the parliamentary recess of this era, the Young Turks held their first open congress at Salonica, on September–October 1911. There, they proclaimed

5600-449: The basis of morality, saying that secularism lacks a meaningful way to incentivize moral behaviour among its members. Secularism is considered in political philosophy and philosophy of religion . As a philosophy, secularism is closely associated with naturalism and materialism, rejecting consideration of immaterial or supernatural substances, such as a soul, in favour of a material universe. This secular materialism and rationalism forms

5700-592: The basis of most modern empirical science. During the Age of Enlightenment, liberal European philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza , John Locke , Montesquieu , Voltaire , David Hume , Adam Smith , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all proposed various forms of separation of church and state. The work of well known moral philosophers such as Derek Parfit and Peter Singer , and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, have been described as explicitly secular or non-religious. A major issue considered by secular philosophy

5800-479: The concept of a God. The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely, ranging from assertions that it is a crucial element of modernization , or that religion and traditional values are backward and divisive, to the claim that it is the only guarantor of free religious exercise. Secularism takes different forms with varying stances on where and how religion should be separate from other aspects of society. People of any religious denomination can support

5900-551: The constitution by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, with which he restored his own absolute monarchy . The first constitutional era did not include a party system . At the time, the Ottoman Parliament (known as the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire ) was seen as the voice of the people but not as a venue for the formation of political parties and organizations. The elections for the Parliament were held in accordance with

6000-585: The country fell under the domination of a radicalized CUP following the 1913 Raid on the Sublime Porte . With the strength of the constitution and of parliament broken, the CUP ruled the Empire in a dictatorship, which brought the Empire into World War I in October 1914. The genocides of 1915 to 1917 against Ottoman Christians were masterminded within the CUP, principally by Enver Pasha , Talat Pasha , Bahaeddin Şakir , and others. The term Young Turk

6100-607: The country, and it briefly replaced Christianity with the deistic Cult of Reason . The first to use the already-extant word "secularism" in a modern sense, was the British agnostic writer George Holyoake , in 1851. Finding " atheism " too aggravating, he sought a term that would describe a stance advocating to conduct life based on naturalistic (secular) considerations only, but without necessarily rejecting religion, thus enabling cooperation with believers. Holyoake's definition of secularism differs from its usage by later writers. As

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6200-713: The democratic to the authoritarian, such governments share a concern to limit the religious side in the relationship. Each state may find its own unique policy prescriptions. These may include separation, careful monitoring and regulation of organized religion such as in France, Turkey, India and others. In accord with the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons. In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion , contraception , embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage , and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations such as

6300-606: The desire to appropriate their land. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference , the Assyro-Chaldean delegation said that its losses were 250,000 (about half the prewar population); they later revised their estimate to 275,000 dead at the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923 . At the end of the War, with the collapse of Bulgaria and Germany's capitulation , Talaat Pasha and the CUP ministry resigned on October 13, 1918, and

6400-588: The displaced died of exposure, hunger, and disease, or were victims of banditry and forced labor. Early on, the Dashnaks had perceived the CUP as allies; the 1909 Adana massacre had been rooted in reactionary backlash against the revolution. But during World War I, the CUP's increasing nationalism began to lead them to participate in genocide. In 2005, the International Association of Genocide Scholars affirmed that scholarly evidence revealed

6500-696: The domain of the political. Still, Rawl's theory is akin to Holyoake's vision of a tolerant democracy that treats all life stance groups alike. Rawl's idea it that it is in everybody's own interest to endorse "a reasonable constitutional democracy" with "principles of toleration". His work has been highly influential on scholars in political philosophy and his term, overlapping consensus , seems to have for many parts replaced secularism among them. In textbooks on modern political philosophy, like Colin Farrelly's, An Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory , and Will Kymlicka's, Contemporary Political Philosophy ,

6600-465: The elite. The Young Turks thus began suggesting that Islam itself was materialistic. As compared with later efforts by Muslim intellectuals, such as the attempt to reconcile Islam and socialism, this was an extremely difficult endeavor. Although some former members of the CUP continued to make efforts in this field after the revolution of 1908, they were severely denounced by the ulema , who accused them of "trying to change Islam into another form and create

