Anti Kapitalist Müslümanlar

Uluğ, Ö. M., & Acar, Y. (2015). We are more than alliances between groups': A social psychological perspective on the Gezi Park protesters and negotiating levels of identity. In Everywhere Taksim: sowing the seeds for a new Turkey at Gezi. Amsterdam University Press.

Anti-capitalist Muslims/Revolutionary Muslims (Ankara and Istanbul):

Anti-capitalist Muslims and Revolutionary Muslims stated that they

believe property belongs to God (‘a park belonging to the public, given

away to the “capitalist followers” of the AKP, is not something the

people can tolerate’). They saw the AKP government as endangering

the environment by continually building shopping centres around

the country, and they stated that Muslims should rather live in peace

with nature. According to participants, Gezi Park is the only place in

Taksim where people can sit for free and they did not want to see that

change. Importantly, they also wanted to show that the protesters are

not enemies of religion, as implied by members of the ‘Islamist’ AKP

government, and which they thought was incorrectly expressed through

the AKP.

The Anti-capitalist and Revolutionary Muslim identity was important

for the participants while they were attending the protests, and more

so for the participant who attended in Istanbul than the participant

from Ankara. As part of the occupation, many groups, including the

Anti-capitalist and Revolutionary Muslims, pitched tents in Gezi Park,

implying a more concrete and permanent identity-based presence. They

felt close to Kaldıraç (an LGBTI organisation), Çarşı and socialist and

communist groups in the protests. The only group they did not feel

close to was TGB, but stated ‘if we are bothered [by the presence of]

any other group, this would be against the Gezi spirit.’ (s. 127)