THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 118, June 8, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
GREATEST CHURCH SOON TO BE MEGA MOSQUE?
By Raymond Ibrahim
TURKEY, MILITANT ISLAM, & EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY: HOW TURKEY'S POPULACE, ONCE DEEMED THE MOST SECULAR, CONSTITUTIONAL &
DEMOCRATIC IN THE MUSLIM WORLD, IS REVERTING TO ITS ISLAMIC HERITAGE, COMPLETE WITH ANIMOSITY FOR THE INFIDEL WEST & DREAMS OF ISLAM'S
GLORY DAY'S OF JIHAD & CONQUEST -- THE CONFLICT OVER USE OF HAGIA SOPHIA, CHRISTENDOM'S GREATEST CATHEDRAL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS &
CURRENTLY A CHRISTIAN CENTER UNDER ISLAMIC DOMINATION -- YET ANOTHER REMINDER OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD'S DOUBLE STANDARDS
FULL STORY:
Ostensibly dealing with a building, a recent report demonstrates how Turkey's populace — once deemed the most secular, constitutional, and democratic in the
Muslim world — is reverting to its Islamic heritage, complete with animosity for the infidel West and dreams of Islam's glory days of jihad and conquest.
According to Reuters:
"Thousands of devout Muslims prayed outside Turkey's historic Hagia Sophia
museum on Saturday [May 23, 2012,] to protest a 1934 law that bars religious
services at the former church and mosque. Worshippers shouted, 'Break the
chains, let Hagia Sophia Mosque open,' and 'God is great" [the notorious
'Allahu Akbar'] before kneeling in prayer as tourists looked on. Turkey's
secular laws prevent Muslims and Christians from formal worship within the
6th-century monument, the world's greatest cathedral for almost a millennium
before invading Ottomans converted it into a mosque in the 15th century."
Hagia Sophia — Greek for "Holy Wisdom" — was, in fact, Christendom's greatest cathedral for a thousand years. Built in Constantinople, the heart of the
Christian empire, it was also a stalwart symbol of defiance against an ever encroaching Islam from the east. After parrying centuries of jihadi thrusts,
Constantinople was finally sacked by Ottoman Turks in 1453. Its crosses desecrated and icons defaced, Hagia Sophia — as well as thousands of other churches
— was immediately converted into a mosque, the tall minarets of Islam surrounding it in triumph. Then, after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, as part of
several reforms, Ataturk transformed Hagia Sophia into a "neutral" museum in 1934 — a gesture of goodwill to the then triumphant West from a then crestfallen
Turkey.
Even though Hagia Sophia is a Christian center under Islamic domination, several Christian authorities are content seeing it remain a museum, including the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians: "We want it to remain a museum in line with the Republic of Turkey's principles," adding, "if it
became a church it would be chaos."
True enough; one need only recall how back in 2006, when Pope Benedict was scheduled to visit Hagia Sophia, Muslims were outraged. Then, Turkey's
independent paper Vatan wrote: "The risk is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is
any perception that the Pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims." Before the Pope's visit, a gang of Turks stormed and occupied
Hagia Sophia, screaming "Allahu Akbar!" and warning "Pope! Don't make a mistake; don't wear out our patience." On the day of the Pope's visit, another
throng of Islamists waved banners saying "Pope get out of Turkey," while chanting Hagia Sophia "is Turkish and will remain Turkish."
All this is yet another reminder of the Islamic world's double standards: when Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories, such as Constantinople and its churches
— through fire and steel, with all the attendant human suffering and misery — the descendents of those conquered are not to expect any apologies or
concessions. However, once the same Muslims who would never concede one inch of Islam's conquests, including buildings, are on the short end of the stick
— Palestinians vis-à-vis Israel, for example — then they resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights, and
so forth. (See this 2006 LA Times Op-Ed for more on this theme.)
Even in the brief Reuter's report, evidence of such "passive-aggressive" behavior emerges. First, this is not about Muslims wanting to pray; it's about
Muslims wanting to revel in the glory days of Islamic jihad and conquest: Muslims "staged the prayers ahead of celebrations next week marking the 559th
anniversary of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet's conquest of Byzantine Constantinople." According to Salih Turhan, a spokesman quoted by Reuters, "As
the grandchildren of Mehmet the Conqueror, seeking the re-opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque is our legitimate right."
Sultan Mehmet was the scourge of European Christendom, whose Islamic hordes seized and ravished Constantinople, forcibly turning it Islamic. Openly
idolizing him, as many Turks do, is tantamount to their saying "We are proud of our ancestors who killed and stole the lands of Christians." And yet, despite
such militant overtones, Turhan, whose position is echoed by many Turks, still manages to blame the West: "Keeping Hagia Sophia Mosque closed is an insult
to our mostly Muslim population of 75 million. It symbolizes our ill-treatment by the West."
If merely keeping a historically Christian/Western building — that was stolen by Islamic jihad — as a neutral museum is seen as "ill-treatment by the West," on
what basis can Muslims and non-Muslims ever "dialogue"?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Turkey, the Middle East, & the U.S.A.
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center, an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum, a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and
the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement.
Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend
the origins, development, history, and serious danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Usama bin Laden and Ayman
al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Front Page Magazine, June 8, 2012, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/http://www.meforum.org/3259/hagia-sophia-church-mosque)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 8, 2012
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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