The Hagia Sophia

BBC: "The Hagia Sophia was built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

"It was converted to a museum in 1934 on the orders of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern, secular Turkey.

"Since then religious services have been banned at the site, but devout Muslims have long campaigned for worship to be allowed."

Also BBC: "The World Council of Churches has called on Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reverse his decision to turn the celebrated Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53375739

What are your thoughts on this turn of events?

@fmf said
[quote]BBC: "The Hagia Sophia was built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

"It was converted to a museum in 1934 on the orders of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern, secular Turkey.

"Since then religious services have been banned at the site, but devout Muslims have long ca ...[text shortened]...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53375739

What are your thoughts on this turn of events?

Sounds good to me. Turkey is a majority Muslim nation if I am not mistaken, even though technically it has been a secular state since 1953.

The Christian organizations that have been crabbing about this can spout off all they want, but I don't think they have the right to prevent it.

They should instead turn their minds and energies Christward, instead of wrangling over buildings and structures of mentation.

@fmf said
[quote]BBC: "The Hagia Sophia was built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453.

"It was converted to a museum in 1934 on the orders of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern, secular Turkey.

"Since then religious services have been banned at the site, but devout Muslims have long ca ...[text shortened]...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53375739

What are your thoughts on this turn of events?

As a democratic American, I feel they should let the people of Turkey vote on it. I know, 'good luck with that'.
98% of Turkey is Muslim. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Turkey#:~:text=Islam%20is%20the%20largest%20current,and%200.8%25%20are%20Others%20religion).
I think they should turn it back into a Mosque.
The Muslim Religion is a path to God for Ishmael's descendants the Arab Muslims. Others can join also.

@caesar-salad said
Sounds good to me. Turkey is a majority Muslim nation if I am not mistaken, even though technically it has been a secular state since 1953.

The Christian organizations that have been crabbing about this can spout off all they want, but I don't think they have the right to prevent it.

They should instead turn their minds and energies Christward, instead of wrangling over buildings and structures of mentation.

I'm impressed. 🙂

@kingdavid403 said
I'm impressed. 🙂

So, maybe I got there first and my post was better, but I didn't intend to outshine you. Sorry about that! 😉

@caesar-salad said
So, maybe I got there first and my post was better, but I didn't intend to outshine you. Sorry about that! 😉

No problem. I didn't see your post until after I posted mine. God job.

@kingdavid403 said
No problem. I didn't see your post until after I posted mine. God job.

"I'm Wikipedia smart." 😉

@kingdavid403 said
I think they should turn it back into a Mosque.
The Muslim Religion is a path to God for Ishmael's descendants the Arab Muslims. Others can join also.

It's obviously a political move. There are already over 82,000 mosques in Turkey 3,000 of them in Istanbul... but only one museum of its kind - of that stature and that popularity - in the city [indeed, in the entire world].

If I were a Turkish Muslim living in Istanbul, I think I would simply go to one of the other mosques and resist this gesture which I see as unwelcome Islamicization of domestic politics and a kind of identity politics writ large.

@kingdavid403 said
As a democratic American

Wait a minute.

If you are American, why do you present yourself as Canadian with your choice of flag?

@caesar-salad said
Wait a minute.

If you are American, why do you present yourself as Canadian with your choice of flag?

Trump!
Plus, ,my wife, two of my daughters, two son in laws, and six of my grandchildren are Canadian. I also live right on the Canadian border. I can see Canadian sky's out my front door. 🙂

@kingdavid403 said
Trump!
Plus, ,my wife, two of my daughters, two son in laws, and six of my grandchildren are Canadian. I also live right on the Canadian border. I can see Canadian sky's out my front door. 🙂

Lucky you, to have a door to the north. 😉

@fmf said
It's obviously a political move. There are already over 82,000 mosques in Turkey 3,000 of them in Istanbul... but only one museum of its kind - of that stature and that popularity - in the city [indeed, in the entire world].

If I were a Turkish Muslim living in Istanbul, I think I would simply go to one of the other mosques and resist this gesture which I see as unwelcome Islamicization of domestic politics and a kind of identity politics writ large.

I agree about it being an obviously political move, but none of us have to deal with Turkey being situated where it is, and Erdogan does.

@fmf said
It's obviously a political move. There are already over 82,000 mosques in Turkey 3,000 of them in Istanbul... but only one museum of its kind - of that stature and that popularity - in the city [indeed, in the entire world].

If I were a Turkish Muslim living in Istanbul, I think I would simply go to one of the other mosques and resist this gesture which I see as unwelcome Islamicization of domestic politics and a kind of identity politics writ large.

The current population of Turkey is 84,358,941 as of Friday, July 10, 2020,
That's about one Mosque for every 1028.52 people. Another one could not hurt. Yes, they push their religion also.

(https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/turkey-population/#:~:text=The%20current%20population%20of%20Turkey,of%20the%20total%20world%20population).

@caesar-salad said
Lucky you, to have a door to the north. 😉

Well, it's been closed since this Corona-virus crap; and, I have not seen my wife or family for almost 5 months now. Thank God for Skype. I see them often on there. I'm starting to talk with birds and stuff; It's getting kinda bad. 😳 lol...