The public face of the Anti-Capitalist Muslims, a key player in the Gezi protests, says the secular demonstrating youth are interested in their libertarian interpretation of Islam. A new understanding of religion could be born out of the Gezi spirit, according to theologian İhsan Eliaçık. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has portrayed the Gezi Park…

With his scruffy beard, baggy trousers, plastic slippers and prayer beads, Ihsan Eliacik seems the archetypal conservative Muslim. He is anything but that. At a gathering of anti-government protesters in Istanbul’s secular Besiktas neighbourhood he was applauded when he railed against Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after breaking the Ramadan fast, the Iftar (pictured),…

Since the protests in Turkey began last week, thousands have camped out in central Istanbul, demonstrating against the government’s plan to tear down Gezi Park and replace it with a shopping mall and a replica of an Ottoman era military barracks. Most protesters are young and secular, but earlier this week, a group of religious anti-capitalists…