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Turkey appoints permanent imam for Hagia Sophia; will lead five daily prayers

Oct 22, 2016 11:15 am By Robert Spencer

“Observers are warning about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly neo-Ottoman stance and disregard for secular prerogatives.”

Indeed, and this new appointment essentially completes the motion of making the Hagia Sophia into a functioning mosque again. European Union officials ought to see this for what it is: a decisive rejection of any pretense of dealing with the Christian or post-Christian West on a mutually respectful basis. Erdogan is an Islamic supremacist and is pursuing an openly supremacist imperative. European officials who are still pushing for Turkey’s entry into the EU, as well as the ongoing phenomenon of massive Muslim immigration into the West, should consider Erdogan’s actions carefully. But they almost certainly won’t.

hagia_sophia

“Hagia Sophia gets permanent imam as tensions rise in Aegean,” Ekathimerini, October 22, 2016:

A few months after a controversial decision by Turkish authorities to allow readings from the Quran to be broadcast from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, reports on Friday said Turkey had decided to appoint a permanent imam for the venue.

According to the Anadolu state news agency, the country’s religious affairs directorate and the mufti of the Fatih district have agreed to assign a permanent imam who will lead five daily prayers, instead of the current two.

While the position was foreseen in the plans of 1935, when Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque under Kemal Ataturk, until recently prayers were led by visiting imams.

There had been no official reaction from Athens by late Friday.

Built as a Christian basilica in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman army in 1453.

In June, readings were held at Hagia Sophia for the first time in 80 years – a move seen by critics as a violation of the monument’s formally neutral status. The move drew protests from the Greek Foreign Ministry.

Observers are warning about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly neo-Ottoman stance and disregard for secular prerogatives.

Last month, the Turkish strongman attacked the 1923 Lausanne Treaty that defined the borders of modern Turkey.

Meanwhile, in a sign of rising tension in the Aegean Sea, a Greek military frigate was yesterday sent to international waters east of Karpathos and south of Rhodes after a Turkish frigate approached a Greek survey vessel in the area….

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic supremacism, Turkey Tagged With: Hagia Sophia


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Comments

  1. August West says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 11:44 am

    Any bets on when UNESCO will declare that it was never non muslim (is secular or christian)

    My guess would be that this will happen within Clinton’s first term if she is elected.

    • Damocles Junior says

      Oct 22, 2016 at 4:09 pm

      I think you have got that pretty well correct and Merkel will back Hillary totally.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 1:05 am

      Grimly likely, August–given what that dishonest body has said about the Temple Mount.

    • Sharon Nichta says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 2:59 am

      I was shocked by UNESCO’s decision last week. Totally unaware of the anti-Semitism

    • Marty says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 5:31 am

      Totally correct.
      i’d like to see the civilised world respond by Christianising all
      mosques within its shrinking boundaries.
      Sadly, mohammedans are taking over churches, & just about anything they
      can get their hands on.
      As with the UK admitting ?migrant children”, mainly young muslim men
      aged up to their late 30s, the West has lost the will to live.
      Certainly our politicians have.

      • Bob says

        Oct 23, 2016 at 9:31 am

        Even better, Marty, buiidoze every last mosque, and make it clear that we may consider the building of another mosque when the Saudis and other muslim countries allow the building of genuinely functioning churches and synagogues. In other words, destroy the mosques because there’ll never be churches, synagogues, Bahai temples or anything other than mosques in allah-ruled cointries!

  2. Don McKellar says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 11:49 am

    The government of a country appointing a specific religious leader for a site is not the government of a democratic country.

    • August West says

      Oct 22, 2016 at 12:11 pm

      The mosques are the barracks
      The minarets are the spears
      The domes are the helmets
      The Muslims are the soldiers
      President Erdogan

      There is no radical Islam. There is no moderate Islam.
      Islam is Islam and that is that.
      President Erdogan

      That is all we need to know.

      Turkey is not an ally of the West and should not be in NATO, and that is that.

