The Hagia Sophia Controversy
For centuries the Hagia Sophia Cathedral was the largest church in the world. It represented the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and was the Seat for Eastern Orthodox Patriarchy. This came to an end in 1453 when Ottoman Turks led by Mehmed the Conqueror took the city of Constantinople and destroyed the final remnant of the Byzantine Empire.
Mehmed the Conqueror allowed his conquering army to loot the city, which they did, taking many treasures from the city, including the treasures within the Hagia Sophia and took many of the women and children as slaves. Mehmed then ordered that the Hagia Sophia be converted into a Mosque, and it would continue to serve as a Mosque until the year 1935. During its time as a Mosque, the Turks either destroyed or covered up the many Christian Mosaics and Christian artwork that decorated the church as they were considered heretical to the Islamic Faith.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War changer this. After the war, the new Turkish President Mustafa Ataturk decided to transform Turkey into a secular state and in 1935 officially declared that the Hagia Sophia would now be a Museum. For the first time in centuries the Christian Mosaics were uncovered and allowed to be viewed publicly. The Hagia Sophia Museum became one of Turkey's biggest tourist attractions, but now, controversy has struck the site.
In the year 2007, Greek and Armenians began pushing for the site to be converted back into a Church, as this was not only it's original function, but for many centuries it was considered the most important Eastern Orthodox Church in the world. However, Turks and other Muslims from across the world pushed for the museum to be converted back into a Mosque. Recently, Turkish President Erdogan, who has increasingly embraced the spread of fundamentalist Islam in his nation, announced that the Hagia Sophia Museum would once again become a Mosque.
Many Christians around the world view this move as a slap in the face. For many centuries, the Christians and other non-Islamic faiths endured state-sanctioned persecution in the Ottoman Empire. The Persecution was accompanied by a number of massacres over the centuries that finally climaxed with the 1915 Armenian Genocide which saw over three million Armenian, Greek, & Assyrian Christian massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Widely considered to be the first major genocide of the 20th century, Turkey has also drawn the ire of many in the International Community for refusing to acknowledge committing the genocide and has even criminalized efforts to do so within their own country.
The transformation of the Hagia Sophia back into a Mosque is seen as yet another attack by Turkey on Christianity within their nation. Not only did Turkey carry out a genocide that all but wiped out the presence of Christianity in their Empire (and refuse to acknowledge doing so today), but they also destroyed many of the Armenian and Greek churches within their borders, or turned them into Mosques. Some see this move against the Hagia Sophia as a continuation of that policy that was part of the 1915 Genocide.
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Other critics have also stated that this move is serving to promote the increasing religious intolerance in the Middle East. The Arab Spring saw Jihadist and rioters attacking and destroying many churches in Egypt while ISIS and other terrorist groups launched genocidal attacks on Christians in Syria and Egypt. Additional critics also made the point that this move is completely unnecessary. The Massive Blue Mosque that was constructed in the early 17th century is right next to the Hagia Sophia and already serves as an even bigger place of worship, making the transformation of the Hagia Sophia back into a Mosque complete unnecessary.
The final major critique made is that transforming the Hagia Sophia back into a Mosque is complete and utter hypocrisy. In the West and other nations there is in ongoing push by Muslim leaders to combat Islamophobia and prejudice against Muslims, yet it seems that while they're demanding tolerance, they're not as eager to offer some in return. The building of new churches in nations like Iran and Egypt are next to impossible, and in Saudi Arabia churches are flat out illegal. During the past decade, the Christian communities of the Middle East have undergone a wave of persecution and violent attack on genocidal levels, the likes of which has not been seen in over 100 years. This move by President Erdogan is seen by many as adding more fuel to this fire of persecution that is already out of control.
It remains to be seen if President Erdogan will follow through with his plans to convert Hagia Sophia into a Mosque, but one thing is certain, it is becoming undeniably clear that religious intolerance has spread throughout the Middle East, and it shows no signs of ending.
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