Pocketbooks or Prayer Beads?

Abstract

In this article, the author analyzes the texts of newspaper articles from the United States and Britain written in the week following the November 2002 elections in Turkey. The purpose of this research is to examine the degree to which the religious origins of the victorious party, the AKP, were emphasized by newspapers, and the implications of such emphasis on the overall coverage. A number of international events and trends have triggered recent research into the press coverage of Islam, Muslims, and/or Muslim nations: most notably the 1991 Gulf War, the September 11 attacks in the United States, and the rise in the Muslim population of many European nations. Very few studies, however, have analyzed international press coverage of what one could call the more day-to-day, nonsensational activities in Muslim nations (such as national elections). Such studies could add a great deal to the understanding of how these nations are presented in the press in contexts other than those of war, terrorism, or upheaval.