{"id":8295,"date":"2008-12-29T02:31:10","date_gmt":"2008-12-28T23:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=8295"},"modified":"2014-01-01T20:31:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:31:19","slug":"turkeys-religious-merchants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/12\/29\/turkeys-religious-merchants\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s Religious Merchants"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Newfound Riches Come With Spiritual<\/h1>\n<h1>Costs for Turkey\u2019s Religious Merchants<\/h1>\n<div id=\"wideImage\" class=\"image\">\n<div class=\"credit\">Lynsey Addario for The New York Times<\/div>\n<p class=\"caption\">Ferhan Kadiroglu played with her 3-year-old daughter, Ayse, in their Istanbul home. Their family is part of Turkey\u2019s powerful new class of wealthy Muslims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/JavaScript\">function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1388034000&amp;en=85e867255f8ab3f9&amp;ei=5124';}<\/script> <script type=\"text\/JavaScript\">\nfunction getShareURL() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/12\/26\/world\/europe\/26wealth.html');\n}\nfunction getShareHeadline() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('Newfound Riches Come With Spiritual Costs for Turkey&amp;#8217;s Religious Merchants');\n}\nfunction getShareDescription() { <\/p>\n<p>\treturn encodeURIComponent('While other Muslim societies are wrestling with radicals, Turkey&amp;#8217;s religious merchant class is struggling instead with wealth.');\n}\nfunction getShareKeywords() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('Economic Conditions and Trends,High Net Worth Individuals,Islam,Turkey');\n}\nfunction getShareSection() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('world');\n}\nfunction getShareSectionDisplay() {<\/p>\n<p>\treturn encodeURIComponent('International \/ Europe');\n}\nfunction getShareSubSection() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('europe');\n}\nfunction getShareByline() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('By SABRINA TAVERNISE');\n}\nfunction getSharePubdate() {\n\treturn encodeURIComponent('December 26, 2008');\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"toolsRight\"><script>\n\t\t\t&lt;!-- \n\t\t\tfunction submitCCCForm(){\n\t\t\t\tPopUp = window.open('', '_Icon','location=no,toolbar=no,status=no,width=650,height=550,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');\n\t\t\t\tthis.document.cccform.submit();\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/\/ --&gt;\n\t\t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<form action=\"https:\/\/s100.copyright.com\/CommonApp\/LoadingApplication.jsp\"><input name=\"Title\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"Newfound Riches Come With Spiritual Costs for Turkey\u2019s Religious Merchants\" \/><input name=\"Author\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"By SABRINA TAVERNISE\" \/><input name=\"ContentID\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/12\/26\/world\/europe\/26wealth.html\" \/><input name=\"FormatType\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"default\" \/><input name=\"PublicationDate\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"DEC 26 2008\" \/><input name=\"PublisherName\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"The New York Times\" \/><input name=\"Publication\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"nytimes.com\" \/><input name=\"wordCount\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"1065\" \/><\/form>\n<div class=\"articleTools\">\n<div class=\"toolsContainer\">\n<div id=\"adxToolSponsor\">\n<table style=\"margin-bottom: 3px; margin-top: 3px; height: 53px;\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"93\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"bottom\">\n<td width=\"93\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"byline\">By SABRINA TAVERNISE<\/div>\n<div class=\"timestamp\">Published: December 25, 2008<\/div>\n<p>ISTANBUL \u2014 Turkey\u2019s religious businessmen spent years building empires on curtains, candy bars and couches. But as observant Muslims in one of the world\u2019s most self-consciously secular states, they were never accepted by elite society.<\/p>\n<p>Now that group has become its own elite, and Turkey, a more openly religious country. It has lifted an Islamic-inspired political party to power and helped make Turkey the seventh largest economy in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>And while other Muslim societies are wrestling with radicals, Turkey\u2019s religious merchant class is struggling instead with riches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMuslims here used to be tested by poverty,\u201d said Sehminur Aydin, an observant Muslim businesswoman and the daughter of a manufacturing magnate. \u201cNow they\u2019re being tested by wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some say religious Turks are failing that test, and they see the recent economic crisis as a lesson for those who indulged in the worst excesses of consumption, summed up in the work of one Turkish interior designer: a bathroom with faucets encrusted with Swarovski crystal, a swimming pool in the bedroom, a couch rigged to rise up to the ceiling by remote control during prayer. \u201cI know people who broke their credit cards,\u201d Ms. Aydin said.<\/p>\n<p>But beyond the downturn, no matter how severe, is the reality: the religious wealthy class is powerful now in Turkey, a new phenomenon that poses fresh challenges not only to the old secular elite but to what good Muslims think about themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Money is at the heart of the changes that have transformed Turkey. In 1950, it was a largely agrarian society, with 80 percent of its population living in rural areas. Its economy was closed and foreign currency was illegal. But a forward-looking prime minister, Turgut Ozal, opened the economy. Now Turkey exports billions of dollars in goods to other European countries, and about 70 percent of its population lives in cities.