{"id":2158,"date":"2017-06-20T08:44:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T08:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/new\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2017-07-13T10:00:45","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T10:00:45","slug":"turkey-converts-hagia-sophia-to-mosque-by-robert-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/20\/turkey-converts-hagia-sophia-to-mosque-by-robert-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Converts Hagia Sophia to Mosque  by Robert Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<ul class=\"content_preface_bullets\">\n<li>This is how the minds of Islamic supremacists seem to work: If you want churches to remain churches, it means you are &#8220;disturbed by the Koran or Islamic prayers,&#8221; and you disrespect or &#8220;insult&#8221; Islam. According to Islamic scriptures, those who &#8220;insult&#8221; Islam or its prophet Muhammad are to be executed.\n<ul>\n<li>\n<hr id=\"system-readmore\" class=\"mceItemReadMore\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>So if one wants to survive under Islamic rule, one has to submit to Islam and accept one&#8217;s own inferior status. There is apparently no place for diversity or civilized, equal coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims in Islamic nations.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I can only think of one reason [to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque]. As a shout of Islamic triumphalism. What a mistake that would be. Christians would rightly consider it an intentional insult. The international community would see it as an open rejection of its diversity agenda. Moreover, I think that a relatively secular Turkey acting so radically would demonstrate to the world that despite moderate Muslims&#8217; many assurances to the contrary, contemporary Islam is intolerant in outlook, belligerent toward non-believers, and dangerously hegemonist in its intentions.&#8221; \u2014 Wesley J. Smith, author.<\/li>\n<li>The West did not protect Anatolian Christians during the 1914-1923 genocide. It does not seem as if the West will protect Europe against what seems to be the current bloodless Muslim invasion, either.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The process of converting the historic Hagia Sophia church-then-museum in Istanbul into a mosque, in the works for the past three years, now seems to have been finalized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2013, the deputy prime minister of Turkey Bulent Arinc at the time, while speaking to reporters, signaled that Hagia Sophia Museum would be used as a mosque.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;We currently stand next to the Hagia Sophia Mosque &#8230; we are looking at a sad Hagia Sophia, but hopefully we will see it smiling again soon,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurriyetdailynews.com\/turkish-deputy-pm-expresses-hope-to-see-hagia-sophia-as-mosque.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=57998&amp;NewsCatID=338\" target=\"_blank\">Arinc said<\/a> during the opening ceremony of a new Carpet Museum, located next to the ancient Hagia Sophia, the Turkish newspaper <i>Hurriyet<\/i> had reported.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pro-government Turkish newspaper <i>Sabah<\/i> ran a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sabah.com.tr\/gundem\/2016\/06\/01\/ayasofyada-tarihi-anlar-30-gun-boyunca\" target=\"_blank\">story<\/a> on June 1, 2016 entitled, &#8220;Historic Moments at Hagia Sophia. The longing is about to be over!&#8230; The mosque of Hagia Sophia will witness historic moments in the month of Ramadan&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Greek Foreign Ministry <a href=\"http:\/\/greece.greekreporter.com\/2016\/06\/08\/turkey-reacts-to-greeces-condemnation-of-turning-hagia-sophia-into-mosque\/\" target=\"_blank\">reacted<\/a> with a written statement: &#8220;Obsessions, verging on bigotry, with Muslim rituals in a monument of world cultural heritage are incomprehensible and reveal a lack of respect for and connection with reality.&#8221; The ministry added that the practice contradicted the values of modern, democratic and secular societies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Tanju Bilgic, responded in a written statement on June 8:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Greek Foreign Ministry&#8217;s statement with regards to TRT Diyanet TV&#8217;s suhur program entitled &#8216;Hagia Sophia at the time of abundance,&#8217; which will be broadcast throughout the month of Ramadan, is unacceptable&#8221;.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pro-government Turkish media <a href=\"http:\/\/www.takvim.com.tr\/guncel\/2016\/06\/06\/ayasofyada-kurandan-rahatsiz-oldular\" target=\"_blank\">interpreted<\/a> the criticism of the Greek ministry of foreign ministry as follows: &#8220;They have been disturbed by the reciting of the Koran at Hagia Sophia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is how the minds of Islamic supremacists seem to work: If you want churches to remain churches, it means you are &#8220;disturbed by the Koran or Islamic prayers&#8221;, and in so doing, you disrespect or &#8220;insult&#8221; Islam &#8212; and according to Islamic scriptures, those who &#8220;insult&#8221; Islam or its prophet Muhammad are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thereligionofpeace.com\/pages\/quran\/insulters-islam.