[sam]

I went in Istanbul last summer, and it had been one of the best periods of my life.

Maybe for the fact that it had been my first time in a muslim country, but I felt that the situation of Islam is not so bad like it's painted here .

Let's think about: for about 80 years, Islam had a very difficult period in Turkey: the secularists arrived to shut up the religious freedom and religious associations, forbade traditional muslim hats (fez) and the hijab, close all turuq, and so on..

Nonetheless, Turkey is one of the very few country in the world where a party of "islamic" tendency rules, and it's democratically elected.

If secularism is wordly widespread, and in about every corner of our Ummah we can see youngsters who weight american way of life (in Holliwood, Bolliwood, Gangsta-Rap fashion or what other) more than Shari`ah, Turkey isn't an exception, but nonotheless there are many practising brother whose kind of religiosity and manners aren't contaminated by post-modern salafism.

In some areas you can see without problem men with fistful beards and kurtas, and women with Niqab, also in the very centre of the city (like near Fatih mosque, near Sultanahmet, centre of tourism but also with majority of votes gone to "islamic" parties like Saadet Partisi and AK-Partisi).
I have my doubts about the possibility of doing the same in countries like Tunisia, where many muhajabaat experiment police's tortures and whoever goes to pray Fajr in the mosque is asked about, when not brought in police centers, not to talk about full beard or niqab..

My point: I think that there is too much attention towards what media tells about Turkey (like the mediatically-pumped story about the "reinterpretation of ahadith"), and not enough to what really happens there.

And God indeed knows best.

Amin to sister's du`a'!