Once again, as in the first conversion of the great cathedral to a mosque, attempting to show the superiority and victory of Islam. All tourists will henceforth be required to demonstrate their recognition of and respect for that.
“Turkey to cover Holy Icons in Hagia Sophia with ‘special technology,'” by Paul Antonopoulos, Greek City Times, July 11, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
The declaration of Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque has caused a shock all over the world, and it appears the only ones in glee are Turks and their media outlets.
Yeni Şafak spoke of a “resurrection” of Hagia Sophia and Türkiye reported on its front page “The suffering of the Hagia Sophia mosque is over. The 86-year-old chains are broken.” Sabah newspaper published the headline “Nostalgia for Hagia Sophia is over.”
According to Hürriyet, Hagia Sophia will be open for prayer but also for tourists who want to visit it. They said that icons and mosaics will be covered with special technology and lighting.
Specifically, special curtains will be used during Islamic prayer, while carpets will be placed on the floor which will be illuminated to darken the space and not show paintings.
This means that visitors to Hagia Sophia will have to take off their shoes to enter the temple….
CogitoErgoSum says
It has become a den of thieves.
mortimer says
The HG mosque and madrassa there will become a home for Islamic extremists and create a new generation of fanatics. They think they’ve pulled off a pretty slick trick.
The world needs to show them this will aggravate tensions between East and West.
Erdogan ‘broke the chains’ of Ataturk’s secularism. This has delighted conservative, rural Turks, but further alienated urban-dwellers. Only a very determined boycott of Turkish goods and sanctions from the EU and other countries will affect public opinion.
This is a coup by Muslim extremists in Turkey. They will now go on the warpath for other changes to secularism.
Timothy Jordan says
Boycott what? Big Turk bars? Camel cigarettes? Turkish coffee?
Quazgaa says
VW makes cars in Turkey, for example.
Lydia Church says
The “suffering” of the Hagia Sophia “mosque”???
For their information, it was originally a CHURCH, until it was attacked and invaded violently and brutally by the godless muslims in 1453! THAT is when the suffering BEGAN! It was violated by turning it into a mosque, it was rightfully a church, those were the original foundings of it! Christians are the victims here, and no one else. But of course, this is just the usual ‘paint the victim as the villain and the villain as the victim’ narrative again!
And islam is not an ‘Abrahamic’ faith, it is a satanic faith, and mosques are not places of worship, other than worshiping the devil.
And due to the evil of islam, it was truly a bloodbath.
Not to fret, no matter what other evils and abominations happen on earth, JESUS will return to establish HIS kingdom, and He will triumph over all such evils (like islam) and we Christians will be victorious with Him!
In the meanwhile the stage for end times events is unfolding by the minute. Now things are beginning to move in a cashless direction, the World Economic Forum is talking about chip implants for purchases and digital ID’s, the mark of the beast is not far behind. Woe to those who slumber at such a time as this!
Okay, back to the hiatus…
; )
gravenimage says
+1
And good to see you posting again, Lydia.
mortimer says
Creeping Sharia.
Tourists should boycott the place as well as the country. A drop in visitors and revenues will hit home.
Turkey’s government has crossed a line.
James Lincoln says
YES!
Donovan Nuera says
Go to the Turkish embassy in DC and roll frozen Butterball turkeys through their French door windows and hit their security goon squad on Thanksgiving as a family tradition!
mortimer says
Don, boycott everything Turkish and let them know you are asking your acquaintances to join the boycott. If every Turkish embassy and consulate receives polite, negative responses, the cumulative effect will translate into a political change.
Turkish voters have to realize they live in a world in which we do not gratuitously annoy our neighbors merely because we have the power to do so.
THE HAGIA SOPHIA DECISION is a GRATUITOUS PROVOCATION against the entire NON-MUSLIM WORLD.
Brian Hoff says
I donot believe than boycott e will take place on than large scale.
gravenimage says
Turkey’s per capita GDP is only $9,370.
mortimer says
How would Erdogan feel if the Kaaba were turned into a conference center for Atheists?
