KAYSERI, Turkey As the muezzin heralds the noon prayers on Friday, a small army of workers fans out from an industrial park to take their places on mats in a nearby mosque. Fifteen minutes later, the prayers are over and the teachings of the Koran have given way to the demands of the factory floor.
The region's mix of Muslim values, hard work and raging capitalism has even prompted sociologists to coin a new term to describe the phenomenon: "Calvinist Islam."