Berkley Center

Egdūnas Račius explains how Turkish involvement in and influence on Islamic life in Lithuania led to a split in the Lithuanian Muslim community following the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. He concludes that Turkey is unlikely to influence Muslim communities in Lithuania in the near future.

Annelle R. Sheline examines a string of declarations issued by Muslim religious scholars (ulama) to denounce various acts of violence carried out by Muslim individuals and concludes that the long-term effects of “declaration proliferation” may be more counterproductive than they initially seem.

Ahmet Erdi Öztürk explains why the increasingly authoritarian and overtly Islam-based policy of Turkey cannot be regarded as benign religious soft power or public diplomacy. Rather, its religious soft power is best characterized in terms of ambivalence.