Will Hagia Sophia Again Become a Mosque? By Hugh Fitzgerald

The Muslims soon destroyed the bells, altar, iconostasis

Jihad Watch : In 537, the Hagia Sophia was completed, as a church, in Constantinople. It remained the largest and grandest church in Christendom for nearly a millennium, until it was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453.

The Muslims soon destroyed the bells, altar, iconostasis, and other relics, and the mosaics depicting Jesus, his mother Mary, Christian saints, and angels were eventually destroyed or plastered over. Islamic features – such as the mihrab (a niche in the wall indicating the direction toward Mecca, for prayer, the minbar (pulpit), and four minarets – were added. It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years.

It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey, the secularist state created by Kemal Ataturk. It officially remains a museum until today, but it is steadily assuming more and more features of a mosque. And any day now, in the re-islamizing spirit of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, many believe the museum will almost certainly again become a mosque. But the Turkish tourism industry may have its own ideas.

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