The practice of appropriating the sacred sites of other religious traditions and converting them to mosques, or destroying the non-Muslim buildings and constructing a mosque on the same site, has abundant precedent worldwide. Consider Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Church of St. John the Baptist/Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, thousands of mosques built over destroyed Hindu temples in India, and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The idea in every case, including this one, is to declare the victory and supremacy of Islam, and to show how Islam has prevailed over other religions.
“Cyprus: Outrage Over Turkish Plans To Turn Historic Monastery Into Mosque,” by Thomas O’Reilly, The European Conservative, August 20, 2023:
Plans to partially convert a historic Cypriot monastery into a mosque have incurred the wrath of ecclesiastical authorities and Cypriot nationalists, as authorities in the Turkish-occupied north of the country temporarily shelved the idea following a very public backlash.
An announcement late last month of a proposal by local Islamic groups to build a Muslim prayer centre (masjid) on the grounds of the Apostolos Andreas Monastery sparked national outrage as officials in the south of the island said it was “unthinkable” that the plans could go ahead.
The twelfth-century Apostolos Andreas Monastery—associated with St. Andrew the Apostle, despite being located in the Turkish-occupied north-eastern quadrant of the island—has been compared to the “Lourdes of Cyprus” by many historians and is a site of paramount religious importance to the island’s Orthodox Christian community….
A local bishop has condemned plans to build a permanent Islamic prayer centre on the grounds of the monastery, which is currently undergoing restoration work. According to the bishop, Turkish officials have already moved Islamic prayer mats into the monastery without consulting with monks and are preparing for the long-term construction of a mosque on site.
The move has stirred up very recent historical memories on the island, where an estimated 550 Greek Orthodox monasteries, churches, and chapels were desecrated following the Turkish invasion, with many Christians forced to flee the northern half of the island for fear of persecution….
The matter of Apostolos Andreas Monastery was raised in the European Parliament by socialist MEPs Giorgos Georgiou and Niyazi Kizilyürek, who linked the move to direct Turkish financial backing and asked the Commission what steps it would take to protect Cyprus’s Christian heritage….
FYI says
muslims seem to think that taking over churches is a great triumph.
Even atheist friends of mine find it offensive as it is part of our cultural heritage.
islamic supremacists subscribe to al lah{who i believe is is the god of the kaaba,this one 2 Cor 4 v4}and allah’s greatest enemy is a man called the King Of Kings{SAHIH MUSLIM vol 5 hadith #5611}so it is no wonder they are anti -christian!
al lah is NOT the Biblical God.Obviously if they were the same there would be no need for jihadism.
islamic supremacists serve al la but the Biblical God ALREADY owns the world
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I am amazed that Cypriot Christians in the north still have enough clout that they can force Turkish authorities to shelve plans to do to Apostolos Andreas Monastery what they did to Hagia Sofia
Congratulations! 👏👏👏👏👏
GreekEmpress says
I’m surprised too, Infidel. Also surprised that there are still Christians there, among the illegal squatters.
I still say that Erdogan has it in his sights to invade the rest of Cyprus.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Oh, I don’t doubt that. The worst aspect of this is that while the rest of the West is bellyaching over Ukraine and how to contain Putin, Erdogan is merrily acting against Cyprus, Greece and Armenia, and has only recently stopped acting against Syria b’cos the latter has Russia and Iran backing it
In some ways, Erdogan is more dangerous than Hitler was before WWII. Hitler at least didn’t have allies in UK or France backing him up against the likes of Poland, Netherlands and others. Whereas in Erdogan’s case, Turkey is still a NATO member and so that organization can’t do anything for Armenia or Cyprus. Greece, maybe. Incidentally, for all the pooh-bahs who object to Russia being in NATO b’cos it’ll feel freer to invade its neighbors, how’s that theory working in the case of Turkey, which is merrily threatening its neighbors?
Kagman says
Don’t forget these filthy pigs building a mosque/prayer center on/near ground zero in New York City….
They’re vermin to be excised. If we don’t, they are in the process of doing it to us…
Alex says
Why Christian apologetics have not raised and put challenge to each imams of Turkey?
FYI says
We are not giving up ridicule;I consider it a PSYOP duty.
Jihadis blow themselves up on behalf of a god who admits to being a champion deceiver and who is clearly an impersonator of the Biblical God ,has one leg and two right hands;A god who cannot even create himself properly.How do they know allah will resurrect them with those body parts in the right place for all those houris?They cannot be certain
Jihadists are good for thing;Darwin Award candidates
There are no mistakes in the koran except for all the mistakes in the koran
“All that wudu scrubadoo: a shame all our islamic sins never go away isn’t it?.If only islam had a redeemer”
islamic supremacist walking around a stolen church
Keith O says
Unfortunately, this sort of thing is nothing new and has been going on since man first started constructing sacred sites and places of worship.
The Christian churches did it wherever they invaded. There are several Catholic cathedrals here in Australia that were built on top of aboriginal sacred sites and it is very common in Europe.
HOWEVER, mudslimes have taken the desecration of other religions/ cultures sacred places to a whole new level of insidious destruction.
James Brown says
….if they cannot turn it into a mosque they will probably destroy it…
OLD GUY says
For islam the conversion of a Christian church to a mosque is a war prize in the battle of dominance that the islamic leaders desire. This is in your face power over non-islamic followers.
born saturday says
the turks in occupied part of cyprus have been desecrating from graveyards to churches and many other monuments… they have been for 50 years almost not revealing where the remains of the captives during the war there that were both civilian and military are…. these people have not had a proper orthodx funeral since their remains have been buldozed somewhere in ocuupied cyprus… we are talking about hundreds of people that were taken prisoners and then executed and thrown in mass graves after the war in cyprus in 1974….
maria villa says
These pigs are in the making for taking over the world, that is their main goal. Well let’s see who’s going to win, the terrorist pigs or the Neo-Marxists
maria villa says
Okay, this is the fourth time you haven’t published my comments. Then what you will do, is automatically post the comment that I’ve stated to you why you are deleting my comments !!