TÜBA President represents the state of Turkish academia…

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I always heard it as a gossip but a few days ago TÜBA (The Turkish Academy of Sciences) President Prof. Yücal Kanpolat made it official in my eyes: Prof. Şerif Mardin was not accepted as a member of the Academy because he “polished” Said Nursi too much. Prof. Kanpolat claims that not because Prof. Mardin studied on Said Nursi but because he praised him he was not accepted to the Academy.  Şerif Mardin is one of the best social scientists ever lived in modern Turkey and his work on Said Nursi (Religion and social change in modern Turkey: the case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi) is probably the first sociological work on this religious figure. Because he did not explicitly demonize Said Nursi, he was “excommunicated”. Kemalist scholarly establishment could never forgive him while generations of social scientists relied on his many works to create a better understanding of the social…

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