Generalising discourses about Islam and Muslims have been condensed over time into a homogeneous image, even a myth, in public debate. The reality, however, is more differentiated: there are a multiplicity of understandings of Islam and of Muslim groups. The heterogeneity of Muslim life, as it presents itself today in Europe or in the Turkish context, is thus not an aberration, but the result of a wide range of experiences and contradictory processes including globalization, digitalization, individualization and pluralization.

The continual warnings about the Islamization of the Occident are largely ideological. These generalizations refer not only to the segments of the population with a Muslim background in German-speaking countries, but also to the situation in Turkey, a country from which many people emigrated in the 1960s and 1970s, especially to Germany and Austria. Today these groups are in their fourth generation: the children and grandchildren of the original emigrants who were born and grew up in Germany and Austria and have been educated there.

In our opinion, lack of differentiation in this area creates an over-generalized view of the reality, steers public perception and thus has an impact on society. It also obscures the complexity of religiosity within the Muslim population, both in German-speaking countries and in Turkey, and of processes of secularization. The consequence of such generalization is that Islam is perceived as opposed to secularism, and that secularization and differentiation within Muslim populations are left largely unaddressed. The question of whether Islam is compatible with secularism has been the subject of heated debate in recent years, with widely divergent opinions being aired. There remain a multitude of views and ideas about what the two concepts might signify and how they relate to each other.

As recent studies and the contributions to this anthology show, people of Muslim faith are primarily religious. However, a progressive secularization also seems to be underway. In both Turkey and Germany, the proportion of young people from Muslim homes who have largely or completely distanced their internal landscape from Islam is around 10 %.

Studies also make clear that the common assumption that Islam is the antithesis of secularisation does not really reflect the reality of people’s lives and seems to be the result of ideologically-driven research. As examined and discussed in the individual contributions, the globalization and digitalization of the world are driving secularization processes that are putting traditional religious ideas and authorities under pressure, requiring them to justify themselves to all believers and forcing individuals to confront religious tradition. This raises questions for Muslims both in Turkey and in German-speaking countries about the personal, ethical, social and political significance of religion in the context of globalization and digitalization. The responses to such questions can vary greatly from individual to individual and context to context, ranging from strong faith to unbelief, from a retreat to traditional values to political engagement. People may sometimes also join new religions or explore new philosophies, or try to understand their traditional religion in a new way. Islam is displaying great dynamism with regard to new understandings and interpretations.

Against this background, the present anthology aims to present a change of perspective, breaking away from mythical ideas about Islam and Muslims and instead using the transformation processes in globalized and digitalized societies as a starting point for an examination of how such processes change affect the secularization and religiosity of the people concerned. Contributions have been drawn from Germany, Austria and Turkey, and consider a range of perspectives and contexts, illustrating the dynamic relationship between secularization and religious orientation.

The texts gathered here are international and transdisciplinary in focus, undertaking empirical investigation of secularization and religiosity among Muslims in Turkey and in German-speaking countries. Turkey, Germany and Austria are – politically and legally – secular states. In what might be called this “post-secular“ age in European societies and in Turkey, secularization and religiosity are intertwined. This anthology therefore aims to describe the nature of the dynamic processes involved and to uncover the interactions between them and the new world views that are emerging. Since there are only a few comparative analyses in this area, it seems interesting to us, both epistemologically and practically, to work out how people are situating themselves in the globalized and digitalized world and what influence the transformation is having on religiosity (attitudes and actions that are motivated and conditioned by faith) and secularity (distancing oneself from religiously motivated positions and actions), both of which can lead to changes in the lives of individuals and groups. We aim to compare and discuss the social phenomena of secularity and religiosity among young people in Turkey and German-speaking countries in Europe. The volume includes theological, sociological and religious studies perspectives. In an increasingly globalized and digitalized context, the old distinction between “religious“ and “secular“ has largely lost its discriminatory power, and many people are searching for a spirituality that can hardly be defined in religious or theological terms.

Turkey is a promising case study for this exercise in many respects. First, it is the country of origin of very many migrants in Europe and has been engaged in accession negotiations with the EU for a number of years. Secondly, Turkey has been westernised for a good 100 years. A comparison of developments in Turkey and developments in European countires is thus highly relevant to the present research question. An overview of the contributions to this book follows below.

In his chapter, Secularization in Turkey: Conceptual Framework and an Overview of the Secularization Process in Turkey, Volkan Ertit analyses the link between political dynamics and religiosity. His study refutes the notion that Turkey is becoming more religious, noting a lack of empirical evidence. Turkey, he emphazises, is going through a process of secularization that corresponds to the patterns of modernization identified by traditional secularization theory. The study looks at six key categories: private intimacy, homosexuality, popular belief, dress codes, the role of Islamic personalities and the decline of religious rhetoric.

Nesrullah Okans, Muhammed Kızılgeçits, and Mustafa Kemal Şens phenomenological study, Intergenerational Perspectives on the Relationship Between Secularization and Religion in Turkey, summarizes the relationship between secularization and religion in Turkey. The aim of this study is to identify and compare the experiences and perceptions of three generations who witnessed the secularization of Turkey, particularly with regard to the relationship between secularization and religion. The authors examine the influence of significant events on three age groups (under 30, 30–50, over 50), recording and comparing the generations’ experiences and perceptions.

Hamza Aktaş has conducted a quantitative study examining secular tendencies among Turkish university students from Gümüşhane and Düzce universities. Using a descriptive survey model, he surveyed 429 students via Google Docs using random sampling and measuring their attitudes on the “Secular Attitude Scale“. SPSS t-tests and ANOVA were deployed for data analysis, and Bonferroni tests determined significant differences. The results showed students had moderately low secular attitude levels, with differences between genders, universities, university departments, and self-definitions.

Emine Çetiner Özyılmaz conducted a quantitative study of Quran-based religiosity among Atatürk University students. This focused on the Islamic, Quran-based religiosity of Atatürk University students, especially those in the Faculty of Literature and Theology. The study analyzed differences between faculties with regard to the structure of Islamic religiosity, showing a positive...