From Symbolic Exile to Physical Exile

The book provides information and analysis about a Turkish student community in different locations in Europe, especially in Vienna and Sarajevo. Graduates of Turkish Imam-Hatip High Schools, public schools that offer a combination of a religious and scientific curriculum, choose Europe for their university education because they were excluded from universities in Turkey by secular elites of the country. This book tries to explore the story of European Imam-Hatip graduates with references to Turkish modernization. With an extensive historical background of Turkish modernization, religious conservatism and Imam-Hatip High Schools in Turkey; the relationship between Turkish conservatives and Imam-Hatip Schools, the role of these schools in the social upward mobilization of religiously conservatives, the conservative modernization that took place with the help of Imam-Hatip Schools are just some questions of the book that were asked for exploring and analyzing European Imam-Hatip graduates.