The practice of appropriating the sacred sites of other religious traditions and converting them to mosques, or destroying the non-Muslim buildings and constructing a mosque on the same site, has abundant precedent worldwide. Consider Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Church of St. John the Baptist/Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, thousands of mosques built over destroyed Hindu temples in India, and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The idea in every case, including this one, is to declare the victory and supremacy of Islam, and to show how Islam has prevailed over other religions.
Kariye 79 yıl aradan sonra cami olarak ibadete açıldı
Kariye, bin yıl kilise, 400 yıl cami, 75 yıl müze olarak ayakta kaldıktan sonra yapılan restorasyonun ardından yeniden cami olarak ibadete açıldı. (Fotoğraflar: Yasin Akgül / AFP)https://t.co/WR4uopvoUz pic.twitter.com/j7NwOisgnM
— velev (@velevnews) May 6, 2024
“Turkey formally opens another former Byzantine-era church as a mosque,” Associated Press, May 6, 2024:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally opened a former Byzantine church in Istanbul as a mosque on Monday, four years after his government had designated it a Muslim house of prayer, despite criticism from neighboring Greece.
Turkey formally converted The Church of St. Saviour in Chora, known as Kariye in Turkish, into a mosque in 2020, soon after it similarly turned Istanbul’s landmark Haghia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer.
Both conversions drew praise from Muslim faithful but criticism from Greece and other countries who had urged Turkey to protect the important Byzantine-era monuments. Both are listed as UN World Heritage Sites.
Like Haghia Sophia, which was a church for centuries and then a mosque for centuries more, the Chora had operated as a museum for decades before it was ordered turned into a mosque. The Chora’s formal launch as a mosque, however, was delayed as the structure then underwent restoration.
Erdogan on Monday remotely presided over a ceremony marking the opening of the Chora – as well as other recently-restored structures – from a conference hall at his palace complex in Ankara.
“May it bring good fortune,” Erdogan said during the televised event.
Musa Tombul was among the first worshippers to pray inside.
“I have been waiting for its opening for four years,” he told the state-run Anadolu Agency. “I was honored to pray in such a place.”
“We thank God for showing us these days,” Anadolu quoted another worshiper, Haydar Senbahar, as saying. “Hopefully, we will come here from time to time and perform our prayers.”…
SC says
I had several Greek cypriot friends when I was a kid. As we grew up, heard more stories and understood more I learned never to trust Turks. I was not wrong.
Spiro says
If only the rest of the blind world would learn as you did
Max says
Turks will have sez wirh anything Pets, livestock it’s part of their culture
Spiro says
If only the rest of the blind world would learn as you did
Gurek says
Yet the Western leaders and governments are still silent. None of them have problem with the apartheid in Turkey. Yes, Turkey is an apartheid state and Erdogan is a fascist dictator. All of the West should have known this. Yet they are silent on the genocide of Nigerian Christians, they are silent when Armenians are being murdered by Turkish Muslims, why should we expect from them to speak out when Turkey converts churches and historic museums into mosques?
Constant bombardment of the slander words of “islamophobia” and “racism” mostly come from Turkish leadership. Yet the world looks to the other way and in their eyes it is only Shia Iran that is the problem. They ignore the fact that Sunnis like Turkey and Saudi Arabia can work together with Iran against all Infidels for the islamic cause.
GE says
+?
It’s just part of their continuing genocide.
Wipe out the Armenians, Greeks, Christians, then erase any trace of their culture and existence.
They’ll pull something against Greece or the rest of Cyprus in the future, I’m convinced of it.
Old Brummie says
Following the Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus we might have expected the Cypriots to have zipped up the rest of the island to prevent further Islamic invasion. But, no, in fact they have given the go ahead for mosques to be built in the Christian half of the island.
Turning the other cheek is a very bad idea.
FYI says
It is not as if muslims are really going to any paradise.They think they are.
But you see allah “who knows ALL things” koran 2:29 [ no he doesn’t!}is not even omniscient…I am happy to prove it to any muslim..a bit awkward for islam to have a god that suffers from a lack of omniscience,the most obvious false prophet in history and a holey book that is theologicalty,scientifically and historically wrong{all provable}
muslims don’t even know that!
Centuries and centuries of “scholarship” and they have not figured it out yet.
all dressed up in your pyjamas ,beard scrubbed,freshly wudu’d butt..and nowhere to go:an islamic funeral
yallah is winning!
yaaayy!
Mark S (West Seneca, NY) says
Hi, FYI. You write that Allah does NOT know all things, and that you will be happy to prove this to any Muslim. Will you please prove it to a kafir (me)? Does your proof work for any god, even Yahweh?
somehistory says
this is a part of their goals of making everyone bow down to their beast.
Taking, stealing, invading, gloating, smirking, boasting,
stabbing, shooting, raping, torturing, all in the name and service of “the thief”…”The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.”
OLD GUY says
Just think in a short while your neighborhood could hear the call to prayer for islam several times a day. But don’t ring those Church bells on Sunday, they disturb me sleeping in.