From "Royal Mosque, a testimony to 700 years of history," in Newindpress, with thanks to Kskat:
RAJAHMUNDRY: The simple and unostentatious exterior of the Royal Mosque of Rajahmundry belies its uniqueness and historicity. It stands as a testimony to history spanning seven centuries.The Royal Mosque or Shahi Jamia Masjid is among the oldest mosques constructed in Andhra Pradesh and dates back to the Tughluq era.
It was constructed by Suleiman Humayun Ulugh Khan, son of Ghiasuddin Abdul Mujaffar Tugluq - the Sultan of Delhi - on August 20, 1305. According to historians, the Tugluqs converted Venugopala temple into this mosque.
More important, however, is the uninterrupted history of Namaaz (prayers) for the past 700 years.
Really? More important to whom? Why?
In a two-volume work Sita Ram Goel lists, without more, Hindu temples (or more often temple-complexes) that were destroyed by the Muslim conquerors. There were tens of thousands of such temples destroyed, as there were churches taken over, from the St. John the Baptist church in Damascus (which formed the basis of the famous Umayyad Mosque that visitors like to ooh and aah over, or the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, turned into a mosque, its crosses broken off, its paintings vandalized, or for that matter all the churches everywhere that were either appropriated for mosques, or destroyed so that mosques could be built on top, often using the same material. And of course, the Dome of the Rock itself is a Byzantine martyrium, with Arabic -- but not necessraily Islamic -- writing on it.
Hugh:
Mark that one down to the self-importance of being Muslim.
Have you ever come across Daniel Pipes's paper on Jerusalem wherein he notes that the Turks ordered their Austrian allies to blow up the Dome to prevent it from coming under British control and, but for the personal (physical) intervention of an Austrian Jewish army officer, the order would have been complied with?
Solomonia recently posted a fascinating piece in the context of the deliberate destruction of architectural sites of interest by the Palestinians. He had pictures that demonstrated that a Gazan mosque was a converted church constructed in part with salvaged stones from a Jewish holy site including the carved image of a seven-branched menorah and hebrew script.
During and after Israel's 1948 war for independence the Jordanian army demolished about 50 synagogues and Torah study centers in East Jerusalem. I saw the wreckage of one of them. Mohammedanism is allegedly idol free, the lie is put to this by their compulsion to destroy the religious shrines of others and construct their mosque on top of it. Like a parasite. Same as the Jizya is a parasitical tax.
Wasn't the cathedral of Mexico City built upon the ruins of the great temple of Tenochtitlan? How many Graeco-Roman temples were destroyed or vandalized to give way to Christian churches? Wasn't Hypatia - that great scholar - a victim of the lethal intolerance of the bishop of Alexandria?
The issue is not how a temple was destroyed 700 years ago. The issue should be that the same intolerance responsible for destroying a temple 700 years ago is still very much alive in Islam today, when Christianity has moved passed that intolerance.
I've often wondered if Catholic Christianity isn't just as intolerant as Islam is. It seems to me the only reason it seems not is because the Church's current teaching on religious liberty, as taught by Vatican II, only applies to the modern world where there are no truly "Catholic States."
Cruzado - a fair point...but don't hold your breath. Islam couldn't exist without intolerance and the steel grip they hold on the psyches and bodies of human beings. The presence of other religious shrines only reminds of what was and what could be IF they weren't trapped in the Muslim existence.
"The presence of other religious shrines only reminds of what was and what could be IF they weren't trapped in the Muslim existence."
Couldn't the same be said for the pagan temples that are now Christian churches?
Shame to Politicians and govt. officials who participated in the celeberations of a structure which symbolises the murder looting of innocents and their children and women made slaves. Best part is these historical facts are never told to students in school history classes in India. However every muslim is told about atrocities commited in mediveal times on hindus, in madarsas and on every friday sermon. They know these structures as symbols of past hindu slavery. Ignorance of hindus about these past islamic tyrrany encourages muslims to dream Dar ul Islam being re-established in India.
A get-together was organised on Sunday in which MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar, MLA Routhu Suryaprakasa Rao and Mayor MS Chakravarthi and others participated.
From the absence of muslim sounding names, I gather that all the said MPs are Hindus. It is akin to Jewish Knesset members celebrating the existence of Dome of the Rock.
Oh heck! A thought just occurred to me that Jewish MPs may already have done that.
DP111:
As I noted to Hugh above, according to Daniel Pipes, the Dome would have been blown up by Turkey's Austrian allies under Turkey's directions but for an Austrian Jewish army officer standing in the way of the demolition crew.
The same things keep popping up across time and geography - infidel holy spaces being destroyed and mosques being built over them as a sign of the natural Islamic order - the domination of Islam over all other faiths - across every land that Islam came in contact with this happened.
One mosque gets destroyed in India that was the birthplace of one of the Hindu Gods about ten years ago and all hell breaks loose - but Muslims are free to maintain their worship in places they destroyed - what a wicked and cruel feat - and to do it everywhere - such consistency, such recurrence is so representative of that mentality - destroy th infidel - stomp on his face - take his holy space and make it your own - the hatred and contempt - amazing.
The desease of the mainstream press spreads like a flu pandemic. Note that newindpress is an indian information agency, and yet their behaviour is that of Reuter's caliber. All eyes on the mosque and only one brief remark about the temple being CONVERTED into a mosque. Not razed, not demolished, not — God forbid —vandalized, but converted. If this state of willingful connivance continues, we can only expect more Church takeovers in the Western world.
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dolphin, CAGE co-founder.
http://www.acage.org
waterdragon52:
Yes, I missed that connection. Thanks for pointing it out.
A nice article which includes the views of an Indian living in the West.
Why Islam spreads or doesn't spread, part 2
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/003899.html