RE: Turkey's Erdogan orders the conversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque
July 14, 2020 at 12:36 pm
(July 14, 2020 at 12:33 pm)WinterHold Wrote:(July 14, 2020 at 12:21 pm)ido Wrote: Egypt ?! who cares !
What possible reason could there be to take such a step? Anybody who has ever been there knows that there are half a dozen mosques within a kilometre of the Hagia Sophia, so it's not as though they're in desperate need of more. The only reason anybody could offer up is this: The Turkish government is sending an unmistakable message.They are saying "Turkey is a Muslim country, we may say that we're secular, but we're really no different from any other Islamic republic."
I care. This is a multi-cultural forum.
The Turkish people want it a mosque. They voted for it to be a mosque. So it's an internal Turkish affair.
The Turkish people voted, so why do you care? their country; their rule.
Plainly and simply, the people in the smaller cities, towns, and villages in the eastern part of the country who tend to be more traditional don't have any respect for the people living in the cities and towns in western Turkey who tend to be more progressive. It comes down to politics, money, and of course a situation where people are vying to be the driving force in the collective national identity. It's a powder keg and it's going to go off in the very near future. This appeasement of the hardliners who are looking to bring Islam back into Turkish politics is bad for everybody. It's bad for Turks and it's bad for everybody else too.
It's a terrible shame that the coup failed. Things would be infinitely better today if the faction that instigated it had managed to depose Erdogan.