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Posted on 05/31/2014 7:00:31 AM PDT by george76
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has condemned a bill recently introduced in the Turkish parliament that would “change the status of Hagia Sophia from a museum, which it has been since 1935, to a mosque.
...
The 1,477-year-old Hagia Sophia, which is located in Istanbul, has had a turbulent history. The historic building, which was originally constructed under Emperor Justinian, was completed by 537 A.D. and is an iconic example of Byzantine architecture.
It served alternately as a Roman Catholic cathedral and an Eastern Orthodox church until 1453, when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople and converted the church into a mosque. The structure remained a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum during the presidency of Mustafa Ataturk.
Noting that The Hagia Sophia (Greek for “Holy Wisdom’”) is a powerful symbol, both historically and spiritually, for millions of people worldwide, the commission urged the Turkish government to continue to maintain it as a museum.
...
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, has also rejected the proposition of turning the structure back into a mosque.
“If Hagia Sophia is about to become a place of worship once again, it should operate as a church,” he said. “After all, this is why it was built.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Wow, just wow.
Interestingly, I have two very liberal friends who recently made separate trips to Turkey. They absolutely hated the country.
The islamists are gonna do exactly what they want. Perhaps the Commission should send them a letter that is alternately stern and pleading. The islamists will get a good laugh out of that.
My (regrettably) lefty daughter and son-in-law (both of whom were ‘raised right’) spent a month in Turkey last summer. I have pix of them @ Hagia Sophia. They loved Turkey and all its points of historic significance that they visited. They’d go back tomorrow.
Well, that’s just fine with me!
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