ESCHATOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: INTERFAITH AND COMPARITIVE PERSPECTIVES
THE TURKISH COURT HAS RULED THE 1934 CONVERTION OF HAGIA SOPHIA INTO A MUSEUM BY ATATURK WAS ILLEGAL.    THIS IS A HISTORICAL AND MONUMENTAL VERDICT WHICH REVERSES THE DIABOLICAL DONMEH FREEMASONIC ATATURK DECISION. ERDOGAN SHOULD BE CONGRATULATED FOR   TAKING THIS COURAGEOUS LONG OVER DUE MOVE. WHILST THERE ARE NO DOUBT LEGITIMATE AND JUSTIFIED THEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL DIFFERENCES AMONGST MUSLIMS ON THIS ISSUE. I WOULD REMIND MUSLIMS NOT TO JUST QUIBBLE OVER WHICH VERSES OF THE QURAN SUIT THEM AND WHAT THEY FANCY BUT THAT THEY NEED TO FACTOR IN REALPOLITIKS. IN THOSE MATTERS THEY ARE NAIVE AND DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND TO THE PLOTS AND CONSPIRACIES OF THE ENEMIES OF ISLAM. 


 I DO NOT WANT TO ALSO HEAR THE PAIN, ANGUISH AND MOANS FROM EITHER THE PAPACY AND THE WEST ABOUT THIS ACTION. EVERY ACTION OF THE WEST OVER THE LAST TWO HUNDRED YEARS IS EMBODIED IN DEMOLITION AND DESTRUCTION OF OTHERS SYMBOLS UNDER THE AUSPICES OF WESTERN IMPERIALISM. IT ACTUALLY GOES BEYOND THAT TO TRIUMPHALISM WITH STATUES ERECTED TO RACISTS, IMPERIALISTS, AND SLAVE MASTERS. LET THEM LOOK AT THEIR BACKYARD AND REVIEW HISTORY AND SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS DAY TO THE CONVERTION OF THE GREAT MOSQUE OF CORDOBA INTO A CATHEDRAL DURING THE RECONQUISTA.      

WHILST WE ARE NOT PAID UP PARTY MEMBERS OF THE AKP NOR ADMIRERS OF ERDOGAN BLINDLY THIS VERDICT AND ACTION IS LEGITIMATE AND JUSTIFIABLE AND FROM THAT PERSPECTIVE  IT IS A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. IN THAT ALL POLICIES WHICH WERE EITHER ANTI ISLAMIC AND ANTI MUSLIM TAKEN IN THE NAME OF THE SECULAR TURKISH REPUBLIC AND REMOULDING IT AS A SECULAR WESTERNISED ANTI-KHALIFATE ENTITY NEED TO BE REMOVED. WHILST MANY TURKS CAN'T SAY THIS BUT WE WILL AND HAVE TAKEN THE LIBERTY TO DO SO. ONE DAY THE STATUES OF ATATURK WILL BE TAKEN DOWN ALSO ALLAHU AKBAR BRING IT ON.

ATATURK'S LEGACY AS A WESTERN FREEMASONIC  ANTI-ISLAMIC AGENT NEEDS TO BE COMPLETELY REVERSED. MORE ATTENTION WILL BE PAID ON THIS HEREAFTER AS THE 1923 AND 1924 CENTENARIES LOOM LARGE. IN 1923 THE TREATY OF LAUSANNE WAS IMPOSED ON TURKEY AND IN 1924 THE KHALIPHATE WAS ABOLISHED. THIS FAIT ACCOMPLI IS OVER IN 2023. ALSO ISLAMIC SOVEREIGNTY NEEDS TO BE REVIVED TO GIVE GLOBAL ISLAM A VOICE ON THE WORLD STAGE. THE MUSLIM WORLD NEEDS TO GET RIGHT BEHIND TURKEY TO ASSERT IT'S HISTORICAL ISLAMIC TERRITORIAL AND POLITICAL CLAIMS AND RIGHTS.   
    
HOWEVER, TURKEY SHOULD NOT THINK THAT COSMETIC CHANGES ON SYMBOLISM WILL REVIVE ISLAMIC POWER AND SOVEREIGNTY. THERE HAS TO BE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES MADE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND SYSTEM WHICH ENSHRINE AND ESTABLISH ISLAMIC SOCIO-POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SECURITY AND DEFENCE VALUES. A FULL REVIEW OF THIS DECISION AND IT'S IMPLICATIONS WILL BE REHEARSED.


