As many of you may have read that Turkey has converted Istanbul's Iconic "Hagia Sophia" into a masque and In Sha'a Allah Friday prayers will begin in this starting from July 24, 2020.
A BRIEF HISTORY
It was built at Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in the 6th century CE (532–537) under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. By general consensus, it is the most important Byzantine structure and one of the world’s great monuments.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hagia-Sophia
JULY 10, 2020 COURT RULING
On Friday of July 10th, 2020 Turkish court invalidated the 1934 decree. It grants Turkey's president the authority to restore the museum to its status as a working mosque. The decision said the site is listed as a mosque in its title deed and that cannot be changed. Erdogan said the site would be transferred to the Directorate of Religious Affairs and will be open for worship.
UNESCO & WORLD REACTION
UNESCO said that its world heritage committee would review Hagia Sophia's status. The United Nations agency said the decision raised questions about the impact on its universal value as a site of importance transcending borders and generations, which is necessary to be included on its coveted list of World Heritage sites. Countries must notify the UN's cultural body of any changes in the status of a site, triggering a review by its heritage committee, it said in a statement.
Outside Turkey, the prospect of change has raised alarm.Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of 300 million Orthodox Christians, said altering the status of Hagia Sophia would fracture Eastern and Western worlds, while Greek Orthodox leaders and Russia's Orthodox church have also criticized the potential move. Below are some articles on how Christian World reacted to this:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/v...cis-on-hagia-sophia-reverting-to-mosque-video
https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/07/...ey-not-to-convert-hagia-sophia-into-a-mosque/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/07/15/the-mosquing-of-hagia-sophia-what-is-at-stake/
https://novenanews.com/analysis-us-europe-hagia-sophia-new-front-turkey/
https://www.foxnews.com/world/hagia-sofia-mosque-christian-turkey-site
DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE SO CALLED PEACE MAKERS OF THE WEST
Is there anyone surprised by the reaction of Christian World? Well I am not, this is how they play the victim card and call for religious tolerance while their own history is full of violation of religious freedom.
How many mosques they converted into Churches in Spain ( Al-Andalus) and many of those were built in 8th century? What about the Grand Mosque of Cordoba for Muslims, transformed into a church during the Spanish Reconquista? In the early 2000s Spain’s increasing Muslim community tabled a request that would allow some worshippers to pray inside the large compound (able to accommodate around 30,000 worshippers) on Fridays. But both Spanish authorities and the Vatican refused, barely causing a ripple in international media let alone the current outrage triggered by Turkey’s decision.
A BRIEF HISTORY
It was built at Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in the 6th century CE (532–537) under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. By general consensus, it is the most important Byzantine structure and one of the world’s great monuments.
The original church on the site of the Hagia Sophia is said to have been ordered to be built by Constantine I in 325 on the foundations of a pagan temple. His son, Constantius II, consecrated it in 360. It was damaged in 404 by a fire that erupted during a riot following the second banishment of St. John Chrysostom, then patriarch of Constantinople. It was rebuilt and enlarged by the Roman emperor Constans I. The restored building was rededicated in 415 by Theodosius II. The church was burned again in the Nika insurrection of January 532, a circumstance that gave Justinian I an opportunity to envision a splendid replacement.
The structure now standing is essentially the 6th-century edifice, although an earthquake caused a partial collapse of the dome in 558 (restored 562) and there were two further partial collapses, after which it was rebuilt to a smaller scale and the whole church reinforced from the outside. It was restored again in the mid-14th century. For more than a millennium it was the Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. It was looted in 1204 by the Venetians and the Crusaders on the Fourth Crusade.
After the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II had it repurposed as a mosque, with the addition of a wooden minaret (on the exterior, a tower used for the summons to prayer), a great chandelier, a mihrab (niche indicating the direction of Mecca), and a minbar (pulpit). Either he or his son Bayezid II erected the red minaret that stands on the southeast corner of the structure. The original wooden minaret did not survive. Bayezid II erected the narrow white minaret on the northeast side of the mosque. The two identical minarets on the western side were likely commissioned by Selim II or Murad III and built by renowned Ottoman architect Sinan in the 1500s.
It’s worth remembering that Sultan Mehmet II bought the deeds to the church in 1453 from his own personal funds and consequently gifted it to the waqf. So Muslims have every right to convert this into a mosque.
In 1934 Turkish President Kemal Atatürk secularized the building, and in 1935 it was made into a museum. Art historians consider the building’s beautiful mosaics to be the main source of knowledge about the state of mosaic art in the time shortly after the end of the Iconoclastic Controversy in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Hagia Sophia is a component of a UNESCO World Heritage site called the Historic Areas of Istanbul (designated 1985), which includes that city’s other major historic buildings and locations.
