TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Where have all the
Muslims Gone?
A Short Analysis of the Muslim Society in Turkey through Amateur
Anthropological Eyeballs
Turkey is 99%
Muslim. What image comes to American mind
when thinking of a predominantly Muslim country? Routine
calls to prayer, shrouded women with
veiled faces, conservative dress of both men and women, women with
covered
hair, severe gender inequality, no women in the work place…the list of
generalizations goes on. My mind is
surely not filled with Istanbul’s
free association of low-cut, tight fitting clothes with flashy style
and wild
untamed hair only occasionally contained under a brightly colored
trend-setting
cap.
Jolted back only
by the call to prayer from some distant mosque
that could not reach everyone’s
ears, I had fallen into that stream of “I have to see it to believe it”
- all
too common in human beings. Mosques dotted the horizon as a backdrop of
Islam
poised like a scene from a movie, but within my experience in Turkey
the scene
was a freeze-frame of a silent film. In
contrast, Egypt’s
Muslim influence followed many of the generalizations listed above. The reverb of the prayer calls’ voluminous
and routine presence was inexorable, playing on all eardrums, from the
most
pious to those of the atheist passer-by. The largest sign of
migration within Turkey’s
tug-o-war borders was
having to constantly remind myself of the religious demographics of
this
country. Historical reforms buffered
this country toward the Western image, especially limiting religious
displays
of dress, and mentalities followed thereafter bringing Turkey
closer
and closer to the picture of an idealized and idolized Western society.
Descriptors of “Turkishness” are
disputable,
often making one Muslim view the next with a shrug of “foreignness” as
is
anecdotally portrayed in Yael Navaro-Yasin’s publication, Who
is “Turkish”? Two women
– one veiled, one exposing short-cropped hair – are shocked to realize
they are
both Turkish and both Muslim. “You look
like a Westerner,” said one; “I thought you were an Arab,” said the
other in
put-off return. Each thought the other a
foreigner; each represented to the other a sign of migration, evidence
of Istanbul’s
historical
role as site for centuries of crossings of cultures.
Conclusion: Where
have all the Muslims gone? They are
there, integrated and intertwined in Turkey’s
culture. Muslim men and women are the pillars of society
as
prevalent if not more than anyone else. A
Muslim woman may have sold you a scarf in the
bazaar or sat next to you in the hammam,
a man may have shaved off the skewered meat for your sandwich. Both may be running his or her own highly
successful business. They are there, but,
juxtaposed against Turkey’s
modernity, we will have to throw off the lens through which we have
been taught
to view the Muslim world and take the time to look a little harder. Breaking through the guidelines of Muslim
seemliness
builds bridges between diverse cultures. Turkey
is this bridge.
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