Job Discussion Forums

[Alphid]

I've been to Turkey before but didn't really notice... I've been living in Indonesia the past three years and the mosques are very loud, are on nearly every corner, and sometimes blast their megaphones for more than 24 continuously. I'm getting pretty tired of it. I had thought of moving to Turkey, but I know there is a Muslim influence there and I definitely do not want to spend a year or years teaching listening to "Alllllllaaaaaaaaahhhhhh aaaaaaahhhhhhhkkkkkkk!"

[spiral78]

Yes, nationally across Turkey they are all set at a standard volume (not!).

[Larryj917]

In some places they're amplified and get pretty loud. In other places, they aren't. If you're concerned about "Muslim influence," I would look elsewhere, though, because it's pervasive here -- not necessarily bad, but pervasive.

[gregory999]

He might try Athens or the Vatican where there is no Mosque or Athan.

The one who calls for prayer (Athan) from the Blue Mosque in Istanbul has very beautiful voice.

[spiral78]

[JohnRambo]

[EFL Educator]

The Mosques are loud everywhere...but me thinks the people are even louder!

[crobizzle]

I've lived in Turkey for 5 years, & I currently live directly across from a mosque. Although the call to prayer is certainly something I noticed at first, I can't say that I find it too loud or bothersome. Depending on where you are, you might hear every call to prayer, but then again, just depending on what direction your apartment faces you might not. In one of my apartments, I often didn't notice the call to prayer over other city sounds. In another apartment, I would only hear it in the morning (not loud enough to wake me, but if I was awake I would hear it). I guess it just depends

[JohnRambo]

In my case, I'm somewhat close to a quite large mosque, and the way I'm positioned, I can't avoid being pushed to wake up. I tried my noise canceling headphones today, and it helped reduce the sound by 50%. It's not just that I'm near enough to a mosque, but the fellow keeps on going for a long time. I've been to Arabic countries, and this fellow goes double the time that they do and adds things that they wouldn't. They go by a standard call-to-prayer. He doesn't. Some elaborate, I suppose. If he had a nicer voice, I wouldn't mind.

[gregory999]

[parnett]

I lived in Turkey for 13 years and never lived so close to one that the noise actually bothered me.
In some of the mosques, the call to prayer is on a CD, and it's programmed to go on at the appropriate times. I always thought about sneaking in to one and replacing the CD with AC/DC's "Back To Black". What an uproar that would have caused.

[nichtta]

[ryanlogic]

To answer the questions about extra stuff added to the Athan in Turkey, I think I can sort of explain what's going on. There are lots of little quirks that just make Islam in Turkey a bit different.

First of all, yes the Athan for Sunni Islam is standard and the same everywhere. They call this one to the neighborhood and then inside the mosque immediately before the actual prayer starts they call a shorter version inside called the Iqama inside.

The Athan for the morning prayer is always a little different than the other four prayers because it has an extra bit encouraging people to wake up.

In Turkey, in between the last two prayers on Thursday night, they broadcast a very long prayer to welcome Friday.

When police officers or military personnel are killed in the line of duty, they similarly broadcast prayers as well.

During the Eid holidays, they broadcast supplications.

And yes, sometimes the one who is calling the Athan decides to embellish and elongate it quite a bit more than normal here.

In Turkey, some things are a bit different about the way Muslims pray than what I've personally experienced among Muslims from all over the world in other mosques. I personally think it may have something to do with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Attaturks reforms, state regulated religious education and clergy, along with the the fact that most Turks do not speak Arabic. These things aren't necessarily bad, but they are a bit confusing for Muslims from elsewhere.

The sermon or khutbah will be read off of a piece of paper by an imam who ritualistically walks up a set of stairs near the front of the mosque. He wears a fez with a turban wrapped around it and what looks like a layer of Saran Wrap around that.

After the mandatory prayers, nearly everyone in the congregation will immediately stand up and begin offering the non-compulsory "sunnah" prayers... Many people do not realize that these are optional and perform them compulsively. I've heard people mention skipping their prayers altogether because the sunnah prayers take too long

After the mandatory and voluntary prayers, there are often times some older gentlemen (possibly mosque managers or caretakers?) sitting on a little platform in the back of the prayer area. They will take turns reciting a standardized set of supplications along with verses from the Quran. If you don't leave before this starts, I'm told it's considered rude to stand up in the middle of it.

In most cases, the voluntary prayers and activities such as supplication and reading from the Quran are considered more like individual activities elsewhere.

Sometimes those guys on the platform will not pray with the rest of the congregation, rather they will pray in the back away from the group. I've never seen this before elsewhere.

There are lots of other little things. To me, it's mostly just interesting.

[Cosmixed]

I find the call to prayer lovely when I notice it. That said it definitely has a way of becoming white noise after a short while.

One thing that I finally noticed today (it has happened many times, but it never registered) is that sometimes peeps here will shut off their car radio if they hear it while they are driving.

[nichtta]