Jigsaw Reading 2

Kemal Mustafa Ataturk based his government on six main ideas, called “The Six Arrows of Kemalism.” These ideas defined his philosophy and are reflected in the major reforms he implemented in Turkey. Below, you will read about two of these arrows. You will need to define these arrows on the following page.

  1. Populism

Populism means democratic control by the people of internal politics through the rule of law. Self-government, popularly elected leaders, and regular elections constitute “populism” in Turkey. Key to the idea of Populism in Turkey is the question, “What is in the best interest of the general public?” (Edited from:

  1. Secularism

Secularism means the formal, legal separation of religion from politics, the end of the domination of the state by Islamic officials, and the individual freedom of conscience to believe, worship, and communicate religious truths as the individual understands them. Such liberty of religion implies the freedom to learn of all faiths, to seek God’s guidance in knowing His Truth, and sharing it with others without fear of persecution or injury. The premise of this is that such individual searching after God’s Truth and voluntary faith in God is pleasing to God, while forced adherence to a certain religion is not really pleasing to God.(Edited from:

Questions:

1.In 1-2 sentences, define Kemal’s idea of Populism.

2.In 1-2 sentences, define Kemal’s idea of Secularism.

Now you will read quotations from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk explaining his views on Nationalism. Use these quotations to answer the questions that follow.

  1. Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer. (Source:
  2. You know there is an unforgiving enmity between thesocieties of the Muslim world and the masses of the Christian world. Muslimsbecame eternal enemies of Christians, and Christians those of Muslims. Theyviewed each other as non-believers, fanatics. The two worlds co-existed withthis fanaticism and enmity. As a result of this enmity, the Muslim world wasdistanced from the western progress that took a new form and color everycentury. (Source:
  3. It is claimed that religious unity is also a factorin the formation of nations. Whereas, we see the contrary in the Turkishnation. Turks were a great nation even before they adopted Islam. Thisreligion did not help the Arabs, Iranians, Egyptians and others to unite withTurks to form a nation. Conversely, it weakened the Turks’ nationalrelations; it numbed Turkish national feelings and enthusiasm. This wasnatural, because Mohammedanism was based on Arab nationalism above allnationalities. (Source:
  4. Our religion has never demanded women to be lower than men. What god commands to men and women is to acquire the science and knowledge together. Men and women have to seek science and knowledge, and go wherever they could find them. A careful examination of Islamic and Turkish history would show that the rules we feel we have to obey actually do not exist. In Turkish social life, women have never been any less than men in science, knowledge or in any other field.
  5. As you know, degenerates who taken have us in the wrong direction mostly masked with a religious veil and have continuously deceived our pure and clear people with interpretations of religious rules. Read our history and listen…You will see that all the evil which ruined, captivated and destroyed our people always came from the infidels masked by religion. (Source:

Answer the following using evidence from the quotations above. You should give the number of the quotation/s you used to answer the questions.

  1. Why does Kemal think that Islam has held Turkey back from becoming a nation and from westernization?
  1. Does Kemal believe women are equal to men? Why doesn’t the rest of Turkish society necessary believe this?