Dr Recep is an academic and sociologist of religion, and is presently the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. He is also President of Usul Academy, a higher education institution that aims to deliver a classical madrasah education as well as contemporary subjects within an Islamic framework. He is the founder of Ibn Haldun University and was its president from 1917 to 2021. He obtained degrees from Marmara University and Istanbul University before obtaining a doctorate from Columbia University, New York. He is a strong advocate of non-western sociological theories, following the genre of Ibn Khaldun. His work focuses on social networks, human rights, and modernization in the Muslim world. He has authored several books, including: Open Civilization, Modernization and Sociology, and Sociologies of New Religions.