6700-481: The eponymous 1902 congress, was founded by Prince Sabahaddin and Ismail Kemal in the name of the majority mandate. However the organization was contentious and a coup plot in 1903 went no where. They later founded the Private Enterprise and Decentralization League , which called for a more decentralized and federalized Ottoman state in opposition to Rıza's centralist vision. After the congress, Rıza formed

6800-565: The frame of humanism. It can be seen by many of the organizations (NGOs) for secularism that they prefer to define secularism as the common ground for all life stance groups, religious or atheistic, to thrive in a society that honours freedom of speech and conscience. An example of that is the National Secular Society in the UK. This is a common understanding of what secularism stands for among many of its activists throughout

6900-436: The government can enforce how people act but not what they believe. Similarly, freedom of thought is supported by secularism. Order is supported by secularists, specifically in that one's beliefs should not be permitted to disturb the civil peace. Religious tolerance is supported both for people of other religions and for a lack of piety demonstrated by members of one's own religion. Political secularism also supports reason as

7000-538: The group a couple years later. The Belgian parliament denounced the decision and held a demonstration supporting the Young Turks against Hamidian tyranny. A congress in December 1896 saw Murat elected as chairman over Rıza and the headquarters moved to Geneva, sparking a schism between Rıza's supporters in Paris and Murat's supporters in Geneva. After the Ottoman Empire's triumph over Greece in 1897 Sultan Abdul Hamid used

7100-517: The hands of European bankers. Europeans already owned much of the country's railroad system, and since 1881, the administration of the defaulted Ottoman foreign debt had been in European hands. During the World War I, the empire under the CUP was "virtually an economic colony on the verge of total collapse." Regarding nationalism , the Young Turks underwent a gradual transformation. Beginning with

7200-599: The idea of giving up absolute power, Abdul Hamid was forced on July 24, 1908, to restore the constitution, beginning the Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire. After the revolution, the Young Turks formalized their differences in ideology by forming political clubs. Two main parties formed: more liberal and pro-decentralization Young Turks formed the Liberty Party and later the Freedom and Accord Party . The Turkish nationalist and pro-centralization wing among

7300-447: The landmark work of John Rawls ' A Theory of Justice in 1971 and its following book, Political Liberalism (1993), would rather use the conjoined concept overlapping consensus rather than secularism. In the latter Rawls holds the idea of an overlapping consensus as one of three main ideas of political liberalism . He argues that the term secularism cannot apply; But what is a secular argument? Some think of any argument that

7400-498: The majority religion tend to oppose it. Secular nationalists are people that support political secularism within their own state . Scholars identify several variations of political secularism in society. The strictest form, associated with the French laique model, advocates a state that is both firmly and officially distanced from all religions and non-religious philosophical convictions in all of its manifestations and official dealings, without exception. A more " humanistic " form

7500-484: The moment meant unity was hard to come by. Ahmet Rıza advocated for a Turkish nationalist and secularist agenda. Even though he denounced revolution, he had a more conservative and Islamist rival in Mehmet Murat Bey of Mizan fame. Rıza also had to deal with the " Activist " faction of the CUP that did push for a revolution. Other CUP branches often acted autonomously with their own ideological currents, to

7600-464: The point where the committee resembled more of an umbrella organization. Meşveret (Rıza) called for the reinstatement of the constitution but without revolution, as well as a more centralized Turkish-dominated Ottoman Empire sovereign of European influence . The CUP supported Kâmil Pasha 's call for responsible government to return to the Sublime Porte during the diplomatic crisis caused by

7700-540: The predominant lens through which reality was interpreted to providing only an alternative explanatory approach. In 1636, Roger Williams founded the Providence Plantations as a settlement with total freedom of religion, in present-day Rhode Island . Secular ideas were strongly challenged by religious leaders and the Catholic Church in particular, causing a religious culture war . During

