Christians who were thrown out of their church facility centuries ago when the Islamist Ottoman empire bludgeoned its way into power and turned it into a mosque have been ejected – again – and from the same facility.
For the same reason – a forced conversion to a mosque.
It’s happening as the Islamist agenda of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan advances.
The recent forced move came against the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, often described as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
“Islamists have detested that fact for years,” reported Michael Van Der Galien at PJ Media.
“After all, it is a Christian church, and therefore a Christian symbol. That’s why the Ottoman Turks wasted little time transforming the church into a mosque when they invaded and conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) centuries ago. Christian symbols and works of art were destroyed or covered, and a dominating tower was built from which the Islamic call to prayer could be sung.”
He explained, “The Ottomans did that because they wanted to show Christians that, from then onwards, Islam was in power. Christianity would be subjugated.”
However, in the last century the Ottoman empire collapsed and Turkey was created, the government declared Hagia Sophia neutral, so that Christians, Muslims, and others could enjoy and appreciate it.
That’s changed now, under Erdogan.
It was only three years ago WND reported experts were alarmed when a court ruling in Turkey said the facility of that same name in Trabzon, along the Black Sea, must be converted to a mosque.
It raised concern that the event would be a stalking horse for the Hagia Sophia Museum, the artifact, in Istanbul.
“A building covenanted as a mosque cannot be used for any other purpose,” Mazhar Yildirimham, of the General Directorate of Pious Foundations, said in a report at the time.
A year later, it was reported the Hagia Sophia Church in Eregli had become the ninth Hagia Sophia location converted to a mosque by Turks in recent years.
Earlier this year, it was reported Turkey allowed a daily Quran reading to be broadcast from the main Hagia Sophia, the former Byzantine cathedral.
Christians in Turkey feared the latest move, a government announcement that it was appointing a permanent imam to the Hagia Sophia, means “it will basically function as any other mosque.”
Reported PJ Media, “Turkey’s Islamist president is on a war path with Christians in Turkey. Their churches are turned into mosques, their pastors are arrested and deported, and those Christians who remain are constantly forced to look over their shoulder.”
At the Counterjihad blog, it was reported the move “shows clearly the designs of Turkey’s Islamist president.”
The report said Erdogan is using the alleged coup attempt over the summer to “deepen [his] control over every aspect of Turkish life.”
“Over ten thousand public servants have been purged from the government in recent days, raising the total figure to over a hundred thousand – some 37,000 of whom have been arrested. Erdoğan has pressed the Turkish parliament to reinstate the death penalty so that he can begin disposing of those he has identified as his enemies.”
The blog post said sources report “the detained who are subjected to trial must submit to having all of their conversations with their lawyers recorded whenever the prosecution requests it. Such recordings are of course admissible as evidence against the client – or the lawyer, if he comes to be considered an enemy of the state from working too hard to defend people already classified as ‘enemies of the state.'”
Those include the opposition media, where newspaper reporters have had their laptops seized, a television station was shut down and more.
Also, “Some 1,267 academics who signed a ‘Peace Petition’ last January have been removed from their jobs according to CounterJihad’s sources, and several have been arrested and charged with ‘terroristic acts’ for signing or forwarding that petition. Our sources tell us that under the new laws, President Erdoğan must personally approve all new university presidents.”
The blog post said Turkey’s military forces seized the cathedral in order to install the permanent imam.
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