ERDOGAN'S SPEECH

  

TURKEY HAS CONVERTED HAGIA SOPHIA MUSEUM INTO MOSQUE AFTER 85 YEARS 






THE HISTORY OF HAGIA SOPHIA MUSEUM AND FUTURE IN ISTANBUL 



REACTION FROM AROUND THE WORLD FOR CONVERTING HAGIA SOPHIA INTO A MOSQUE 




THE GREAT ERDOGAN’s DECREE TO TURN HAGIA SOPHIA 
INTO A MOSQUE 




Dr ZAKIR’s VIEW ON ERDOGAN CONVERTING HAGIA SOPHIA FROM A MUSEUM TO A MOSQUE?






SAUDI ARABIA IS NOT HAPPY WITH TURKEY FOR CONVERTING HAGIA SOPHIA 



AN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF TURKEY REPUBLIC WOULD BE  A THREAT TO NATO 



TURKEY BECOMING A THREAT FOR ISRAEL DUE TO ISLAMIC STEPS 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AYA SOPHIA
http://www.hizb.org.uk/viewpoint/the-significance-of-aya-sophia[/url]

The news of converting back Aya Sophia into a mosque, after the long awaited court ruling to overturn the 1934 secular decree of Mustafa Kemal “Ataturk”, was welcomed across the Muslim world. The symbolic move by Ataturk was made to mark the end of Islamic rule not only in Turkey, but across the Muslim world, and the final nail in the coffin for the Ottoman Khilafah.

One architect recently highlighted “as the former capital city of Ottoman Empire might have been intentionally deprived of public funds in the early republic years, in order to let the recent traces of the Imperial rule die away”– 

(ITU A|Z • Vol 15 No 3 • November 2018).

The Aya Sophia was the most significant symbol of the region and converting it into a museum was to relay to Muslims worldwide that the Khilafah belongs in the history books and it is something of the past. This was part of the colonialist plan to show the Muslim world thay had destroyed the Khilafah and locked it up in a museum. The significance of this beautiful mosque is directly linked to the opening of Istanbul.  
The opening was foretold in a hadith, narrated by Abdullah ibn Bishr Al-Khath’ami, from his father that he heard the Prophet  ?  say:

[i]“Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will her leader be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!”  (Musnad Imam Ahmad)[/i]

Inspired by this hadith, Istanbul was opened on the 29th May 1453. Sultan Fatih went directly to the Aya Sophia and the adhan was called from inside the church. The Aya Sophia  was not just a church, but it had a political significance; it symbolised the power and domination of the Byzantine Empire from the time of Justinian I until the Ottoman period. This marked the end of the unjust Byzantine rule, and the dominance of Islam over Istanbul. Just as the building of the church, the Aya Sophia, signified the victory of Christianity over Paganism, the conversion of the Aya Sophia to a mosque would signify the triumph of Islam over the Byzantine Christian rule.


The outrage by the secular West, to the conversion of the museum to a mosque, reveals the true nature and the hands behind Ataturk’s original decision to convert it into a secular museum: “We are disappointed by the decision by the Government of Turkey to change the status of the Hagia Sophia…” said US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus (The Hill). EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell calls the decision ‘regrettable’ (Reuters).


The conversion to a museum was a triumph of secularism over Islam; the move to revert it back to a mosque for the West is equivalent to letting the genie out of the bottle. They fear that this decision will bring about nostalgia for Ottoman rule in Turkey and across the Muslim world. This follows a series of Turkish dramas on Ottoman history, which have been aired globally, and has instigated debate on the glorious past of the Ottoman rule. What is surprising is the outrage from the Christian world. The Aya Sophia is not being converted from a church to a mosque, but rather from a secular museum to a mosque. So, why the outrage, unless the Christian world took the destruction of the Ottoman state and the conversion of the Aya Sophia as a Christian Crusade against the Muslim World? The access and the heritage status of the site has not changed. In fact, it has facilitated more open access to the site.


The Western media have sought to distort the true nature of the Ottoman rule and its treatment of the churches and the Christian citizens. They present a picture of oppression, and forced conversion, and disregard for places of worship. This could not be further from the truth.


When Istanbul was opened the only church that was converted was the Aya Sophia; the other churches still functioned as churches, such as the Church of the Holy Apostle, which became the administrative centre for the Greek Orthodox Christians. As the Muslim population grew in Istanbul the Church of the Holy Apostle was abandoned by the Christians. The Patriarch of the Church moved to the Christian district of Phanar and gave the deeds of the church to the Sultan. The Sultan waited ten years until the significance of the Church had diminished, before replacing it with a mosque, which was needed for the local population.


