Leatra, it's not even a derail, and hugely informative. What do you make of Assad-style mustache though?
Leatra, i at least dont mind the derail. I'd like to hear the story , i think it would be insightful.
That conservation about atheism I mentioned? Well, not every time people want me to tell a story and I kinda feel flattered
It's not really interesting though. I talked to an atheist but I thought she was Muslim at first. We started a discussion about religions. I told her how much I find Islam corrupted and used by politicians. She asked me if I was Muslim and I said of course I'm a Muslim. She didn't seem really religious so I just said "but I don't really care much about religions, you know." Then she said something along the lines of "You admitted it at last! Well, I'm an atheist so relax." Then we started drifting away from the rest of the group and discuss religions. We avoided talking about religions when other people were present. You'd think we were planning an assassination or something. Even if nobody was there to hear us, I avoided using some words. I even referred to God as "The Big Guy" sometimes. Most conservations were funny because of this.
I once mentioned how education and health care is crippled by lack of hospitals and schools. I said the problem could be solved by destroying several mosques and building hospitals and schools instead. When you are standing anywhere at Istanbul, you can hear the sounds of ezan from like 10 different mosques. And they are still wasting space by building mosques everywhere. There are no schools getting built and instead they are converting existing school to imam khatib schools (practically education for clergy) and they are starting courses to teach kids about Islam and Qur'an. Keep on brainwashing, I say.
Anyway, most people I know hate Erdoğan and Islamist extremists but being an atheist or deist kinda seems like an extreme too. I just go with my "I'm a Muslim, but I'm not really religious." statement whenever this topic comes up. I know some people who are so religious, it becomes stupid. I just go "huh-uh, yeah, sure, God and all that" when they are talking.
Oh, about Assad-style mustaches, they are more modernized version of full beards for me. Democratic, but still a piece of fundamentalist shit. Just like Erdoğan. Most people who has a mustache like that tends to be against secularism secretly. This goes for Turkey, I don't know about the east.
Fun Fact: Did you know Erdoğan went to prison because he has a terrible mustache? Oh, and he wrote a poem which is incredibly anti-secularist. He practically called people to Jihad. He was in jail for 4 months. We still were tough on secularism back then.
Just going to interject here and point out that the Turkish military also had no problem staging coups and committing extra-judicial killings of folks on the Left in the 1970's. I'm far less sanguine about their "noble" role in things. Just like the Pakistani and Egyptian miltiaries, they built themselves up in the latter 20th century as the bulwark against Communism and Islamism, and have used that old saw to justify some fairly nasty anti-democratic shit over the years.
All play and no coup makes our army a rusty boy. We have a saying here for these things: This situation is like a stick which you have to hold it, but it has shit on it's both ends. Army is coup-a-maniacal. "democratic" government is all islam and no human rights. So, decide, do you wanna get thrown into prison and tortured by a soldier 'cuz you are a leftist, or would you like to go to prison and get tortured by the police 'cuz you said you don't like AKP/Erdoğan/Islam?
I would answer more but I have to bail right now, sorry for typos and whatnot. Real life is calling.