By Soroor Ahmed
When the 1992 Olympic Games were held in Barcelona in Spain hardly any Muslim country or organisation protested. There was no threat to boycott this grand event. Barring a few meek voices nothing substantial was heard against it. That the West chose to rub salt into the wounded psyche of Muslims was an undeniable fact as 1992 marked the 500th year of the Spanish Inquisition after the fall of the last Muslim bastion of Granada. The year marked the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain and the ruthless elimination of the followers of the two Abrahamic religions by the third one, the Christians. Muslims ruled Spain for 700 years since 711 AD when Tariq bin Ziyad first entered from Morocco. But Muslims and Jews were made to convert to Catholicism, or be prepared to be slaughtered during Inquisition. The famous mosque of Cordoba was earlier converted into Church and that of Granada followed during the high time of Inquisition. This practice continued for years before the entire Spain was completely cleared off Muslims and Jews. The latter enjoyed full protection during the Muslim rule in Spain as well as under the Ottomans in Turkey and neighbouring countries.
Needless to suggest the heroes of this whole campaign of unifying Spain were Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband Ferdinand-II of Aragon. The epicentre of this whole exercise to wipe out Spain of Muslims and Jews was none else but Barcelona. It is other thing that today this city is in the news not for very good reason as it falls in Catalonia, which is fighting for separation from that very Spain.
One does not know how much Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a young politician then, played in highlighting this dark side of history in 1992. But today a section of Muslims are praising him to sky for allowing people to offer salat or namaz in Aya Sofiya after 85 long years. True it will continue to be a museum as well–a fact which the western media is hiding.
The problem with many people, more in the case of Muslims, is that they lack the sense of history.
When the decision to hold 1992 Olympic in Barcelona was taken a few years before, the West made the whole world believe that it is being organised here as Christopher Columbus who discovered the continent of America–by accident and not design–in 1492 was originally from Spain. The truth is that he was from Genoa in Italy. By that logic the Olympic Games to mark the 500th year should have been organised in the island which Columbus reached in the Western Hemisphere or in his birthplace in Italy. In fact Columbus initially did not realize that he had actually discovered the New World as his ship, on way to India, lost its route because of storm and ended up in an island across the Atlantic. It was later that Amerigo Vespucci, another sailor from Florence in Italy, who found that Columbus had actually landed in some desolate island.
The West, which has over the centuries, mastered the art of camouflaging history repeatedly managed to befool the world and thus colonise a large part of the planet.
What most people in the world tend to overlook is that North and South America were very much in existence and had flourishing civilizations. It was only the Europeans who came to know about these two continents after 1492.
The Chinese take the credit for discovering the route to America more than 71 years before Columbus. A Chinese Muslim explorer, Zheng He, original Shamsuddin Mahmud, led an expedition between 1405 and 1433.
Zheng led his naval team via Malacca Strait to the entire coast of India to Saudi Arabia’s western coast where he stopped to perform Haj. He then sailed via what is now called South Africa to reach the Western Hemisphere by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In 2005 China even celebrated the 600 year of this great naval expedition. The Chinese claim is that his naval fleet comprising hundreds of sailors reached the east coast of America in 1421. But outside China hardly anyone is taught about this side of history.
Twenty-eight years after Barcelona Olympic Games nobody is demanding that the grand mosques in Cordoba and Granada, or hundreds of others in Greece, the then Yugoslavia, Russia etc. be restored or returned to Muslims. In fact such a demand would be impractical. But all the right-thinking people–not just the Muslims–should stand up and proclaim that now is the time to rectify history.
Instead of doing this, the likes of Erdogan a la Taleban in Afghanistan two decades back, are indulging in the exercise of futility. The Taliban earned nothing by demolishing Bamiyan Buddha where nobody used to offer prayer. They in return earned the wrath of the Buddhist countries and became isolated.
Erdogan might have been a popularly elected leader of Turkey and nurses an ambition to emerge as the leader of the Muslim world. He might have taken some good decisions for his own country or Muslims elsewhere. But he is going overboard and sometimes showing dangerous signs.
At the very outset of the Aya Sofiya episode one should make it clear that Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) strongly disapproved the practice of constructing palatial and expensive mosques. The first mosque he built was a simple structure. In fact several of his Ahadith (Traditions) warned Muslims that in the era before Doomsday (Qiyamat) his followers would be building magnificent masjids full of decoration.
Besides, Islam strongly rejects the idea of offering prayer in the place of worship of other religions after they fall into their hands. That is why Caliph Umar refused to offer salat in the famous Church in the then Palestine even when the Christian priest requested him to do so. He said that in posterity Muslims would indulge in converting the place of worship of other religions once they fell into their hands.
