On Monday, the Foreign Ministry in Athens condemned the decision by Turkish authorities to allow a daily reading from the Quran to be broadcast from Hagia Sophia during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, describing it as “verging on bigotry” and “not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.”
“Muslim rituals in a monument of world cultural heritage are incomprehensible and reveal a lack of respect for and connection with reality,” the statement said.
This is on top of the report last year that a commission in Turkish parliament is considering an application by citizens to turn the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque, the bill that has been introduced in parliament to restore Hagia Sophia to a "symbol of the Conquest of Istabul" and in November, and Turkey's deputy prime minister promising that the building would be "smiling" again as a mosque soon.1
This is unacceptable.
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica which served as the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, it was converted into a mosque but was eventually opened as a museum on February 1, 1935. We have already delivered over 25,000 signatures to UNESCO against the proposed status change. Sign this petition asking the International Religious Freedom Caucus in Congress to issue a statement against the creeping conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
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