The difference between the Aya Sophia and the Church of the Holy Apostle is clear: the first was the symbol of political authority, as the rule was through the church and the other was purely a place of worship and had no political significance. During Ottoman rule, 23 churches were converted, and one was destroyed and rebuilt as a mosque; this was due to the growth in the Muslim population to 92%, during 1520-1535. There are thirteen churches still left intact in Istanbul today. The practice of converting churches to mosques was rare. In fact in Egypt, none of the churches were converted; they have remained as they were when Egypt was opened to Islam. To cite another example of a church converted for political reasons was the Cathedral of St John in Damascus. The site of this church was a historical one, which represented both the religious and the political powers that had ruled Syria. The site of the cathedral was originally a Roman temple for Jupiter, and before that it was a temple for the god Hadad. Out of the 23 churches in Damascus, 17 still remain intact today.


Historians, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have documented numerous accounts of the just treatment of non-Muslims under Islamic rule.  Karen Armstrong in her book, A History of Jerusalem – One City Three Faiths, writes: “The Muslims had established a system that enabled Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live in Jerusalem together for the first time.” This system was the Khilafah, which is the system that opened Jerusalem.



It was Khalifah Umar bin Al Khattab who stated the rights of the non-Muslims in his treaty, which is enshrined in the Sharia: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the assurance of safety which the servant of God, Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of Jerusalem. He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves for their property, their churches, their crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the rituals which belong to their religion. Their churches will not be inhabited by Muslims and will not be destroyed. Neither they, nor the land on which they stand, nor their cross, nor their property will be damaged. They will not be forcibly converted”
The 15 churches in Jerusalem, which are still standing today, bear witness to this treaty, which was enacted 1,373 years ago, in 637 CE. The keys to the most important church in Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, are in the hands of two Muslim families: the Joudeh and Nusseibehs until today. They open the church daily and maintain the peace between the various Christian denominations. This trust to maintain peace and administer the affairs of the non-Muslims is a core pillar of the Khilafah. This was witnessed by the philosopher Voltaire who wrote in his Treatise on Tolerance in 1763: “Let us leave our little corner and study the rest of our globe. The Sultan governs peacefully 20 peoples with different religions; 200,000 Greeks live safely in Constantinople; the Mufti himself nominates the Greek patriarch and presents him to the emperor; and a Latin patriarch is also allowed there. The Sultan nominates Latin bishops for some of the Greek islands, using the following formula: ‘I command him to go and reside as bishop in the island of Chios, according to their ancient usage and their vain ceremonies.’ That empire is full of Jacobites, Nestorians, and Monothelites; it contains Copts, Christians of St. John, Jews, and Zoroastrians. The Turkish annals do not record any revolt instigated by any of these religions”


In conclusion: the conversion of Aya Sophia back to a mosque symbolises the desire of the Muslim Ummah to return to the rule of Islam under the Khilafah, as it did when it was first converted to the mosque in 1453. The same alliance which destroyed the Ottoman Khilafah are voicing their objection to the conversion. This only exposes the extent they will go to prevent the re-establishment of the Khilafah.

[url=http://www.hizb.org.uk/tags/turkey/]KEY



TURKEY RECONVERTS ISTANBUL's HAGIA SOPHIA MUSEUM INTO A MOSQUE 
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/turkey-court-revokes-hagia-sophia-museum-status-200710131419431.html

President Erdogan declares iconic cultural site reopen to Muslim worship after a court ruling

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared Istanbul's Hagia Sophia open to Muslim worship after a top court ruled that the building's conversion to a museum by modern Turkey's founding statesman was illegal. 


Erdogan made the announcement on Friday an hour after the court ruling was revealed, despite international warnings not to change the status of the nearly 1,500-year-old monument, revered by Christians and Muslims alike.



"The decision was taken to hand over the management of the Ayasofya Mosque ... to the Religious Affairs Directorate and open it for worship," the decision signed by Erdogan said.



Erdogan had previously proposed restoring the mosque status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, a focal point of both the Christian Byzantine and Muslim Ottoman empires and now one of the most visited monuments in Turkey. Earlier, a top Turkish court revoked the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia's status as a museum. The Council of State, which was debating a case brought by a Turkish religious organisation, cancelled a 1934 cabinet decision that defined the sixth-century building as a museum.



"It was concluded that the settlement deed allocated it as a mosque and its use outside this character is not possible legally," Turkey's top administrative court said in the ruling.



"The cabinet decision in 1934 that ended its use as a mosque and defined it as a museum did not comply with laws," it said.



