Numerous scholars ascribe the root causes of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey to the central government’s policies of forced and aggressive assimilation. As the conflict drags on with serious doubts over the efficacy of a military solution to the rise of Kurdish nationalism, some have pointed to Islam as a cure for ethno-nationalist grievances. This view has gained momentum with the rise of political Islam, long banned in Turkey by the staunchly secularist elite, and particularly with the ascendancy of the Justice and Development Party to power in 2002. The proponents, emphasizing the notion of Islamic brotherhood as the glue that holds numerous ethnic nationalities together, argue that political Islam can serve as an antidote to the rise of ethno-nationalist demands. This study examines this claim and argues that Islam’s role as a cure for these demands has been overstated. The data from in-depth interviews with the members of Kurdish Islamist communities in Turkey conducted in the summer of 2012 in Diyarbakir and Batman, two major towns in the Kurdish populated region, as well as Istanbul, the largest city in the country with a sizable Kurdish population, indicate a rather nuanced relationship between Islam and ethnic nationalism. Islam at best plays a secondary role in shaping nationalist claims and has primarily been used as an instrument in hands of the political leaders to re-frame and strengthen their position. Furthermore, rather than Islam serving as a cure for ethno-nationalism, the ethnic conflict transforms traditional Islam. In other words, similar to the Turkification of Islam in the hands of the Turkish political elite, the long standing Kurdish struggle for greater rights for the Kurds in Turkey has been able to shape the hearts and minds of the religious Kurds, thus leading to the Kurdification of Islam.