A Turkey we don't know

I was confronted by such attitudes on a recenty trip. One friend, a professor, insisted, "you simply miss the increasing pressures that religious elements are impiging on our daily existence". He and others cted a mass of anecdotal evidence: their children are being harassed, liquor is getting harder to come by, religion has become the key to promotion in public institutions, and many parts of Istambul now look more and more like the Middle East - boys and girls separated in may publi places and women covered from head to foot. "is this what Ataturk fought for?"I heard over and over. A prominent mathematician said: "you Americans belive in moderate Islam. There is no such thing"."

Morton Abramowitz in Newsweek.