A new law, which prohibits Jewish, Christian and Moslem clergy from wearing clerical dress beyond the threshold of their places of worship, was passed here, and will go into effect next June.
The ban will affect even tourist clerics who pass through Turkey. Rabbis travelling to Palestine will be unable to land on Turkish territory unless they put on lay dress. Otherwise they will be obliged to remain on board while other passengers visit Constantinople.
The sight of a person wearing clerical dress in Turkey will cause him to be held by the police for inquiry, according to the new law. The only exception is to be one resident cleric for each religion, the cleric in question being selected by the government and especially authorized to wear clerical dress outside his shrine. The Jewish and Greek Catholic clergy coming under this category will have to wear frock coats and bowler hats.
Under the new law, open air burials will no longer be carried out by clerics wearing religious dress, since the latter is to be confined entirely to use within closed shrines.
The primary object of this law
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