From religion to nonreligion in a Muslim-majority context: Exploring (non)religious socialization of young adults in Turkish families

Abstract

This chapter examines the transition from religion to nonreligion among young adults in Türkiye, focusing on how familial (non)religious backgrounds and modes of (non)religious socialization shape this transformation in a Muslim-majority context. Drawing on the ‘lived’ nonreligion framework, the study deconstructs the assumed binary between religious and nonreligious upbringings and explores the messy, fluid realities through which young Turks negotiate their (non)religious identities. The analysis is based on 38 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted between 2022 and 2023 with self-identified nonreligious young adults (aged 18–34) across seven Turkish cities, drawn from the Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) Project. Thematic analysis generated two original, context-sensitive typologies. The first identifies four familial religious backgrounds – observant, intermediately, fuzzy, and nominally religious – demonstrating the inadequacy of Eurocentric models such as Voas’s ‘fuzzy fidelity’ for Türkiye, where even minimal adherents often retain a strong Muslim identity. The second distinguishes five modes of (non)religious socialization: observant, intermediate, fuzzy, nonreligious, and adverse. The chapter’s central theoretical contribution is the concept of ‘adverse religious socialization,’ an experiential overlay – marked by coercion, fear, guilt, or abuse – that can poison religious transmission across any family type and operate intergenerationally. Together, the typologies show that familial influence is not deterministic; instead, young adults actively navigate, reinterpret, and sometimes reject inherited religious identities. The study offers a new methodological and theoretical toolkit for examining nonreligion outside the West and reveals how coercive religious transmission can paradoxically produce the very nonreligion it seeks to prevent.