7800-627: The preeminent faction of the Young Turks once as absorbed other opposition groups and established contact with exiled intelligentsia, Freemasons, and cabinet ministers, to the point where European observers started calling them the "Young Turk Party". The society attempted several coup attempts against the government, much to the anti-revolutionary in Rıza's chagrin. Due to the danger in speaking out against absolutism, Young Turk activity shifted abroad. Turkish colonies were established in Paris, London, Geneva, Bucharest, and Cairo. The several ideological currents in

7900-409: The prestige he gained from the victory to coax the exiled Young Turks network back into his fold. After expelling Rıza from the CUP, Murat defected to the government, including Cevdet and Sükuti . A wave of extraditions, more amnesties, and buy-outs, weakened an opposition organization already operating in exile. With trials organized in 1897 and 1899 against enemies of Abdul Hamid II, the Ottoman Empire

8000-600: The provinces (also called Meclis-i Umumi ). After the establishment of the General Assembly in the provinces, the members selected the deputies from within the assembly to form the Chamber of Deputies in the capital. The Chamber had 115 members and reflected the distribution of the millets in the empire. In the second elections, there were 69 Muslim millet representatives and 46 representatives of other millets ( Jews , Phanariotes , Armenians ). The second body

8100-483: The provisional electoral regulations. The Parliament ( General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire ; مجلس عمومي , Meclis-i Umumi ) was composed in two stages. The lower house of the bicameral legislature was the Chamber of Deputies ( مجلس مبعوثان , Meclis-i Mebusan ), while the upper house was the Senate ( مجلس أعيان , Heyet-i Ayan ). The initial selection of deputies was made by administrative councils in

8200-459: The role of religion in any public sphere. Secularism may encapsulate anti-clericalism , atheism , naturalism , non-sectarianism , neutrality on topics of religion, or antireligion . As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from the material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards "temporal" and material concerns. There are distinct traditions of secularism in

8300-536: The same funding formulas used to provide state funding to religious groups. In Indian political discourse, the pejorative term pseudo-secularism is also used to highlight instances where it is believed that while the state purports to be secular, indifferent, or impartial towards religions, its policies in reality favour a particular religion over others. There are many principles that are associated with all forms of political secularism. It typically promotes legal equality between people of different religions, opposing

8400-464: The separation of church and state. This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion , replacing laws based on scripture (such as Halakha , Dharmaśāstra , and Sharia ) with civil laws , and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion . This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities. Separation of church and state is one possible strategy to be deployed by secular governments. From

8500-425: The separation of church and state. Under this system, the state does not support any religious group and does not enforce religious laws. Challenges facing separationist secularism include how the government should regulate secular activities of religious groups and how to govern separately from religion when citizens, including government employees, are religious. The federal judiciary of the United States interpreted

8600-463: The summer of 1917, Armenians were moved to the Konya region in central Anatolia. Through these measures, the CUP leaders aimed to eliminate the ostensible Armenian threat by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 1,200,000 Armenians were forcibly deported from their home vilayets . As a result, about half of

8700-431: The term secularism is not even indexed and in the former it can be seen only in one footnote. However, there is no shortage of discussion and coverage of the topic it involves. It is just called overlapping consensus, pluralism , multiculturalism or expressed in some other way. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory , there is one chapter called "Political secularism", by Rajeev Bhargava . It covers secularism in

8800-626: The umbrella of the CUP. In reality, the leadership of the OFS would exert significant control over the CUP. Finally, in 1908 in the Young Turk Revolution , pro-CUP officers marched on Istanbul, forcing Abdulhamid to restore the constitution. An attempted countercoup resulted in his deposition. In 1908, the Macedonian Question was facing the Ottoman Empire . Tsar Nicholas II and Franz Joseph , who were both interested in

8900-408: The upper hand in politics, and following the 1902 Congress, a stronger focus on nationalism developed. It was at this time that Ahmed Rıza chose to replace the term "Ottoman" with "Turk," shifting the focus from Ottoman nationalism to Turkish nationalism . Among the prominent leaders and ideologists were: In the aftermath of an assassination attempt by remaining Unionists, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ,

