Is Pork Available? Living in a Muslim Country

Recently, a neighborhood film director asked if I had ever observed how western movies commonly depict girls in Istanbul, how they were continually proven to be covered from head to toe in black burqas.

He made me recognize how Turkey is regularly wrongly perceived and misrepresented. It appears that because humans partner Turkey with being a Muslim country the false impression exists that it need to be similar to Iran, Saudi Arabia or different Arabian international locations and that therefore ladies get dressed hence. However, Turkey is, in truth, officially an earthly united states of america, based in 1923 very a good deal within the photo of France and laicism, or secularism, via the top notch Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Officially, over ninety nine% of the population is taken into consideration to be Muslim but every body who has stuffed in any official Turkish report will recognize how these statistics can be deceptive. On each record I've seen there's a 'tick' container for Christians, Muslims or Jews but that is it. There's no such issue as 'different' in Turkey and apparently atheists do not exist at all. Even the tick box for 'Muslim' does no longer inform the whole tale – the majority of Muslims in Turkey are Sunni however there is additionally a huge minority (15% or more) of Alevis in Turkey who do now not even believe in going to the mosque.

While the sight of the towering minarets of the mosque and the sound of the Ezan (the Muslim name to prayer) serves as a visible and acoustic reminder that I live in a predominantly Islamic tradition, most of the time, I cross approximately my each day commercial enterprise not giving it a moment’s thought. These are a few questions I’m requested by way of my fellow compatriots about daily lifestyles in a Muslim usa.

Does the call to prayer wake you up at all hours?

I laughed when my local mosque turned into constructed shortly once I moved in to my Bodrum villa; I wondered whether it were built particularly for me and my dog given the particularly few human beings wintering here in Gumusluk returned then. Sadly, I can best hear the Ezan (the Muslim name to prayer) if there may be a prevailing southerly wind however one in all my dogs virtually has an ear for the mosque so that even if it is out of my earshot, she howls along with the Imam with a ardour as exceptional as someone bellowing out 'My Way' at some dreadful out-of-tune karaoke birthday celebration. Suffice it to mention, the mosque has never woken me up, however my ‘singalong’ dog has, acting as a spare minaret downstairs as I lay asleep upstairs.

Many humans seem to enjoy listening to the mosque – it seems to give confirmation of being in a totally extraordinary, quite distinguished, a ways away vicinity. Although I consider the extent has been turned up extensively in latter years, it constantly surprises me that no one stops to concentrate, nor appears to notice, the decision to prayers. Rarely does music in bars get became down because the Ezan starts offevolved up and I regularly marvel whether or not the Hoca (Imam) resents being seemingly left out, mainly because it seems to require this type of large attempt on his part five instances an afternoon, seven days per week!

However, Friday prayers at 1pm is a distinct proposition, when the roads nearby can slightly address the large inflow of automobiles parked, redolent of a huge weekend automobile boot sale in the UK. These days alcohol licences aren't granted to establishments within a hundred metres of a mosque so it is something to consider of if travelling a eating place with one nearby.

Do you need to dress a certain way?

People in Bodrum, and in all of the western coastal regions, dress a great deal as they could anywhere in the west. No one might bat an eye at informal summer wear in eating places, bars or shops. Bodrum is famously informal and a man in a nicely reduce healthy might entice extra secondary glances than a female wearing shorts and a t-shirt or a low cut dress.

However, Turks generally, and now not unreasonably, anticipate beachwear to be worn exclusively for wherein it changed into designed. I actually have seen younger ladies taking walks via vegetable markets and purchasing centres in bikinis; perhaps they mistook the seems of disdain being cast in their route for ones of admiration. If some thing might be taken into consideration unacceptable in Brighton there may be a truthful hazard that Bodrum could be no unique.

When I first came to Turkey, I turned into greatly surprised to find out that women have been banned from carrying a non secular style headband in public establishments inclusive of universities or authorities places of work, precluding them from either studying or running in such locations. That regarded at odds with my liberal cosmopolitan upbringing and yet my wondering of it was often met by means of angry Turkish responses such as, “Yes, however your u . S . Does now not share a border with Syria or Iraq!”.

However, within the closing decade things have modified: the pendulum has swung far from the secularists and headscarved girls not should pass abroad to pursue their research and, even though they now are a extra commonplace sight they're still most effective worn with the aid of a minority in Bodrum. It will rely completely in your very own non-public angle whether this represents an emergence of religious conservatism or an expression of spiritual freedom.

Is alcohol freely available?

We have a tendency to companion Muslim societies with intolerance towards alcohol.

However, sincerely every Turk I recognise enjoys a tipple, and I became startled to study a statistic that 82% of all Turks do not drink alcohol! It is every other indicator of how the western coastal and traveler regions which includes Bodrum differ from other greater religiously conservative regions in which ingesting alcohol is possibly to be frowned upon, especially in Central Anatolia and the South East.

Alcohol is freely to be had and drank across the Bodrum peninsula and western coastal areas, and the acquisition of alcohol is not sincerely regulated any more strictly than in maximum European international locations aside from there is now a ban on advertising and marketing it, and licences are not issued to institutions wishing to sell inside 100m of a mosque or college.

Can you eat beef?

As with Jews, Muslims do not historically consume beef. However, the bulk of Turks I realize, even though perhaps rather unfamiliar with beef, will not pull away from eating it. In truth, many I recognize have developed a eager flavor for bacon and ham specifically.

Pork and bacon are available however may be negative best and luxurious. Luckily we have Metro (Makro) Cash and Carry right here in Bodrum that shares bacon and frozen beef and there is additionally The English Shop in Turgutreis promoting the equal, run via a pleasing Turkish couple one 1/2 of that is keen on eating some of his personal produce. His ‘different 1/2’ is vegetarian!

If all else fails, there is constantly the option of taking ferry between Turkey and Greece: the Greek island of Kos is handiest a half of hour's ferry trip from Turgutreis. With Europe and a Lidl supermarket on our doorstep food buying is amusing when mixed with a boat experience to get there and returned. In Bodrum, you could put on truely what you like, drink some thing you want and if you find your self pining for beef you could constantly order a full English breakfast complete with red meat sausage and bacon from maximum establishments serving breakfast.

If it wasn’t for the regular reminder from the mosque close by, you may be forgiven for questioning you had been still in Europe.