{"id":31047,"date":"2020-07-10T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T07:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=31047"},"modified":"2020-07-10T00:01:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T07:01:50","slug":"worried-about-the-hagia-sophia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/worried-about-the-hagia-sophia\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Worried About the Hagia Sophia: A Push to Make It a Mosque Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"I'm<\/a>
I’m worried about the Hagia Sophia and its rare mix of Christian and Muslim symbols. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

News Update: The Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum has been revoked, and on Friday President Erdogan signed a decree ordering that Muslim prayers be resumed in the ancient place of worship. <\/i><\/p>\n

Conservatives in Turkey have asserted that Turkey has too long been unnecessarily deferential toward the West and its values and that Turkey should reclaim the Hagia Sophia as part of its identity.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

I hope you’ll check out the post I wrote in 2010<\/a>, in which I noticed my own powerful — and mixed — feelings about the transformation of the Hagia Sophia from a Christian basilica to a Muslim mosque, way back in the 15th century.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/i><\/p>\n

I’m worried. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to turn the venerable Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.<\/p>\n

Originally a Christian basilica, the famed\u00a0 architectural wonder has been a secular museum since 1935. But now, Erdogan and his supporters are pushing to turn Istanbul’s popular tourist attraction back into a functioning mosque.<\/p>\n

Completed in 537, the Hagia Sophia was a Byzantine Christian basilica until 1453, when the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and Sultan Mehmet II ordered the church transformed into a mosque.<\/p>\n

From the Archives: Hagia Sophia. Where Christianity and Islam Meet — And Clash<\/a><\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
As an American Christian, I\u2019d never known how it feels to have my faith\u2019s most cherished symbols obliterated by a colonizing force. Until I entered the Hagia Sophia. Find out why at “The Hagia Sophia — Where Christianity and Islam Meet and Clash.”<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, millions of visitors wait in line each year to visit the Hagia Sophia (HI-yah so-FEE-yah). Some come for its historical and architectural interest.<\/p>\n

For others, it’s an important symbol of religious reconciliation for Christians and Muslims dating back to 1935, when\u00a0 Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk, the founder\u00a0 of the secular Republic of Turkey, converted the building into a museum and had many of its ancient Christian features restored to view.<\/p>\n

Erdogan and his conservative Muslim allies want to reverse some of those 20th-century secular traditions, including the religion-neutral status of the Hagia Sophia.<\/p>\n

And that worries me. If the Hagia Sophia becomes a functioning mosque again, what will become of its Christian artifacts? Will tourists and the Christian faithful be barred from entry? Will this this beautiful, soaring space become, once again, the scene of religious strife?<\/p>\n

If Erdogan has his way, it might. I’m worried about the Hagia Sophia.<\/p>\n

\"I'm<\/a>
This image of Jesus Christ was restored to view when the Hagia Sophia became a museum in the 20th century. Will it be obscured again if Erdogan prevails?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"I'm<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkey’s Erdogan wants to dismantle his country’s secular traditions. I’m worried about the Hagia Sophia — will he turn it back into a mosque? Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[560,135,2316,561,1016,562,2317,1126,23,33,1136],"class_list":["post-31047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-byzantine","tag-christianity","tag-erdogan","tag-hagia-sophia","tag-interfaith","tag-islam","tag-mosque","tag-museums","tag-religion","tag-travel","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}