Turkey’s foreign minister has said that Israel’s annexation plan “destroys all hopes” of lasting peace in the Middle East. Turkey has long hosted Hamas and sought to have Hamas play a larger role in Palestinian issues. Turkey’s foreign minister also refused to refer to Israel by name in the meeting of the Islamic Cooperation Executive […]
Why Erdogan Converted the Hagia Sophia to a Mosque, and Why the State Department Should Be Concerned
My latest in PJ Media: Most Western media analyses of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision Friday to convert Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque have asserted that Erdogan has wanted to do this because the move is popular among Turks and will shore up his base. But there is a great deal […]
Turkey: MP says “Decision to convert Hagia Sophia to mosque will make life more difficult for Christians here”
Indeed it will, as it is a new indication that Erdogan intends to destroy Turkish secularism altogether and restore Islamic rule to Turkey, which will involve the subjugation of the country’s remaining Christians as dhimmis. “Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally makes Hagia Sophia a mosque,” by Suzan Fraser, Associated Press, July 10, 2020: …Turkey’s […]
International Union of Muslim Scholars: “Supporting Palestinian resistance is a form of jihad for the sake of Allah”
The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), “backed by Qatar and Turkey, and other Islamic organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement calling on Muslims to wage jihad and self-sacrifice” to halt the plan of the Netanyahu government to assert Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria. A large number of Muslim […]
Pope Francis: “I think of Hagia Sophia and I am very saddened”
As I stated to Church Militant, the Pope’s tardy statement manifests a studied ambiguity. What exactly is he saddened about? He doesn’t say. Is he saddened because what was the foremost church in the Christian world for nearly a millennium, and the center of Eastern Christianity, has been made a mosque? Or is he saddened […]
Turkey: Muslims scream “Allahu akbar” at news of Hagia Sophia’s conversion to mosque
This is because “Allahu akbar” does not mean “Allah is great,” as AP has it here, but “Allah is greater,” i.e., superior to your god. The conversion of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque is a simultaneous declaration that Islam is superior to both secularism and Christianity. It is a manifestation of Erdogan’s […]
Erdogan’s Mischief-Making, and His Comeuppance (Part 1)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees himself as the natural leader of the Muslim world. Last year saw published in his mouthpiece, the newspaper Yeni Safak, his plan for a pan-Islamic army that, with its huge collective armory of planes and tanks, and more than a million men under arms, would be able to […]
Erdogan: “Resurrection of Hagia Sophia” heralds “return of freedom to al-Aqsa,” revival of Islam Uzbekistan to Spain
Since mainstream analysts routinely downplay or ignore altogether the existence of political Islam, they will miss the implications of this. That could be just as disastrous as the dismissal of Mein Kampf by European analysts in the 1920s, who never took seriously the possibility that in it, Hitler had provided a precise articulation of his […]
Turkey: Muslim breaks into venerable Armenian Orthodox cathedral, recites Islamic call to prayer
Legend has it that when the Muslims conquered Jerusalem in the year 637, Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, invited the caliph Umar to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Umar declined, explaining that if he did, the Muslims would convert the church into a mosque, as Muslim prayers had been uttered there. It […]
Erdogan signs decree turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque
Russia and Greece, as well as the US, France, and others, have stated their opposition to Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque. That Erdogan would move ahead with this anyway shows that he is not worried about antagonizing either friend (Russia and ostensibly the US) or foe (Greece). He appears to be much more concerned to […]