Among the various groups that joined the Gezi Park protests that shook Turkey in June, probably none was as unconventional as “Anti-Capitalist Muslims.” In the midst of avowedly secular Turks — ranging from liberals to communists, Kemalists to gay activists — they raised an “Islamic” voice against a government that is often perceived to be too Islamic. More recently, they even organized a mass iftar (fast-breaking dinner) which blurred all the classical Turkish distinctions between the religious and the secular, as described nicely in Fehim Taştekin’s Al-Monitor piece, “Turkey’s Gezi Park Protesters  Regroup for Ramadan.” Hence they deserve a closer look.

The Anti-Capitalist Muslims are actually a very small group, whose frequenters are probably not more than a couple of hundred. As explained in their website, they see capitalism as “the enemy of God, the enemy of humanity, nature, the poor, the starving and the needy.” They had made their first public appearance in the May Day celebrations in Istanbul in 2011, by joining a large left-wing, mostly Marxist crowd with Quranic verses in hand. Since then, they have attracted the attention of the media with demonstrations and TV appearances.

In fact, all this is the brainchild of one man: İhsan Eliaçık, a theologian whose writings and lectures have created a following over the decades, especially in the past several years. He is, by most definitions, an Islamic modernist who believes that the Islamic tradition should be reformed and the Quran should be interpreted in the light of the modern age. One of his key messages is that traditional Muslims focus too much on rituals and forget the “social activism” that the Quran asks from believers. In other words, he thinks that taking care of the poor is a more important Islamic duty then the minute details of the dress code.

These are ideas that most Muslim modernists would embrace, but İhsan Eliaçık puts an additional layer on them: an Islamo-Marxist reading of the economy. He believes that the Islamic duty is actually not just caring for the poor, but overthrowing the “system” that he thinks he makes them poor, which is none other than “capitalism.” He even believes that the Quran condemns private property, and rather envisions a society in which property would be willingly shared and labor equally rewarded.