Just returned from Istanbul, Turkey. I cannot adequately express how much we enjoyed ourselves. What is interesting is visiting a country that christianity is not the dominant religion. Turkey does not have a "sponsored" religion, per se, just like the US, but it is a integral part of the culture. I saw the same thing in Chennai/Madras India. Here is a picture of a church and mosque, literally side by side at Taksim Square. You saw the entire span of attire and behaviors there. I mention this in the context of elections that were held prior to our arrival, and the statement I read was that, politically, Istanbul skewed "conservatively" versus Izmir. Conservative, clearly differs from the US version of right-wing influences on behavior. In Chennai, it was clearly religious/culturally conservative.

I will chew on those dualities a bit and I did experience a bit of cognitive dissonance at first. Never give much credence to the BS we read in the US about other countries.