The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch (R-Idaho) and ranking member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Friday condemned the decision by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to turn the Hagia Sophia, an Istanbul landmark, back into a mosque.
The UNESCO World Heritage building, which was built as a Christian cathedral during the Byzantine Empire, had served as a place of worship for Greek Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics and Muslims prior to being converted into a secular museum in the 1930s.
Erdoğan on Friday announced the building’s conversion into a mosque after a local court ruling allowing him to take away the museum status of the building.
“We strongly denounce President Erdoğan’s decision to convert Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque. At points in its history, Hagia Sophia served as a place of worship for Muslims and Christians, and for decades has been an extraordinary and welcoming center to people of all faiths,” they said in a joint statement.
The lawmakers called Erdoğan’s move “a deep affront to Christians around the world who look to Hagia Sophia as a shining light and deeply revered holy site.”
“This conversion of its status is unnecessarily divisive at a time when we need more, not fewer, efforts to build bridges between Islam and Christianity,” they said in their official statement.
The senators said they “strongly urge” Erdoğan to reverse his decision and retain Hagia Sophia’s “status as a religiously neutral museum for peoples of all faiths and cultures to visit and celebrate our common world heritage.”
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3 comments
Its for me as O. C. Vety rare, that a muslim man, who by himself as a muslim, can and will declare something going just against himself and his Belive, in a religion who is more than tousend yrs younger Than Christianity… And he like to have a Christian Chatedral, built Up by A Queen and His Son in the Byzantic Aera, many yrs before the ottomans…
This must only be prestige… To show strength and willingness for something… Un~wise for a muslim…
Whatever your name is. Mr greek or ermenian that you are. What makes you think that you get to decide what to do because Christians been there before. I guess people have forgotten that there were others there before Christians. Also go educate yourself .i would use some dragotory words but that would not help your ignorance. Islam is the last religion that was given bu GOD to humanity and the profit Muhamed was told to spread the message. Since oher religions and Christianity failed. Its a known fact that fear makes you say those things.
You are right you should fear Islam that one day islam will be your savior when the judgment time comes. Love it when people have opinions about things that they have no rights to. The End
Love the people that comment about things that they have no knowledge of. Senator should be condemning himself for being a lazy corupt senator. Turks have the right to do anything they want in turkey.