Turkey: Religion

Blue Mosque, for ritual washing

On the surface, it might seem that Turkey is a particularly religious place - especially if one spends sometime in the old quarter of Istanbul.  There, it's most important historic sites (the Blue Mosque the Grand Bazaar, Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia) are all within steps of each other.  And in the old town, there are a bunch of mosques, large and small, old and new. Each one of those mosques will have a minaret, or two, or four, or six (Blue Mosque has six, it is unusual - but a good story. Look it up)  Each of those minarets will have a loudspeaker and six times a day will issue the call to prayer.

So it seems that religion hangs in the air Turkey. Another element that creates an impression of religiosity is the prayer beads that you see everywhere, not just for sale to tourists (MC bought some), but constantly in the hands of people you see in the streets. They're always fiddling with them. They are ubiquitous.

A Christmas themed ad?  If it works...

And they have not all that much to do with religion, as it turns out. Yes, their origin is religious. They have 33 beads, and are supposed to be used to recite the 99 names of Allah.  That is until you break one of the beads off.  Then it just has 32, no particular religious significance, and just becomes a fidget toy, like a stress ball. Apparently this is what most Turks do. They're not praying all the time - just keeping busy.

In many ways this is like the way they seem to relate to the call to prayer. It is a constant part of their lives, but does not have all that much religious significance for the average person. At the appointed hour, the calls will start.  In places with multiple mosques they alternate so as to avoid stepping on each other, and from what I could tell, people seem to just keep doing whatever they were doing. To put it bluntly, they seem to just ignore them.

In this respect (ignoring religion) Turkey is very much like the West and in that, it is the realization of the dream of its founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk was a true revolutionary whose vision extended beyond politics to social life. (see the history post for more on him - coming soon)  He believed Turkey needed to be a secular country and he worked hard to accomplish that. To me, it seems he succeeded.


I know many Turks have grave concerns about whether that last statement will long be true. They fear the direction the current government is taking. They do not want to live in an ‘Islamic Democracy’, rather they prefer a democracy, populated by Muslims. In that, there is no difference between them and me. I fear America's Christian Dominionists (Sarah Palin is the best-known example) and I want the United States to remain a democracy, populated by Christians (among others). Not a Christian Democracy.