CogitoErgoSum says
Mortimer, are Muslims supposed to care about the feelings of Christians? I’m surprised they are leaving the icons and mosaics. When (not if) there is a resurrection of the great cathedral and its return to its rightful Christian owners, it will be glorious to see beautiful silver crosses gleaming in the sunlight atop each one of those minarets. “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Reziac says
Now that’s a vision I can get behind. People say — tear down the minarets! Hell no — use them to display the Cross as far as the eye can see!
And by the way, wouldn’t the nearby Blue Mosque look much better repurposed as a cathedral?
I agree, I’m surprised they decided to merely hide the Christian works, but small favors… perhaps in the future we’ll leave some of the glorious Islamic artworks in place. More to the point, they probably didn’t want to lose whatever money comes with the World Heritage designation.
Mosques are not places of worship; they represent conquered territory and subjugated people. Don’t merely tear them down; make them represent freed territory and liberated people, and be a thumb in the eye to Islam.
#TakeBackConstantinople
Nancy Albert says
Those “glorious” islamic symbols decorating our cathedral are made of ½” plywood with the symbols painted on the side facing the interior.
Reziac says
@Nancy Albert (can’t reply direct, too deeply nested)
Oh, I don’t mean the crappy additions like that; those would make a good bonfire. I mean the original artworks in buildings that were always mosques from the classical period (few as those may be).
mortimer says
CES, you understand, I’m putting that question to all Muslims. What if the shoe were on the other foot?
Civilization depends on us NOT doing everything that we can do when we have the power to do it. We should NOT annoy our neighbors merely because we can do so.
Civilization means setting boundaries. Good fences and good compromises make good neighbors.
Erdogan has broken a long standing compromise. I believe that Ataturk made HG a mosque in part to show the West that Turkey was no longer an aggressor and that they were ready for a place at the table of modernity.
Erdogan has cancelled that contract.
revereridesagain says
It’s a lousy venue. Don’t give them any ideas!
mortimer says
Turks who disagree with Erdogan should avoid the place to show their disapproval of Erdogan.
Julian Farmer says
Erdogan is more in the nature of something one does not care to step in. Islam and its votaries have just about made them the most despised people and faith on the planet. Unlike the Chinese under the vile CCP they have a choice. I hate and despise this vile so called “Abrahamic” religion and its devotees. It actually stems for Baal worship and human sacrifice.
mortimer says
Islam is Arabian paganism and tribalism piggy-backed onto an ‘Abrahamist’ folk religion of the time which was codified by Abd al Malik. The coins of Abd al Malik showed the caliph with a sword and whip in his hand.
That is the perfect symbol of Islam: conquest and brutality.
OTTER says
Watch for more surrender and understanding from the West.
Reziac says
I do understand, which is why I will not surrender.
Agostino Armo Pellegrini says
The declaration of Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque has caused a shock all over the world…
The world may have been “shocked” over the Hagia Sophia becoming a mosque but they shouldn’t be, this is what islam has been doing for 1400 years :destroys the religious traditions and freedoms of others. As islam grows in the West they will destroy our freedoms more and more, too. What they can’t achieve through political subversion they’ll do with violence and intimidation. Over time it will simply be safer and easier to self censor than to fight it, and our communities will devolve into muslim controlled territories for sharia. Don’t wear that cross, don’t walk that dog, don’t wear that pretty skirt, just be smart and avoid the muslim part of town and live. Islam does not embrace diversity, it eschews it. Islam does not fight for freedom, it fights to destroy it for their demon religion. Islam does not promote equality, islam needs inequality to maintain its claim of superiority over everyone else. In short, it is a tyrannical religious construct built on bigoted hate and intolerance for all other religions and people. To the left it makes perfect sense to invite millions of these people in to live with us, consequences be damned. To freedom loving patriots like me it makes perfect sense to prevent their jihad agenda from corrupting our society and laws. And if that makes me a racist-bigot-islamophobe then so be it. I’d rather be a moral person with a good heart who’s forced to wear dirty clothes than a bigoted traitor in a silk suit.
