My Mission: 16 Countries in 6 Months

This is what I hear 5 times a day, everyday ringing throughout the city. This is one of the things I will miss when I go back to the States. The Call to Prayer is sung by a trained religious man. In Turkey, secularism is defined differently than it is in the United States. In the U.S., we all see secularism as separation of church and state, but in Turkey secularism means governmental control of religion. In other words, the government has a hold upon all of the mosques and religious figures. In order to become a religious figure such as an Imam, one must undergo governmental training before one is able to serve in a mosque or sing the Call to Prayer. Turkey has many practices that are incomprehensible to our Western minds. Perhaps someday this nation will actually see its faults and become great. Until then, here's the government-trained Kalendarhane Mosque mu'adhdhin (muzzein) singing the Call to Prayer.