International outcry over Turkey’s use of historic Hagia Sophia cathedral for Ramadan services

The Foreign Desk ^ | 06/06/2016 | Lisa Daftari

[Fali_G]

An angry war of words has erupted between Greece and Turkey after Turkish authorities permitted a daily Koran reading to be broadcast from Turkey’s famous Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral.

Turkish national broadcaster TRT Diyanet will broadcast the sahur or Islamic predawn meal along with daily readings from the Koran during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which began Monday.

Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the move in a statement calling it “bigotry” and “not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.”

[Byron_the_Aussie]

All aboard the Turkish Express! Next stop, Egypt.

[SeeSharp]

They already covered the inside of it with Islamic graffiti.

[boomop1]

Have a pig roast.

[Mr. M.J.B.]

Ishmael & Esau End-of-Years alliance++

[Salvation]

But isn’t it still a Catholic Church?

[BenLurkin]

Maybe Russia will flatten it with a fuel air explosion. Better that it be rubble than be a mosque.

[BlackVeil]

I think it is now a museum.

[karnage]

Free Constantinople!

[originalbuckeye]

Turkey has been lost for a while now... it used to be pretty secular, but the radical Islamists are getting closer to their goal of taking over Istanbul.

[SeeSharp]

It has been a museum since 1931.

[DesertRhino]

It never was. It was Orthodox.

[Oscar in Batangas]

What’s that saying...”Possession is 90% of the law”?

.

.

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Unfortunately, Turkey is in possession

[GreenLanternCorps]

A bit late, it was made a mosque in 1453...

[2banana]

One day Russia shall liberate...

[IWontSubmit]

President Vladimir Putin addressed a delegation of Ukrainian Orthodox Church and reiterated that nothing can shake Russia's perpetual blood alliance with Ukraine in spite of all malicious efforts exerted by the ruling junta in Kiev, adding, " rising neo-Fascism in Ukraine is like the infectious Gangrene which can spread across the European continent , and we, the people of the Russian Federation and descendents of the Soviet Union , we are determined to stop this plague." "Should Turkey not stop supporting al-Qaeda's Syria branch, I am indeed eager to end the job the late Tsar Nicholas II left unfinished. During the World War I , He [Tsar] sought to restore Constantinople (Istanbul) to Christendom and protect Russian maritime security by liberating Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits but fate prevented him,”… http://awdnews.com/top-news/putin-if-turkey-s-erdoğan-doesn-t-stop-supporting-terrorists-in-syria,-i-shall-restore-constantinople-istanbul-to-christendom

[aquila48]

I was there last year. One of the things that struck me was all the crosses in the church that they tried to obliterate when the muslims took over Constantinople... on the doors, the marble, the paintings... they’re vandalized, but you can still make them out.

The other thing that made an impression on me was that the Blue Mosque seems to be an identical copy of the Christian Haja Sophia Church. In fact most of the mosques that I saw in Istanbul had the same motif.

I found it strange that they would model mosques after a church.

One more thing, when they had the call to prayer with loudspeakers from the minarets, everybody seem to go on with their business - didn’t see anybody get down and pray.

[SunkenCiv]

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