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JULY 10, 2020 COURT RULING
On Friday of July 10th, 2020 Turkish court invalidated the 1934 decree. It grants Turkey's president the authority to restore the museum to its status as a working mosque. The decision said the site is listed as a mosque in its title deed and that cannot be changed. Erdogan said the site would be transferred to the Directorate of Religious Affairs and will be open for worship.
In a speech later that day, he said the mosque would open for Friday prayers on July 24.
The president added that the mosque would remain open to non-Muslims. It will continue to embrace everyone.
UNESCO & WORLD REACTION
UNESCO said that its world heritage committee would review Hagia Sophia's status. The United Nations agency said the decision raised questions about the impact on its universal value as a site of importance transcending borders and generations, which is necessary to be included on its coveted list of World Heritage sites. Countries must notify the UN's cultural body of any changes in the status of a site, triggering a review by its heritage committee, it said in a statement.
Outside Turkey, the prospect of change has raised alarm.Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of 300 million Orthodox Christians, said altering the status of Hagia Sophia would fracture Eastern and Western worlds, while Greek Orthodox leaders and Russia's Orthodox church have also criticized the potential move. Below are some articles on how Christian World reacted to this:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/v...cis-on-hagia-sophia-reverting-to-mosque-video
https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/07/...ey-not-to-convert-hagia-sophia-into-a-mosque/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/07/15/the-mosquing-of-hagia-sophia-what-is-at-stake/
https://novenanews.com/analysis-us-europe-hagia-sophia-new-front-turkey/
https://www.foxnews.com/world/hagia-sofia-mosque-christian-turkey-site
DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE SO CALLED PEACE MAKERS OF THE WEST
Is there anyone surprised by the reaction of Christian World? Well I am not, this is how they play the victim card and call for religious tolerance while their own history is full of violation of religious freedom.
How many mosques they converted into Churches in Spain ( Al-Andalus) and many of those were built in 8th century? What about the Grand Mosque of Cordoba for Muslims, transformed into a church during the Spanish Reconquista? In the early 2000s Spain’s increasing Muslim community tabled a request that would allow some worshippers to pray inside the large compound (able to accommodate around 30,000 worshippers) on Fridays. But both Spanish authorities and the Vatican refused, barely causing a ripple in international media let alone the current outrage triggered by Turkey’s decision.
Today those commentators quick to dismiss any religious practice as “fairy tales” and who’ve been instrumental in destroying the fabric of Christian life and values in Western Europe, are now presenting themselves as the flag bearers of religious tolerance given that the guilty party is a Muslim. But where is their outrage as BJP India continues to destroy ancient mosques, specific to Asian Islam, with total impunity? Where were these peace makers when Babri Mosque ( built in 935 - over a thousand years ago) was demolished by Hindu extremists?
Where were those advocates for interfaith relations when Muslims requested a one hour slot in the Mosque of Cordoba?
Last month Greece announced the closing down of the only Muslim prayer hall in Athens. Though the site was unlicensed as a place of worship, the capital’s Muslim community has been waiting for decades to obtain the rights to build a mosque to no avail. Those nourished on a staple diet of Daily Mail and the Sun will be asking where are the churches in the Muslim world? Ignoring no doubt that the oldest Christian communities after Ethiopia exist in Muslim-majority nations and that the exodus of these Christians from their ancestral lands has been the result of the unholy wars unleashed on the Muslim world in the last century.
In this generation I see the hope of Muslim's rise & In Sha'a Allah, Allah will soon grant us victory over the Kuffar. In Sha'a Allah, soon we will see Muslims praying in the Grand Mosque of Cordoba. Allah humma Ameen!
Where were those advocates for interfaith relations when Muslims requested a one hour slot in the Mosque of Cordoba?
Last month Greece announced the closing down of the only Muslim prayer hall in Athens. Though the site was unlicensed as a place of worship, the capital’s Muslim community has been waiting for decades to obtain the rights to build a mosque to no avail. Those nourished on a staple diet of Daily Mail and the Sun will be asking where are the churches in the Muslim world? Ignoring no doubt that the oldest Christian communities after Ethiopia exist in Muslim-majority nations and that the exodus of these Christians from their ancestral lands has been the result of the unholy wars unleashed on the Muslim world in the last century.
In this generation I see the hope of Muslim's rise & In Sha'a Allah, Allah will soon grant us victory over the Kuffar. In Sha'a Allah, soon we will see Muslims praying in the Grand Mosque of Cordoba. Allah humma Ameen!