James Lincoln says
Agostino Armo Pellegrini says,
“What they can’t achieve through political subversion they’ll do with violence and intimidation…. just be smart and avoid the muslim part of town…”
Until the muslims start coming into *your own* neighborhood – that’s when the “elites” will wake up, but by then it will be too late…
Agostino Armo Pellegrini says
I wonder if the elites will ever “wake up.” They could watch their own cut heads roll down a hill while muslims scream allahu akbar and they’d still be calling islam a religion of peace.
mortimer says
Agree with most of post by AAP. Western leaders are neo-Marxists and Globalist/Industrialist Fascists and, for the moment, they will not criticize their Muslim allies.
mortimer says
Reply to AAP: ‘will they wake up?’
If the Muslims drop the bomb and start WWIII, the Leftards and Globalists might wake up.
OTTER says
We should not say that Turkey has converted it into a mosque; rather we should say that Muslims have done it. Too often we don’t use the word and prefer substitutes–their nationality, or even the names of Western cities in which they live!
Reziac says
Excellent point. Otherwise you get absurdities like calling Pakistani Muslims in London “Englishmen” and electing them to high office.
Brian Hoff says
The mosque will be open to the pubic rven during prayers time than free to eter.
Reziac says
Go there and engage in Christian prayer, and see what happens to you.
Brian Hoff says
Toustist will visit it.
SAFI says
No, we won’t.
SAFI says
If I do it’ll be with my shoes on and under the loud ringing of church bells.
GreekEmpress says
Why go if you can’t see the icons and the mosaics?
And I don’t trust the Turks to “cover the mosaics and icons with special technology”. They’ll most likely be defaced or destroyed.
I had prints made of some of the mosaics about a year ago and had them framed for my home because I had a feeling this was coming.
SAFI says
GE, as a woman, you would also have to go through the humiliation of putting on a hijab in order to enter.
GreekEmpress says
That’s a good, true point, SAFI!
Brian Hoff says
You donot speak for all people. Not very christian is hardline like Dr David Wood or you. In fact alarge number of people arenot very religious.
SAFI says
What do you you care anyway? Erdogan says he will abolish the entrance fee. I guess it’s not about money, it’s only about ritually humiliating westerners by forcing them to remove their shoes and put on hijabs in order to enter
gravenimage says
How is David Wood “hardline”? He loves Muslims and feels sorry for them. He preaches peacefully.
And how is Wood not Christian? This is the false claim that if you have problems with Muslims raping and murdering us and say so that you are not Christian. What “Brian Hoff”–really, “Defenderofislam”–means is that you have not been terrified into silence.
This is how Muslims “think”–raping children and slaughtering Infidels is Halal, but peaceful debate and and preaching is “hardline”.
And this aggressive takeover of Hagia Sophia as a Mosque is not a threat to Christians, but also to all Secularists in Turkey, as well.
Donovan Nuera says
I would love for the big chains that hold those big black circular kuffic script discs at the tops of the main crossing piers to break and the big discs fly over the heads of the floorbangers like giant frisbees and hit them in the heads! WHAMMY!
gravenimage says
“Brian Hoff’–really, “DefenderofIslam”–is telling the Infidels to ‘suck it’.
revereridesagain says
You know the old saying about the camel’s nose in the tent? Well, in this case there is a very large, grubby camel backing its way into the Hagia Sophia.
Reziac says
And crapping on the floor.
Donovan Nuera says
The west just needs to keep mocking Erdogan as Gollum like that jailed Turkish doctor who created that wonderful meme comparing facial expressions between the two. And always stuff your Thanksgiving turkey with bacon
gravenimage says
Hagia Sophia: Icons will concealed by curtains and lighting, tourists will be required to remove shoes
…………………
In other words, it’s a Mosque.
And since when are curtains “special technology”? I guess they are in Dar-al-Islam…
SAFI says
I guess the burka could be thought as special anti-rape technology, which Allah revealed to Muhammad
gravenimage says
Yep.
