Thiruvananthapuram : CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan asked if Congress shared the Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami’s favourable view on Turkey converting its Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque.
With its endorsement on Hagia Sophia conversion, how can Muslim League or Jamaat-e-Islami oppose BJP government’s efforts to construct Ram temple on the site that housed Babri Basjid previously, Kodiyeri further asked in his FB post on Tuesday.
The Backdrop
Hagia Sophia has been one of Christendom’s most significant churches of the Byzantine era in Constantinopole - the city that become modern day Istanbul under Ottomans . A number of Christian mosaics fill the structure and as do magnificent columns brought from Egypt. It was later turned into a museum. Turkish President Reept Tayyip Erdogan recently ordered its conversion into a Mosque, fulfilling a ‘dream of his Islamic-oriented youth.”. Incidentally, the new mosque hosted its inaugural prayers last Friday with Erdogan joining hundreds of worshippers, while Orthodox Christian church leaders in Greece and the US announced a “day of mourning” over the development.
A person draped in Turkish flag stands, as people move about in the Byzantine era Hagia-Sophia after inaugural prayers last friday, 24 July. (Image AP)
