[monday]

"BTW, tearing down a 500 year old building probably wasn't a good idea if ya' know what I mean ~ it's not like there are rich tourists who like to visit India just to see the new stuff."

In India, 500 year old buildings are "the new stuff". Of all the worlds most prominent religions. Islam is the newest. It builds it's Mosques almost exclusively on the sites of former Temples and Churches.

[muawiyah]

BTW, in my neighborhood the Moslems built one of their mosques on the site of former ITT Computer Technology school ~ that was a coup since the architect had been a Pakistani who modeled it after the latest in Islamabad "mosque modern".

Virtually nothing needed to be changed beyond taking down the old signs and putting up the new signs.

There are a gazillion mosques in this world that WERE NOT built on the site of a temple or church. Some are. Stuff happens. An old church building is just that ~ an old church building ~ nothing particular sacred about them.