<\/p>\n<p>Religious Turks helped power that rise, yet for years they were shunned by elite society. That helps explain why many are engaged in such a frantic effort to prove themselves, said Safak Cak, a Turkish interior designer with many wealthy, religious clients. \u201cIt\u2019s because of how we labeled them,\u201d he said. \u201cWe looked at them as black people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Cak was referring to Turkey\u2019s deep class divide. An urban upper class, often referred to as White Turks, wielded the political and economic power in the country for decades. They saw themselves as the transmitters of the secular ideals of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey\u2019s founder. They have felt threatened by the rise of the rural, religious, merchant class, particularly of its political representative, Turkey\u2019s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe old class was not ready to share economic and political power,\u201d said Can Paker, chairman of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, a liberal research organization in Istanbul. \u201cThe new class is sharing their habits, like driving Mercedes, but they are also wearing head scarves. The old class can\u2019t bear this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u00a0\u2018They were the peasants,\u2019\u00a0\u201d the thinking goes, Mr. Paker said. \u201c\u00a0\u2018Why are they among us?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Aydin, 40, who wears a head scarf, encountered that attitude not long ago in one of Istanbul\u2019s fanciest districts. A woman called her a \u201cdirty fundamentalist\u201d when Ms. Aydin tried to put trash the woman had thrown out her car window back inside.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re driving a good car, they stare at you and point,\u201d Ms. Aydin said. \u201cYou want to say, \u2018I graduated from French school just like you,\u2019 but after a while, you don\u2019t feel like proving yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She does not have to.<\/p>\n<p>Her father started by selling curtains. Now he owns one of the largest home-appliance businesses in Europe. Ms. Aydin grew up wealthy, with tastes no different from those of the older class. She lives in a sleek, modern house with a pool in a gated community. Her son attends a prestigious private school. A business school graduate, she manages about 100 people at a private hospital founded by her father. Her head scarf bars her from employment in a state hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband, Yasar Aydin, shrugged. \u201cRich people everywhere dislike newcomers,\u201d he said. In another decade, those prejudices will be gone, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The businessmen describe themselves as Muslims with a Protestant work ethic, and say hard work deepens faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t lie down on our oil like Arab countries,\u201d said Osman Kadiroglu, whose family owns a large candy company in Turkey, with factories in Azerbaijan and Algeria. \u201cThere\u2019s no way out except producing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunes were made, forming new patterns of consumption. Istanbul, Turkey\u2019s economic capital, is No. 4 in the world on the latest Forbes list of cities with the highest number of billionaires. Luxury cars stud its streets. Shopping malls, 80 at last count, are mushrooming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, unfortunately, there is a taste for luxury, excessive consumption and comfort, vanity, exhibitionism and greed,\u201d said Mehmet Sevket Eygi, a 75-year-old newspaper columnist, who has written extensively about Muslims and wealth.<\/p>\n<p>An Islamic concept called israf forbids consuming more than one needs, but the line is blurry, leaving rich Muslims struggling with questions like whether luxury cars can be offset by donations to charity, a central tenet of Islam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have money, but do you buy whatever you want?\u201d said Recep Senturk, a sociologist at the Center for Islamic Studies in Istanbul. \u201cOr should you keep a humble life? This is a debate in Turkey right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Islam requires that the wealthy give away a portion of their income to the poor. In the Ottoman Empire, it paid for everything from hospitals to dishes broken by maids in rich houses.<\/p>\n<p>Donations to Deniz Feneri, one of the largest charities in Turkey, jumped almost 100-fold in the six years ending in 2006, when they topped $62 million.<\/p>\n<p>Even house designs take charity into account. Mr. Cak described a multimillion-dollar house whose design included an industrial-size kitchen where food was cooked daily and distributed in trucks.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Aydin, for her part, supports 25 families. The real problem is not finding a place to pray on a busy day out (mall fitting rooms work), but being truly charitable and putting others first when the frenzied pace of life pushes in the opposite direction. She holds onto traditions, like Muslim holidays, tightly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe world is changing but I don\u2019t want to lose this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"pageLinks\"><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/12\/26\/world\/europe\/26wealth.html?pagewanted=1&amp;_r=2\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Sebnem Arsu contributed reportin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newfound Riches Come With Spiritual Costs for Turkey\u2019s Religious Merchants Lynsey Addario for The New York Times Ferhan Kadiroglu played with her 3-year-old daughter, Ayse, in their Istanbul home. Their family is part of Turkey\u2019s powerful new class of wealthy Muslims. By SABRINA TAVERNISE Published: December 25, 2008 ISTANBUL \u2014 Turkey\u2019s religious businessmen spent years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[8280],"class_list":["post-8295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-religons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}