Erdogan shared on his Twitter feed a copy of the decree he had signed which said the decision had been taken to hand control of the Ayasofya Mosque, as it is known in Turkish, to the country's religious directorate and reopen it for worship.



Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said the decree was not a surprise as Erdogan had previously stated that he would like to see Hagia Sophia open for Muslim prayers on July 15, the anniversary of a failed coup attempt.

Koseoglu said that in four hours Erdogan was expected to make a speech on the importance of the Hagia Sophia, and its status being altered to a mosque again.




"There are dozens of people in front of Hagia Sophia museum. As soon as the court decision was announced ... they have been here chanting, they have been celebrating since then, and we spoke to them, they are very impatient to be able to pray inside Hagia Sophia," Koseoglu said.



International concerns

Hagia Sophia was first constructed as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire

but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

In 1935, in the early days of the modern secular Turkish state under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, it became a museum.



The organisation which brought the court case, the latest in a 16-year legal battle, said the Hagia Sophia was the property of the Ottoman leader who captured the city in 1453 and turned the already 900-year-old Byzantine church into a mosque. Erdogan threw his weight behind the campaign to convert the building before local elections last year. He is due to speak shortly before 9pm (1800 GMT), his head of communications said.



In response to the ruling, the Russian Orthodox Church on Friday said the decision could lead to even greater divisions. The United States, Russia and Greece, along with UNESCO, had expressed concerns ahead of the ruling.


Erdogan earlier this month rejected international criticism as an attack on Turkey's sovereignty.

THE LAW AND ORIGIN STORY OF ISTANBUL’s ICONIC HAGIA SOPHIA 
A landmark ruling has reversed a previous decision preventing worship in the Hagia Sophia after its conversion into a museum in 1934. On Friday July 10, Turkey’s highest court has repealed a previous decision that saw the 1934 conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum, and put restrictions on prayers being performed at the site.

A week earlier, Turkey’s Council of State received arguments by lawyers pressing for an annulment of a 1934 decision by its Council of Ministers which turned the historic monument into a museum. In the case, lawyers appealed to the foundation charter of the Hagia Sophia itself, personal property of Sultan Mehmet II, which forbids changes of any sort to the endowment, its lands, and use.

“At the heart of this controversial case is a bid to restore religious freedoms,” says Mark Jefferson, an analyst for Omran Strategic Studies Institute.  “Early modern Turkey cracked down on the practice of faith, wearing of religious garb and expression of religion, and one of the policies they enacted was to deny its religious Muslim community a place that served as a deeply symbolic place of prayer for nearly five centuries,” he says.

“It is worth recalling the ‘Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Independence and Sovereignty’, adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 2131 on 21 December 1965, which saw a unanimous ratification,” notes Hassan Imran, an international lawyer who spoke to TRT World prior to the court’s ruling.  “Whether the court ruling is in favour or against annulment, respect for the rule of law is essential. To that end, the judiciary should uphold their independence, free of any political consideration," he adds.

Freedom of worship preserved

Authorities have consistently communicated that the features of Hagia Sophia, a significant historical and cultural heritage site dating back to the sixth century AD, will continue to be preserved and protected, and will remain open to the public in the same manner the Blue Mosque is open to visitors and tourists of all denominations and faiths.

Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also maintained that allowing prayers in Hagia Sophia would not deprive it of its identity.  “Turkey will still preserve the Christian icons there, just like our ancestors preserved all Christian values”, said Kalin.   “Hagia Sophia’s status is not an international matter but a matter of national sovereignty for Turkey,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier Thursday.   “Hagia Sophia, like all cultural assets on our lands, is the property of Turkey,” adds Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy.

With its multifaceted and rich past, questions arise surrounding Hagia Sophia’s significance and meaning to Turkey. For some, it was founded as a church. For others, Mehmet Fatih II’s conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and his subsequent preservation and restoration of the ancient cathedral, has made it a keystone of national culture and modern Turkish heritage.

A painting of Hagia Sophia by Gaspare Fossati in 1852. (Gaspare Fossati )

While some criticism has been leveled against the annulment of restriction on prayers in the monument, Khalid Yacine, anthropologist of antiquities at the University of Setif says there’s nothing unusual about it all.   “The Hagia Sophia is a part of Turkey’s origin story. Without it there would be no Turkey, and no Istanbul,” he says in an interview with TRT World.   “It’s ties to multiple faiths will likely give rise to sensitivities, but if worshippers and visitors are allowed as they have been before, then this is more than was done by others.”

When asked what he means, he chuckles and resumes.

