Renewed Call to Again Make Hagia Sophia a Mosque

http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11824/greatest-church-soon-to-be-mega-mosque


Raymond Ibrahim wrote in the above linked article that Muslims in Turkey are pushing harder with their demands that Hagia Sophia, possibly the greatest Christian Church that has ever been erected, be returned to Mosque duty. Hagia Sophia, the construction of which was commissioned by the Emperor Justinian during his reign in the sixth century, was reduced to Mosque status after the savage sack of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks is 1453. It remained a Mosque until the rule of Kemal Ataturk, who came to power after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This collapse, though long in coming, was hastened due to Turkey's disastrous entry into WWI (This despite repeated British pleas for the Ottomans to remain neutral). Ataturk turned the Church into a museum.

The design of Hagia Sophia is a masterpiece of architectural engineering. Sitting in a major fault zone, one that has caused untold amounts of deaths and property damage thought the centuries, she has weathered the periodic shifting of tectonic plates many times while suffering relatively minor damage when compared to other buildings in the region. I remember watching a TV special in in which computer models of the Church were tested against simulated powerful earthquakes. When the tests were completed, the computer models were still standing.

"Thousands of devout Muslims prayed outside Turkey's historic Hagia Sophia museum on Saturday [May 23] to protest a 1934 law that bars religious services at the former church and mosque. Worshippers shouted, "Break the chains, let Hagia Sophia Mosque open," and "God is great" [the notorious "Allahu Akbar"] before kneeling in prayer as tourists looked on. Turkey's secular laws prevent Muslims and Christians from formal worship within the 6th-century monument, the world's greatest cathedral for almost a millennium before invading Ottomans converted it into a mosque in the 15th century.

According to Salih Turhan, a spokesman quoted by Reuters, "As the grandchildren of Mehmet the Conqueror, seeking the re-opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque is our legitimate right." ......

.....Turhan, whose position is echoed by many Turks, still manages to blame the West: "Keeping Hagia Sophia Mosque closed is an insult to our mostly Muslim population of 75 million. It symbolizes our ill-treatment by the West."

If merely keeping a historically Christian/Western building—that was stolen by Islamic jihad—as a neutral museum is seen as "ill-treatment by the West," on what basis can Muslims and non-Muslims ever "dialogue"?"

The following is from an earlier post of The Hot Gates 480BC concerning the possible political moves to return the Church to Mosque duty:

"After over 900 years as a Orthodox Christian Cathedral and seat of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Church, the grand work of Justinian and his master architects and builders was turned into a mosque following the sack of Constantinople. Few are aware of the pillaging, looting, rapine, and slave-taking that went on in Hagia Sophia once the walls of the city were breached. Mehmet, or Mahomet, is often referred to as allowing for the "customary" three-day period of looting upon the final failure of the city's defenses. Let's not ignore custom and tradition, now. Their sack probably made that of the Fourth Crusade look like high school kids having a night of mailbox baseball.

Picked clean of its gold, silver, people, and anything else of value to the Ottomans, the Icons, statuary, and anything that depicted a living creature were either removed and plastered over (after being severely scored to ensure a good bond for the plaster). The Church of the Holy Wisdom was now a Mosque. The building was to take on the look with which we are familiar - the four minarets surrounding it from which the the sound the American president referred to as "The sweetest sound in the world" would be heard until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the founding of the nation of Turkey by Kemal Ataturk. Graciously, seemingly almost as an act of charity (sincere or not) the shell of Hagia Sophia became a museum.

The policies of Islamist Turkish Prime Minister's Tayyip Erdogan's party (And man! I was raised on how 'Western" and secular Turkey was - was of course being the operative word), like the Arab Spring praised by the left, are now also bearing fruit. Hagia Sophia is to again be a mosque.

Not that the West did not have its chances; the nations of Western Europe did pretty much all that they could to ensure the survival of the Ottoman state. Far from the Muslim victimisation-type claims (the old story of Europe ganging up on the poor declining Sultanate), Europe's far-sighted rulers happily encouraged them to attack other Christian nations like France did with Austria during the 1683 siege of Vienna. The British even brought the French into the Crimean War because, well, we can't have the Russians gaining full control of the Black Sea or taking Constantinople, that would give them an unfair advantage in the "Great Game". Catherine the Great had high hopes for John Paul Jones when the naturalized American was given a Rear Admiral's command - "He will get to Constantinople". But Russian selfishness iand intrigue among top officers caused him to be withdrawn from the Black Sea.

And today, we see more of the results of the Islamist resurgence that has pushed the secular Turkish army commanders aside. Muslims tend to be quite gleeful about taking over Christian houses of worship. In this case, Erdogan's boys get to act in the manner of "Well, you know that it was a great shame that Kemal remove so much of Islamic culture from our country, especially taking away our crowning achievement of the Aya Sofia (Hagia Sophia) Mosque. We will right that wrong and reestablish our rightful place as leaders in the Muslim world"

This time I would be surprised if the icons and other representations that did survive through the years and may have been brought back to public view (Lots of plaster would have had to be removed) during the museum period are not going to removed completely. If, to Erdogan, the Mosques are their barracks, then he is more than likely planning to ensure that the greatest of Turkey's barracks is not defiled by all of that horrendous Byzantine art".
http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2011/11/hagia-sophia-in-istanbul-en-route-to.html