      • Damocles Junior says

        Oct 22, 2016 at 4:10 pm

        And they want Turkey in the EU as well. Britain, you have got out just in time!

        • VampireJack says

          Oct 22, 2016 at 4:36 pm

          We ain’t out yet…….

          And I don’t suppose we will be allowed to leave.

          There WILL be a second referendum – and it will be a vote to stay IN buy something like 72%.

      • Leith Wood says

        Oct 22, 2016 at 4:46 pm

        Thank you August. Absolutely true. This is not the time for denial or politically correct garbage. Wake up Americans and realize we are at war with an enemy that hates us, wishes us dead and dreams of taking over our country and instilling Sharia Law.

  3. L. Anoniem says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    This was to be expected. It also marks the opening of a new “front” by Erdogan. Turkey is on its way to become a neo-ottoman caliphate and a restoration of its dictatorial imperialist past.

  4. Cretius says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    Wrong on all counts.

    A phobia is an abnormal or morbid fear or aversion. There is nothing abnormal about recognising Islam and all the barbarism it brings. Therefore, there is no such thing as Islamophobia.

    Secondly, being against a system like Islam is not racism. Racism is the belief that one race is inherently better than another simply on the theory that human abilities etc. are determined by race. By definition, Islam is not a race.

    Lastly, Islam is a fascist totalitarian political system that includes a religion of jihad, bigotry, intolerance, sexism and barbaric cultural practises. Muslims are their own worst enemies. They even kill each other! No one has to lie about Islam. Simply bear witness to the intolerance, bigotry and hatred spread by imams online. Muslims demand respect and rights that they deny to everyone else. This makes them unfit immigrants/refugees to modern western democracies.

    Allowing such a poisonous political system/religion in is tantamount to committing national suicide.

  5. Hugh Fitzgerald says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 1:49 pm

    The ghost of Ataturk would not be pleased.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 1:31 am

      No, he wouldn’t, Hugh. But ‘Islamist’ thugs like Erdogan have no respect for him at all now.

    • Avenger says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 11:34 pm

      Ataturk was a murdering scum, he did separate church from state but that didn’t keep his police and army from murdering what was left of the Anatolian Christians.

  6. Richie says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    I wonder how Greeks are taking this? Constantinople was once a great Greek city before the vile Muslim invasion

    • Damocles Junior says

      Oct 22, 2016 at 4:07 pm

      It will be interesting to see if they make any public statements, they may be constrained because of their EU membership. But privately every Greek that I know either distrusts or absolutely hates Turkey and anything to do with that traditionally warlike Muslim nation.

      • gravenimage says

        Oct 23, 2016 at 1:35 am

        This is the Greek reaction to the lead up to this, from June:

        “Greece Condemns State-Sanctioned Quran Readings at Hagia Sophia”

        http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/06/24/greece-condemns-state-sanctioned-quran-readings-at-hagia-sophia/

        But Turkey will either ignore this response from Infidels, or laugh at it.

        • Damocles Junior says

          Oct 23, 2016 at 7:46 am

          Thank you Graven Image for that information which could be summarised as follows;

          Greece: We don’t like what you are doing, in fact we condemn it and hopefully the UN will be on our side.
          Turkey: How about you let us build a mosque in Athens?
          Turkey: By the way we can just open the floodgates and swamp you Greece and your beautiful islands with Muslim refugees.

  7. Maria says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 3:15 pm

    This is no good. Period.

  8. Maria says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    Turks make holocaust jokes. They think Jews burning is a punchline. so, this is not a good sign-having an imam parrot a book that reads like a terrorist manual.

  9. Damocles Junior says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 4:41 pm

    As a further comment. Yes we will probably see Turkey take over the most historic church of Christendom without a murmur from world leaders or the Vatican.

    Now, if Israel was to take over the Temple Mount the condemnation would be both damning and immediate. Condemnation would come from everyone including (and especially Obama/Hillary,) the UN, the EU and possibly the Vatican. Most Israelis also fear that Russia would side with the Arabs in the inevitable attack from the Arab States immediately following any attempt to restore Israel’s rightful ownership of that site.