“Most people don’t know that St. Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican itself, is built over several Roman temples. When Spain expelled Muslims in the inquisition, it changed the Grand Mosque of Cordoba into a cathedral, where Muslims are forbidden to pray to this day,” he elaborates.   “Many mosques were outright destroyed or converted into Churches. By the same token, when the Spanish went to the New World, they also changed places of worship into churches. The Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral is built on the ruins of an Aztec temple,” he adds. 

But the list goes on.

“The Church of Prophet Elija in Thessaloniki, Greece was a former mosque. In Bulgaria, the Sveti Sedmochislenitsi Church of Sofia was converted from a Mosque into a church. In Croatia too, three Ottoman mosques were converted into churches. Vietnam saw the French destroy Buddist and Taoist places of worship to build the St. Joseph Cathedral.”

“Turkey has ruled to allow people to carry out prayers in Hagia Sophia. That hardly compares to getting arrested in the Grand Mosque of Cordoba for saying something in Arabic or converting it into a cathedral. If anything, the Hagia Sophia stands today because of Turkey’s efforts to restore it,” he points out.

Istanbul’s birth

Written on a 66-meter length of carefully preserved gazelle skin, Fatih Sultan Mehmed Foundation, Sultan Mehmet II, writes:

“All the things I have explained and designated here have been set down in written form in the foundation charter in the manner appointed; the conditions may not be altered; the laws may not be amended; they may not be diverted from their original purpose; the appointed rules and principles may not be diminished; interference of any sort in the foundation is interdicted… May the curse of Allah, the angels and all human beings be upon anyone who changes even one of the conditions governing this foundation.”

Caption: The Sultan’s charter is carefully preserved, and treated multiple times a year to ensure its longevity. (AA)

Shortly after his conquest of Constantinople and renaming of the city to Istanbul, the Sultan performed his first Friday prayers there. Apocrypha tells a story of a young Sultan who is said to have fallen to his knees in prayers of gratitude upon entering the ancient cathedral.

Shortly after, he established an endowment to care for and govern the new ‘Great Mosque’, with an annual income of 14,000 gold pieces per year to restore, expand and preserve the civilizational monument. The endowment’s charge was significant not only as an edict, but spiritually as well.

Islamic jurisprudence forbids the alteration of an endowment or foundation’s charter or purpose without consultation and approval of the owner, a principle that has since become ubiquitous in modern law. 
Out of respect to the multi-faithed citizens of the city and his empire, Sultan Mehmet II ordered new decorations that did not destroy the previous interior detailing within Hagia Sophia.  At the time, the Hagia Sophia was already 900 years old, and had suffered at least two fires and three earthquakes, one of which caused the entire dome to collapse. It had also been ransacked and desecrated during the Fourth Crusade by Crusaders.

Buried History

With Istanbul’s conquest, Hagia Sophia quickly became a cultural icon, bearing deep heritage to Turkey today. Named a ‘Great Mosque’, every effort was made to preserve it and improve upon a structurally flawed design caused by a heavy central dome perched on a long basilica.  

Buttresses were added to the Hagia Sophia’s sides to prevent it from collapse during the reign of Murad III by the historical architect Sinan who would be inspired by the ancient edifice, and fusing its style with Islamic art and aesthetics in a series of Grand Mosques.

A series of additions were made including a school, and fountain during Sultan Mahmud I’s rule, and a clock room during Sultan Abdulmejid’s time, which also saw the most thorough restoration of the ancient structure carried out by Swiss architects from 1847-1849.  At the time, Russian historian Peter Ouspensky, commented ironically. “The Turks showed more understanding for the city’s monuments than the Crusader armies that occupied Istanbul in 1204.”

Hagia Sophia would also become home to the largest calligraphy collection in the empire, with countless gold inscriptions, tiles, artistic reflections of Turkey’s civilizational heritage.  In the words of Necip Fazl Ksakürek, a Turkish poet, “The Hagia Sophia is neither stone, nor line, nor color, nor matter, nor a symphony of substance; it is pure spiritual meaning, meaning alone.”

But Hagia Sophia is also more than just a monument to the grandeur of human achievement and artistic expression. It also serves as the final resting place for five sultans and their families, giving it a venerated historical status befitting its age and history.


With the ruling opening the way for permitting worshippers to pray in the Hagia Sophia, there is no doubt that the ancient site will remain respected by adherents of many faiths around the world, and one of Turkey’s most revered sites of heritage.
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RE: ESCHATOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: INTERFAITH AND COMPARITIVE PERSPECTIVES - by globalvision2000administrator - 07-13-2020, 05:37 PM

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