Muslim prayers make the hungover and jetlagged wince.

Hi all. My name's Mark Ristaino, and I'll be blogging my 5 week tour of Turkey right here with Global Transmissions. A little about me- I've spent my last 2 years organizing young music fans against big bad President Bush with Music for America, a very cool non-profit that does issue education in concerts to help give kids the tools to change things in our unfortunate homeland America.

For those of you who've never done political organizing before, well... it's exhausting. I'm looking forward to getting a break and some perspective by eating lots of kebabs. I'll be blogging Turkish culture, and letting my dear companion Renato give you the virtual tour, as he does so exhaustingly well.

Adhan- the first shockingly different thingy I noticed
Turkey has over 70 million people, and as much as 99.8% of them are Muslim (mainly Sunni). Anyone used to a christain-centric culture will notice a big difference because of this, and nowhere is it more obvious than with the Adhan.



Adhan is a chant sounded loudly from atop Mosques 5 times daily, summoning muslims for fard salah, or mandatory prayers. I imagine that in smaller towns, the muezzin (recitor) simply yells as loudly as he can, but in Istanbul they blast the Adhan through loudspeakers from mosques at every corner of the city, which, at 5:30 AM, can otherwise be described as the Turkish version of Taps. Not too great if you're jetlagged and trying to sleep, or if you've been partying till 4 AM, but kinda nice if you like to be woken up early for a morning roll in the hay. (i wish)

You think McDonalds is good at getting people to come back for more? The Adhan keeps Muslims thinking about their faith no matter where they are and what they're doing 5 times a day... Kinda like a sing-songy, foghornish, screaming commercial for Islam.

Fortune 500 execs agree, that's good marketing. No wonder Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.

more to come...