Converting the Hagia Sophia Back to A Mosque Is to Say Turkey Is Not Secular Anymore
By
Upala Sen
12.07.2020
Err-dogan?
By
announcing that Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia should go back to being mosque from
museum, did president Recep Tayyip Erdogan turn the clock back on Turkey? Or
was he merely continuing the march of faith and power the monument has been so
used to since birth? And though the order comes from the country’s highest
administrative court, is it just another flailing statesman’s last-ditch
indirect attempt to win favour with a lately displeased people? After all,
though the next national election is due only in 2023, Erdogan’s popularity
rating has fallen to its lowest level since October 2018, according to a new
survey.
People offer the evening prayer outside the Hagia Sophia on July 10
AP
----
Three
Churches, A Mosque
The Hagia
Sophia was turned into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first Turkish
President, in 1934. The site on which it stands had first birthed a church in
360 CE. There was a fire and a second church came up in its place. Another fire
and destruction, and thereafter, came up what is known as the Hagia Sophia
today. Built by Emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537 CE, it was an Eastern
Orthodox Church.
Somewhere along the way, it became a Roman
Catholic cathedral and then Orthodox church once more. In 1453 CE, after the
fall of Constantinople, an Ottoman Sultan turned it into a mosque. Erdogan said
last week, “The revival of Hagia Sophia is the harbinger of freedom of Al-Aqsa
and the footsteps of Muslims emerging from the era of interregnum.”
Changes to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia could trigger heritage review –
UNESCO FILE PHOTO: People visit the Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site which was a Byzantine cathedral before it was converted into a
mosque and currently a museum, in Istanbul, Turkey, July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Murad
Sezer/File Photo
-----
And A
Museum
Ataturk had
modernised Turkey. He had the Constitution amended in 1928 to remove the
declaration saying that the state religion is Islam and introduced secularism
instead. Long before Erdogan turned politician, he played football and was even
hired by the Istanbul’s city government team, but reportedly had to quit
because of the ban on Islamic beards. The founder of "New Turkey", as
he seems to have positioned himself, has been in power these 17 years, but
avoids direct references to the founder of the Republic of Turkey. And when he
does, he refrains from referring to him as Ataturk, which means Father of
Turks. He has also, bit by bit, distanced himself from Ataturk’s ideology and
reforms.
Erdogan has
restored the headscarf for women, revived religious education and pushed for
the use of Ottoman, an old form of Turkish using Arabic script, instead of the
Latin alphabet Ataturk had popularised.
A woman visits the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia. (AP Photo)
-----
All of it
in the name of Turkish pride and heritage. And in 2018, after his re-election,
he had the country’s parliamentary system replaced with a presidential system.
After last week’s decision was announced, Turkish writer and Nobel Prize winner
Orhan Pamuk said, “To convert it (Hagia Sophia) back to a mosque is to say to
the rest of the world unfortunately we are not secular anymore." Any resemblance
to anyone is purely coincidental.
Original
Headline: Err-dogan?
Source: The Telegraph India
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-pluralism/converting-hagia-sophia-back-mosque/d/122363
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