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">to be executed.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So if one wants to survive under Islamic rule, one has to submit to Islam and accept one&#8217;s own inferior status. There is apparently no place for diversity or civilized, equal coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims in Islamic nations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the meantime, the Hellenic American Leadership Council has begun a <a href=\"http:\/\/action.hellenicleaders.com\/p\/dia\/action3\/common\/public\/?action_KEY=19088\" target=\"_blank\">campaign<\/a> to ask the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to issue a statement against the creeping conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, writing:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 2014, USCIRF condemned attempts by Turkey&#8217;s parliament to change the status of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque. In its statement at the time, USCIRF said &#8220;&#8230;opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque would clearly be a divisive and provocative move. It would send the message that the current government sees the sensitivities of Turkey&#8217;s religious minority communities, particularly its ancient Christian community, as being of little or no consequence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Instead of following USCIRF&#8217;s recommendations, Turkey ignores them, apparently now choosing a path of &#8220;creeping conversion&#8221; to alter the status of this historic site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, all of the criticisms, calls and campaigns do not seem to have worked. A few months after a decision by Turkish authorities to allow readings from the Koran to be broadcast from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey has now decided to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/213059\/article\/ekathimerini\/news\/hagia-sophia-gets-permanent-imam-as-tensions-rise-in-aegean\" target=\"_blank\">appoint a permanent imam<\/a> for the site.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the state-funded Anadolu News Agency, Turkey&#8217;s Directorate for Religious Affairs (<i>Diyanet<\/i>), and the mufti of the Fatih district, have agreed to assign a permanent imam who will lead five daily Islamic prayers at the Hagia Sophia, instead of the current two.<\/p>\n<table class=\"mceItemTable\" style=\"margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 600px;\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"max-width: 600px; border: 1px solid black;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gatestoneinstitute.org\/pics\/1030.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;\">The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the grandest cathedral in the Christian world, until it was captured and converted to a mosque by the Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Turkish Republic converted the Hagia Sophia to a museum in 1935, and Turkey&#8217;s current Islamist government is now converting it into a mosque. (Image source: Antoine Taveneaux\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diyanet.gov.tr\/tr\/kategori\/istatistikler\/136\" target=\"_blank\">2015 statistics<\/a> of <i>Diyanet<\/i>, there are 3317 mosques in Istanbul and 86,762 in Turkey. There is no shortage of mosques in the country. So why is the Turkish government converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I can only think of one reason,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/web-exclusives\/2014\/05\/please-leave-the-hagia-sophia-alone\" target=\"_blank\">writes<\/a> the author Wesley J. Smith.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;As a shout of Islamic triumphalism. What a mistake that would be. Christians would rightly consider it an intentional insult. The international community would see it as an open rejection of its diversity agenda. Moreover, I think that a relatively secular Turkey acting so radically would demonstrate to the world that despite moderate Muslims&#8217; many assurances to the contrary, contemporary Islam is intolerant in outlook, belligerent toward non-believers, and dangerously hegemonist in its intentions.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is how the minds of Islamic supremacists seem to work: If you want churches to remain churches, it means you are &#8220;disturbed by the Koran or Islamic prayers,&#8221; and you disrespect or &#8220;insult&#8221; Islam. According to Islamic scriptures, those who &#8220;insult&#8221; Islam or its prophet Muhammad are to be executed. So if one wants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}