JTLiuzza says
Just a thought to “Pope” Francis: Isn’t the interfaith “dialogue” we hear so much about supposed to be mutually beneficial and working towards some mythical peaceful coexistence? If the guy you’re talking to is lifting your watch and your wallet, you’re not engaging in a “dialogue.” You’re getting rolled.
gravenimage says
+1
saturnine says
Obviously this is another nail in the coffin of Kemalism. The Turks are hoping to have their mosque without driving away the tourist money by using “special technology” to hide or obscure the Christian iconography during prayers. This suggests the symbolism will be visible the rest of the time.
No doubt more than a few Muslims will insist that Allah won’t be satisfied with that.
Jayell says
Interesting parallel here with the behaviour of muslims in multi-faith prayer rooms (open to all, 24 hours a day) in UK hospitals. It has been known for muslims to cover up all crosses etc. whenever they enter, regardless of who already might be in there. Whether or not they bothered to uncover the crosses when they left was never explained to me.
gravenimage says
Yes–it’s all Muslim supremacism.
And no–they don’t uncover the crosses. Others using these prayer rooms have complained about this.
Reziac says
Just in case your blood is not yet properly boiling:
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2020/07/15/hagia-sophia-turkic-fables-vs-historic-facts/
gravenimage says
Good grief–this is utter crap. The Muslims raped, enslaved, and slaughtered all the Christians taking sanctuary in Hagia Sophia. And I only started hearing this claptrap about Mehmet I buying Hagia Sophia two days ago.
Bald-faced Taqiyya–revisionist history. Thanks for that link.
Reziac says
Same here. Buying? from whom? show me the receipt?? maybe paying (well, using slaves) to have all the bodies removed and the blood scrubbed away…
Yeah, Raymond is always good for laying it out free of all pretense.
gravenimage says
Yes, Reziac–it’s absurd. They have some likely tea-tinted (to simulate age) document–but won’t let anyone else see it.
Timothy Jordan says
If the schismatic Orthodox Churches had not rejected the Reunion Council of Florence, Hagia Sophia would not have fallen in 1453.
SAFI says
Pretty sure that either way the Catholic Church would not, (and could not) have done much to help. Also, as far as the Emperor and the Pope were concerned the Council of Florence remained valid until the very end(but still no substantial help came). It was largely the recalcitrant Russians and the post-1453 ottoman-bribed and controlled Patriarchs who rendered the council null and void. Interesting sentiment though, you sound rather… vindicated… perhaps even happy that the “schismatics” were subjugated by Islam…
gravenimage says
Ridiculous blaming the victims.
sidney penny says
Noting has changed in the Islamic world.
“Hindu temples destroyed and desecrated and converted into mosques and khanqahs”
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/pre.htm
HINDU TEMPLES -WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM
Volume 1-A Preliminary Survey
“How to understand this behaviour pattern so persistently followed over a thousand years under very different conditions and so consistent in its expression? What is its deeper ideological source?
It is rooted in Islams religious teachings, its theology and its religious laws; it derives from its peculiar conception of momins and kafirs, from its doctrines of Jihad, Darul-Islam and Darul-harb, and from what it regards as the duty of a Muslim state. Hindu India is called upon to make a deeper study of Islam than it has hitherto done. It can neglect this task at its own peril.
The present volume makes no pretence of presenting such a study, but by choice restricts itself mainly to the study of Hindu temples destroyed and desecrated and converted into mosques and khanqahs without overlooking Muslims ideology of iconoclasm; here and there, it also mentions other theological props and concomitants of the iconoclastic ideology. In the book Ayodhya retain its importance, but it does not occupy the centre of discussion. In dealing with its subject, it exercises complete fidelity to truth; unlike secularist and Marxist writers, it does not believe in re-writing and fabricating history. Its aim is to raise the informational level of our people and to make them better aware of the more persistent ideological forces at work.”
gravenimage says
Yes–Muslims do this to non-Islamic places of worship all over the world.
Mahendra Singh says
If indeed it is converted into a mosque, I pray to Allah its roof should collapse while a Friday prayer service is in progress. After all, it is now 1600 years old and the account is still to be settled with Islamic Turks who captured it in 1453.