    As has been posted on JW, the UN has already recognised the Temple Mount as a Muslim heritage site even though it was Jewish for at least 1500 years before Islam was even thought of. It is actions like this that should make all thinking people really start to question what the UN is all about.

    • Avenger says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 11:51 pm

      Damocles, if Israel should happen too consolidate the Temple Mount it would be the USA, not Russia, that would side with any Arab retribution.
      The US State Department is infested with islamists.
      It’s not going to change either if the beast Hillary is elected president.

  10. Sam says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    Well nothing surprising. This is like going back to 1453. Muslims will take us to year 632. So we still have time. Lets go back to sleep.

  11. Salome says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 5:15 pm

    There’s a meme about on social media that ‘hate'(red) is what inspires those of us who wish to preserve our civilisation and its values, and that ‘fear’ is what motivates us. The story goes that Hitler hated Jews and stirred up irrational fear in the German people and caused the holocaust, and by extension, Trump and other proponents of restrictions on Muslim immigration are doing the same. I would like to distinguish the cases: Hitler didn’t seem to have much of a problem with Judaism; he hated Jewish people–whether they practised their faith or not. For us, our problem is with Islam, and only extends to Muslim people where they believe and practise their faith to the point of causing harm to the rest of us. We don’t object to ex-Muslims, for example, while for Hitler there were no ex-Jews. And we’re not even telling the Muslims in our midst to convert or die. But it’s all too subtle for the occupiers of the high ground. May God find a way to rid the world of the scourge of Islam. Would that I could live to see the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in regular use in the Church of the Holy Wisdom (and I’m not even Orthodox, it’s just that it belongs there).

  12. Wellington says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    Just wondering. Muslims through the centuries have taken over Christian churches aplenty and turned them into mosques (unless they first destroyed said churches, some 35,000 alone in the first wave of Islamic expansion in the seventh century———have to call, per the twin idiocies of PC/MC, Islamic imperialism “expansion” while, of course, Western imperialism is called, what a surprise, imperialism). But when have Christians en masse taken over mosques and turned them into churches?

    Again can be seen another defect of Islam, in this case the appropriation of the achievements of others and then using said achievements with NO graciousness involved. None. And thus tending to demonstrate, I would contend, the parasitic nature of Islam. Actually, if there is a greater example of human parasitism in all of history more than what Muzzies have engaged in for centuries, right now I can’t think of said example. Can anyone?

    Yes indeed, when I think of Islam I think of a whole host of negatives. For instance, an eternal hostility to true freedom, an eternal hostility to equality under the law between Muslims and non-Muslims, a dismal record on women’s rights, a lack of a true Golden Rule for all, an absence of romantic love, looking upon music as haram, looking upon fine alcohol as haram, et al. And yet one more is the parasitic element in Islam which appropriates the achievements of others with no acknowledgement, with no humility, with no graciousness. Just dominance and submission and all that Islamic rot.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 23, 2016 at 1:50 am

      Wellington, the *only* cases I can think of are in Spain following the Reconquista–but most of these sites were Christian Churches that had been turned into Mosques by Muslims during the Muslim conquest, and Christians were simply reconsecrating them.

      It is possible that there were similar cases under the same circumstances in the Balkans–but none I am specifically aware of.

      Certainly, Infidels have never taken over Muslim lands en mass and turned Mosques into non-Muslim places of worship. Muslims have done this all over the world, though. There are hundreds such Churches turned into Mosques.

    • Avenger says

      Oct 24, 2016 at 12:16 am

      Wellington, you will have to look at the natural world for anything that is comparable to the parasitism of Islam. Tapeworms, lice, viral warts, bedbugs, giardiasis, malaria etc.
      are all real parasites but they don’t always kill their host, Muslims do almost 100% of the time. Islam is more like the human aids virus.
      Genghis Khan is the closest to Islam as a destroyer of human civilization.

