Hagia Sophia called “a symbol of reconciliation”

Vivificat - Catholic News, Opinion, Commentary, Prayers, and Reflections ^ | 8 April 2009 | TDJ

[Teófilo]

Folks, this morning, as I watched NBC’s The Today Show journalist Richard Engel, while gushing about President Obama’s visit to Turkey’s Blue Mosque and then to Hagia Sophia, called the latter “a symbol of reconciliation” after remarking that it was first a “church, then a mosque, and now a museum.”

I don’t know why Mr. Engel said such a thing. To call Hagia Sophia “a symbol or reconciliation” it’s grating to those of us who know the history behind this “museum.” It is as if the Basilica of St. Peter were confiscated by a Muslim army, added 4 minarets to it, vandalized all the Christian art on the walls, taken down the cross, and made it into a mosque. Much later, a secularizing military dictator would’ve come in and then freeze the basilica in its Moslem stage when the true act of reconciliation would have been to return the temple to its legitimate, original owners.

This is the logic of “progressives”: that the world would be a better place if Christian temples were to become worship spaces for those of other faiths, or even better, museums for the popcorn-chewing crowds. Christian temples can only be “symbols of reconciliation” if they are but empty shells, signs of past long come and gone.

Pardon me while I barf, and then pledge to do my part to confront the thick evil surrounding us.

[Teófilo]

Typos. Blunders. Mine.

[Teófilo]

PING!

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Well, ‘Islam’ technically means, ‘to submit’.

[popdonnelly]

It’s a symbol of how Islam destroys other beliefs. Islam is a nice totalitarian religion for leftists who admire totalitarianism.

[Rummyfan]

Apparently the only people dumber - or more duplicitous - than Hussein Obama and his dense VP are those in the Mainstream Media......

[kabar]

I bet this went over big in the Greek press. They must be going bonkers.

[Rummyfan]

It’s a symbol of how Islam destroys other beliefs. Islam is a nice totalitarian religion for leftists who admire totalitarianism.

Funny how no one in the MSM points out the islamic nation, practicing that tolerant religion of peace as the state religion, that also allows full religious freedom for worshippers of other faiths. islam does not come to share or cooperate - it comes to dominate and exterminate.

[Wallace T.]

Please note that Obama effectively declared America to be a secular nation in another country (Turkey), whose greatest modern leader, Kemel Ataturk, secularized his nation. The de-Islamaification of Turkey was abrupt and done by government fiat in the 1920s and 1930s, whereas the de-Christianization of America has been going on for well over a century and is the result of both changing beliefs and court decisions. However, Obama and his cohorts appear to want to speed up the secularization process. Their thinking is dialectic; Ataturk, Lenin, Robespierre, etc., are "change agents", who move the course of "social progress" against that of "reaction". The difference between Turkey, Russia, and France on the one hand and America on the other is that our own "throne and altar/mosque" are the limited government concepts of the Founders, embodied in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and the system of moral values found in the Bible. However, as communitarians, as they like to call themselves, and secular humanists, modern liberals believe it is their duty to further social progress by destroying individualism and Biblical Christianity.

Unlike the Muslim faith, the Christian faith is not attached to holy sites but to the Holy Word. Christianity is all but gone in its original Middle Eastern home and is ever weakening in its second home in Europe, but nonetheless thrives in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

[Kolokotronis]

“I bet this went over big in the Greek press. They must be going bonkers.”

I can’t find any comment in the Greek press at all about this stupid remark. What I do find is uniform praise for Obama’s comments to the Turkish Parliament on the reopening of the Halki Seminary and the restoration of properties to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The papers also speak well of Obama’s meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch. The Turkish English language press notes that Greek Americans are angry that Clinton is meeting with the so called prime minister of the Turkish occupied part of Cyprus, but Clinton is pretty solidly loathed by both Greeks and Greek Americans so I don’t think that anger means much.

All in all, I’d say what Obama did in Turkey raised his stock with Greeks and the Orthodox generally if the papers are any indication.

[HereInTheHeartland]

It is the ultimate symbol of Islam conquering Christianity.
Strange that Obama visits there as president.

[Alex Murphy]

To call Hagia Sophia “a symbol or reconciliation” it’s grating to those of us who know the history behind this “museum.” It is as if the Basilica of St. Peter were confiscated by a Muslim army, added 4 minarets to it, vandalized all the Christian art on the walls, taken down the cross, and made it into a mosque. Much later, a secularizing military dictator would’ve come in and then freeze the basilica in its Moslem stage when the true act of reconciliation would have been to return the temple to its legitimate, original owners.

Byzantium ping

[Ebenezer]

Sophia ("wisdom") is something this Mr. Engel is sorely lacking. If there is any "reconciliation" in de-Christianizing Hagia Sophia, it must be with the one Christ called "the Prince of the World".

[Kolokotronis]

“Strange that Obama visits there as president.”

Any stranger than the popes making the same visit?

[Kolokotronis]

T, we shouldn’t expect any better from an American journalist. I make it a point to castigate American parochialism on a regular basis. For an American talking head to have absolutely zero appreciation for what Agia Sophia means to Christians, especially Eastern Christians is no surprise at all. Engel, like his compatriots, is an idiot.

[Antoninus]

Disgusting. "Reconciliation"? Right. Submission is more like it.

I still can't believe America elected this tool.

[VR-21]

"Apparently the only people dumber - or more duplicitous - than Hussein Obama and his dense VP are those in the Mainstream Media......"

I agree, but would include those who inflicted them on us. "Reconciliation" to muslims seems very much like "bi-partisanship" to Democrats. Both synonomous with "capitulation."

[Ebenezer]

I still can't believe America elected this tool.

To paraphrase Aunt Esther from the 1970s TV comedy Sanford and Son: "Barack Obama, you ain't nuthin' but a heathen!"

[kabar]

Please note that Obama effectively declared America to be a secular nation in another country (Turkey), whose greatest modern leader, Kemel Ataturk, secularized his nation. The de-Islamaification of Turkey was abrupt and done by government fiat in the 1920s and 1930s, whereas the de-Christianization of America has been going on for well over a century and is the result of both changing beliefs and court decisions.

Ataturk "Westernized" Turkey. He did not "de-Islamacize" it. Turkey remains an overwhelming Muslim country, i.e., 99.8% are Muslim. In Turkey, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Turkish: Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) is an official institution established in 1924 after the abolition of the caliphate. Founded by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as a successor to Shaikh al-Islam, it represents the highest Islamic religious authority in the country. It is normally referred to simply as the Diyanet.

Gul is an Islamic politician. Islamic fundamentalism is expanding its influence in Turkey.

[kabar]

Even after referring to the Hagia Sophia as “a symbol of reconciliation?” I guess the Greek press has changed from the days when I lived in Athens, 1992-95.

[Kolokotronis]

“Even after referring to the Hagia Sophia as “a symbol of reconciliation?””

I doubt that the Greek press even knows about, much less cares about, what some fool reporter on the TODAY program said.