9000-591: The use of religious iconography in public or by children. Kemalist secularism, or laiklik , is an adaptation of laïcité that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established in Turkey in the 1920s and 1930s. Accommodationism is a system of actively supporting religion in general without favouring a specific religious sect. Under this system, the state applies few restrictions to religion and often provides religious organizations with financial support. India uses this system, incorporating Western ideas of secularism in combination with

9100-446: The world. However, many scholars of Christianity and conservative politicians seem to interpret secularism more often than not, as an antithesis of religion and an attempt to push religion out of society and replace it with atheism or a void of values, nihilism . This dual aspect (as noted above in "Secular ethics") has created difficulties in political discourse on the subject. It seems that most political theorists in philosophy following

9200-472: The year 1950. Thus, Turkey was transformed into an ethnically homogenous state." As to the fate of the Three Pashas , two of them, Talaat Pasha and Cemal Pasha , were assassinated by Armenian nationals shortly after the end of World War I while in exile in Europe during Operation Nemesis , a revenge operation against perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. Soghomon Tehlirian , whose family was killed in

9300-462: Was being confronted. The Young Ottomans , the liberal and Islamist opposition movement to Fuad and Aali Pasha 's regime, were also known as Jeunes Turcs , though they called themselves Yeni Osmanlılar , or New Ottomans. Historiographically, the group which became definitively known as the Young Turks was the opposition to Sultan Abdul Hamid II which surfaced after 1889, the Committee of Union and Progress being its standard bearer. Inspired by

9400-522: Was coming to an end. On May 13, 1908, the leadership of the CUP, with the newly gained power of its organization, was able to communicate to Sultan Abdul Hamid II the unveiled threat that "the [Ottoman] dynasty would be in danger" if he were not to bring back the Ottoman constitution that he had previously suspended since 1878. By June, Unionist officers of the Third Army mutinied and threatened to march on Constantinople. Although initially resistant to

9500-624: Was defined by the question of whether to invite foreign intervention for regime change in Constantinople to better minority rights; a majority which included Sabahaddin and his followers as well as the Armenians argued for foreign intervention, a minority which included Rıza's Unionists and the Activist Unionists were against violent change and especially foreign intervention. The Ottoman Freedom Lover's Committee, named after

9600-643: Was held within the CUP's Central Committee . On November 2, 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I became the scene of action. The combatants were the Ottoman Empire, with some assistance from the other Central Powers, against primarily the British and the Russians among the Allies . Rebuffed elsewhere by the major European powers,

9700-454: Was limited, and 20th century Turkish secularism was initially modelled after French laïcité . Turkey remains virtually the only Muslim-majority nation with an effective secular government, though secularism remains a controversial ideology in Turkey, and the country's ruling party AKP is more anti-Kemalist than anti-secularist. India became a secular state after it achieved independence in 1947; Mahatma Gandhi supported pluralist secularism as

9800-455: Was not a consistent ideological application of the term; statesmen which wished to resurrect the Janissary corp and derebeys , conservative reformers of Mahmud II , and pro-Western reformers of Abdul Mejid , are all referred to as the party of Jeunes Turcuie by different observers. Davison concludes that a Young Turk party was identified in situations where an amorphous "Old Turk" faction

9900-593: Was the Senate , and the members were selected by the Sultan. The Senate had only 26 members. It was designed to replace the porte , and the Grand Vizier become the speaker of Senate. The two elections happened between 1877 and 1878. The members' reactions to the approaching war were very strong, and Sultan Abdul Hamid II asked for new elections citing the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) . The life of

10000-467: Was under his secure control. Though moral was low, Ahmet Rıza, who returned to Paris, was the sole leader of the exiled Young Turks network. In 1899, members of the Ottoman dynasty Damat Mahmud Pasha and his sons Sabahaddin and Lütfullah fled to Europe to join the Young Turks. However, Prince Sabahaddin believed that embracing the Anglo-Saxon values of capitalism and liberalism would alleviate

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