What kind of Islam dominates Turkey?

Turkish people live Islam and how people can absorbe Islamic rules, secularism and democracy at the same time even if each one is not enjoyed fully.

The figures I will offer here are taken from a survey study done in Turkey by two very valuable political scientists:

(Ali Carkoglu and Binnaz Toprak: “Religion Society and Politics in Turkey.” Published by TESEV-Economic and Social Studies Foundation of Turkey-2000)

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Here are some of their findings:

1) 96.9 percent of Turkish people regard themselves as “Muslims”. But, 31.2 percent consider themselves “very religious”, 54.9 percent “quite religious” and 12.4 percent “not very religious”.

2) 92.1 percent fast during Ramadan, 45.8 percent pray five times a day, 84.2 percent only pray during holy Friday, 91.9 percent go to a mosque for praying during holidays (twice a year).

3) 74.2 percent think that women-state employees should be allowed to wear headscarves at work, 76.1 percent think that university students should also be allowed to wear headscarves within their university. 72 percent think that the state should not decide where they will give the skins of the sacrificed sheep during Kurban Bayram (a religious holiday which orders the sacrifice of sheep and distributes their meat and skins to the poor or to charity organizations), but 81.7 percent think that state-run “Organization for Religious Affairs” should not be abolished.

4) 91.4 percent believe that people with different religious beliefs should be fully respected, 77.3 percent believe that the rules of the republic have positively contributed to the devolopment of the country.

5) 85 percent reject the Islamic rule that “men can marry up to four women” and 78.5 percent reject that men should be able to divorce their wives.

6) 89.2 percent believe that “people with different religions may be nice people”, 53 percent believe that non-believers (atheists) may also nice people.

7) 76.4 percent believe that one can be Islamic without fasting, 73.7 percent without praying, 61.5 percent without covering her head (for women), and 53.4 percent even if they consume alcholic beverages.

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Mr. Ali Cakiroglu and Mrs. Binnaz Toprak conclude that:

“According to the results, the majority of Turkish people are practising Muslims and devout believers. However, religious belief and practice is considered to be limited to private life and the idea of religious involvement in public life is not supported. On the other hand, the interference of the state in religious life is not approved either… However… answers to a number of questions, which probe whether there should be political parties that use religious themes within the Turkish party system… show that the Turkish electorate is seriously divided on these issues.”

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On the other hand, when one concentrates on the number of praying houses, i.e. mosques, in the country, we can easily see that there is an abundance of mosques in the country.

To give an international comparison to verify this abundance, I must point out that there are 6,000 mosques in Istanbul and only 2,000 in Tehran, another Islamic city with similar population size.

There are 75,369 mosques in Turkey according to the Organization for Religious Affairs (ORF), that owns all mosques in the country.

There are 54,108 imams/preachers and 9,378 muezzins serving in these mosques.

ORF, as the 10th biggest budget spender in the country, has 88,516 cadres and 75,369 of these cadres are already appointed. There are 13.233 cadres that are not appointed yet!

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Assuming that there are 70 million people in the country, there are 21.7 million people who report themselves as “very religious” and 38 million “quite religious” (article 1).

Given that only men attend the mosques, and assuming that 50 percent of the population is male, and also assuming that 70 percent of them are grown-ups who can go to mosques, we can conclude that there are 25 million adult males in the country.

Among this group, 11.25 million report that they regularly pray five times a day, 21 million pray only during holy Fridays and 23 million pray during the two religious holidays a year (article 2).

Out of 23 million who pray five times a day, plus during holy Fridays and religious holidays, these figures also show that only two million pray only during religious holidays and 9.75 million only during holy Fridays.

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Given these figures, you can conclude that:

1) There are 306 congregations per mosque and 425 per imam during Religious holidays (twice a year)

2) There are 280 congregations per mosque and 388 per imam during Fridays (only once a week)

3) Assuming that those who pray regularly five times a day all pray at mosques — according to Islam they can also pray at home — there are daily regular 150 congregations per mosque and 208 per imam!

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There are either:

1) Too few believers, or

2) Too many mosques and imams in the country

I myself trust that the first assumtion is true!