Posted on 04/02/2010 7:54:57 AM PDT by marshmallow
Trouble erupts as tourists break ban on Muslim prayers in Spanish cathedral which was once world's second biggest mosque
A confrontation between Muslim tourists and guards employed by the Roman Catholic bishop at the world-famous Cordoba mosque saw two people arrested and two guards injured last night.
Trouble broke out when the visitors knelt to pray in the building, a former mosque turned into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century, where a local bishop, Demetrio Fernández, recently insisted that a ban on Muslim prayers must remain.
Half a dozen members of a group of more than 100 Muslims from Austria had started praying among the marble columns and coloured arches of the vast building when security guards ordered them to stop.
"They provoked in a pre-planned fashion what was a deplorable episode of violence," the bishop's office said in a statement.
Cathedral authorities said the guards had invited the visitors to continue viewing the inside of a 24,000 sq metre building that was once the world's second biggest mosque, but without praying.
"They replied by attacking the security guards, two of whom suffered serious injuries," the bishop's office said.
Local newspapers reported that a dozen police officers had been called into the building and that these, too, had been attacked when they tried to arrest the two visitors.
The local Diario de Cordoba newspaper quoted anonymous police sources as saying that a knife had been taken off one of those arrested.
A group of local Muslim converts have long campaigned for the right to pray at the mosque building. "The building is very big and the main cathedral occupies only a part of it," said Mansur Escudero of the Junta Islamica group.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The Turks wouldn't mind, would they?
Try and pray on the Temple Mount and the Palestinian security will kick your arse out of there.
I’ve been to Cordova and that church. It is very impressive, very beautiful. My ancestor helped kick those mutants out of Spain centuries ago, so NO, I don’t want to see them back. They should be expelled from the country.
The Hagia Sophia is no longer either a Mosque or a Cathedral. Ataturk had it converted into a museum as part of his attempt to secularise Turkey in the 1930s....
Nah, nah, nah. Bring in Don King, man. He get this thing set up, get it on TV, bring in the celebrities. Set up $10,000 folding chairs. We get this thing in the right context. Hoo-wee.
Actually, when I visited Haghia Sophia I did pray — standing directly under the center of the dome. No one noticed.
let them pray there today, and tomorrow, Spain will be Muslim again.
It's been done before, and predictably, they freak out.
“Maybe we try this in the Hagia Sophia.
The Turks wouldn’t mind, would they?”
As an Eastern Orthodox Christian I can tell you that it takes all I can to not become entirely infuriated every time the Muslims take claim to the church in Cordoba.
Go to the lifeless Hagia Sophia, where the iconography has been all but destroyed and Muslim’s Satan worshiping artifices are put inside. It makes me sick.
This is a no win situation for Christians. The Muslim population visiting the Cathedral complex and living in Spain will continue to grow. I hate to admit it but it might be best to allow the Muslims to worship in a portion of the building not occupied by the cathedral - as soon as churches are allowed to be built in Mecca, Medina and the rest of the Middle East.
And we continue to encourage their immigration to the USA. We are absolutely suicidal.
** I hate to admit it but it might be best to allow the Muslims to worship in a portion of the building not occupied by the cathedral - as soon as churches are allowed to be built in Mecca,***
Mussolini said the same thing to the moslems when they wanted to build a mosque in Rome.
The Turks wouldn't mind, would they?
As a matter of fact, I was once in a tour group going through the Hagia Sophia. The group included a couple from Saudi Arabia. The man asked the tour guide if they could pray there. She told them no, they couldn't, they should wait until we got to the Blue Mosque, later on our tour. So I guess the Turks would mind. Unless you prayed silently while standing.
Strange that these Muslims thought to pray in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption when their brothers and sisters in London have been protesting for months now demanding their own private prayer space at City University. These British students claim that Muslims cannot pray in any location which is shared with prayers of other religions.
How were these Austrian tourists left out of the loop?
—We have been moved out of our prayer room, located near the Social Sciences building, to the dungeons of the main university building. A place with naked men to glance at whilst performing wudhu, a place unsuitable to provide for our large number and a place that allows the worship of that other than the One True God.
http://citymuslims.co.uk/?page_id=4
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.