  13. Damocles Junior says

    Oct 22, 2016 at 7:04 pm

    Now for a 21st Century style Church takeover by Muslims. Here in Sydney vacant land is in very short supply and prices have gone beyond astronomical. Add to this a struggling church that is sitting on a parcel of land worth millions, it is even worth more to the Muslim community as this same parcel of land is already zoned as “A place of worship”. So simple, the Muslims make an offer to the denominational HQ which they can not refuse. This is a disgusting sell-out but it happens all the time and because the land is already zoned as a place of worship up goes another mosque with only the minimal amount of hassle. Apart from issues such as car parking and traffic local resident’s wishes are generally ignored because that would be racist or discriminatory.and generally speaking all levels of government here are all support multiculturalism including Islam. (Officially)

    We are just selling out to them.

  14. gravenimage says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 1:02 am

    Turkey appoints permanent imam for Hagia Sophia; will lead five daily prayers
    …………………

    In fast re-Islamizing Turkey under Erdogan this, grimly, should not surprise.

  15. Mano says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 3:44 am

    And The pathetic traitors socialists Marxist criminal government in Greece is building a mosque in Athens.

  16. Islam the religion of killers says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 4:21 am

    Another re-islamization about to happen is just north of Mosul, Turkey is lining up troops under the auspices of making a stand (playing their part as soldiers of NATO), when all they are really doing is opening a path for ISIS to race to the safety of Turkey, at the end of the fighting.

    Most likely it will be the commanders and the captains, leaving the foot soldiers to stay and take the bullets ..

    The turkish troops stationed in the north “will be overcome and couldn’t hold the ISIS back” , no doubt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be “shocked,, shocked”

    The ISIS comanders will go to the mosks of Europe for protection …

  17. Nico says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 4:21 am

    Another deeply sinister and calculated insult by the (until very recently) Islamic State sponsor Erdogan – our NATO ally (sigh…)

    In fairness to the secular “Islamophobe” Atatürk, i feel i should point out a typo in the article. “In 1935,” it says, “Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque under Kemal Ataturk” – i think you meant to write “museum”, not “mosque”.

  18. Simon Néhmé says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 5:11 am

    « The minarets will be our baionets, the cupolas our helmets, the mosques our army barracks and the believers our soldiers » Erdoghan, 1999 ( mayor of Constantinople quoting the verses of the Turkish islamist poet Ziya Gökalp ). Who among the so-called « big leaders » as the European self declared «  éminentes personnalités » dares open – at that time and today – his or her mouth ? None, on the contrary they have pulled down – and are still – their trousers, the « Siberian Tarzan » Putin included. One must not forget that at the time Mr. George 00 Bush was already praying «  islam is peace » (sic), Hillary and Obama were – and are still – associative militants in Chicago streets.
    With this kind of leaders we are on the «  right track ».
    How can one hope islamists and islamism will lower their aggressive intensity of war against the human civilization especially ours ? How can one be astonished of what this Erdoghan did ? We are still in the prologue ; unfortunately.

  19. Carolyne says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 10:48 am

    St. Sophia’s in Istanbul is a beautiful church but disfigured with the phallic symbols attached to it. When the barbarians overran Istanbul, they painted over the beautiful icons with whitewash. In recent years, they were uncovered and were dramatically beautiful because the whitewash had preserved the vivid colors. Likely they have again been concealed, maybe even destroyed as Muslims have no respect for ancient works or actually respect for anything, not even themselves.

    When one hears the caterwauling from the phallic symbols (I understand it is a recording now, not a iive idiot) it is humorous and at the same time, annoying.

  20. Crusades Were Right! says

    Oct 23, 2016 at 2:32 pm

    Archaeology in “Turkey” is a bit like archaeology on the Planet of the Apes. You don’t have to dig very deep to find tons of evidence of its non-Turkish past, e.g. Greek, Armenian, Roman, Hittite.

    Look a little closely at the “mosques” and you often find traces of Christian iconography.

    Turkish historians and archaeologists must know what it feels like to be Dr. Zaius after he found that talking human doll!

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