The truth is that there are instances that Muslims had indulged in such un-Islamic practice.
The need of the hour is not to exhibit fake sense of bravado. Instead the battle should have been fought at much larger intellectual plain. The likes of Erdogan should realize that in majority of the countries Muslims are in minority and are leading an insecure existence. Fighting on a wrong front would lead to nowhere.
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You people not rise voice against Spain where Christian tererist convert Masjid e cardoba to church.
But why u all people only ask question to Erdogan whenver muslims r oppressed in other countries he is the one who stands & ask question none from the Arab leaders have raised there voice for rohingya people. Why??
Very informative, liked it,
Keep shaking people by your unfiltered history knowledge and lucid language.
The practice of converting Religious places to the invading force has been prevalent from a long time. Muslim and Christian invaders have been known for it. The list is a long one. The eastern regions are not known for it They spread their culture and not religious beliefs That’s why they were more peaceful. Religion is supposed to bring peace but bigots on all sides used it to suppress dissent and show of power. It’s easy to unsettle the mind by invoking religion and until we learn to separate it from politics , this argument will continue
Though the occupation of aya Sophia church by power was wrong as per Quran, it was right as per medieval values practised both by Christian’s and muslims, sultan Muhammed fateh actually made a forced purchase of this property…a step better than brute occupation. what Mustafa kamal Pasha did was to please his western friends. What Erdogan or present Turkey is doing is defiance of west….I hope in near future they will decide to gift this to Eastern orthodox Church as an example of Muslim piety, merci and humbleness..
A masjid cannot be converted back to church
Soroor Ahmad saab what you want to say ?
Is Erdogan doing wrong cz he is converting a church into mosque .
Are you against of this decision.
Let me tell you you talked about history then you should be knowing that emperor Fateh had purchased that hagia Sophia . Turkish gov still has that document.
You sound like liberals
May Allah judge between you people who oppose Aya sophia and Us. May Allah judge between you saudi apologetics and us Muslims.
The true Islam was to unify Arabs against multi religious ones there.. but moment Mongols and Turks took Islam but did not forget their culture of devastating religion monuments and annihilation of cultures .. this thing fell on Islam as burden.
Turks can never be face of Islam..
It’s Arabs esp Saudi Arabia people who have been chosen by almighty to spread his message..
Showing their face in Yemen
YOU SHOULD KNOW THE ,TIRUPATHY BALAJI TEMPLE, MADHURA MEENAKSHI, KASI VISWANATH,ODYSSEY SURYA TEMPLE, KARNATAKA CHAMUNDESWARI TEMPLE AND OTHER SO MANY TEMPLES WERE SAFE DURING THE PERIOD OF MOGULS AND OTHER MUSLIM RULERS YOU ARE ADVISED NOT TO SPREAD FAKE NEWS AND HATREDNESS AMONG THE PEOPLE
Your history is good, but not perfect, Hagia Sophia was purchased from ordhodox greeks by Fateh Sultan Mehmet, not forcibly converted to a mosque, thus it was his private property that allowed public to worship, and Turkish government is just a custodian of Aya sophia, they are not entitled to alter its purpose. The mistake was done in 1934, it has been rectified now.
Yes…you are right..
The likes of Suroor Ahmed have no idea about the spirit of Islam & are worried about Muslims who are minority and the spoiling the image of Muslims.
They should study how the prophet of Islam saw demolished the idols in kaba after conquering Mecca. Then he saw did not stop at that & dispatched troops to demolish the idols in the Arabian lands which came under islamic rule.
Umar ra did not pray inside the church because he did not convert it into a masjid as there was a agreement to this effect.
As far as making palatial mosque is concerned Mr Suroor is putting lame arguments reflecting his skewed mind set. Aya sofia was already constructed palatial no one is constructing it now… Its status is is only being transferred from museum to mosque as it original was.
Aameen.
Good English and history, without wisdom or understanding of solutions to the continuous subjugation of Muslims and humiliation by the Western propaganda and media, is mere show-off.
Only a fool would bring up what Erdogan did when he was a naive 19 year old and forget that today he is the undisputed ruler of hearts of Muslims of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Phillipines, Europe and US, and also majority of the Arab lands…(excepting the Kings) mainly by his wisdom, experience generosity and solid understanding of Justice in Islam.
He is indeed the modern-day “Ertugrul Bey” for Peace and Justice in the Middle East and the entire world.
May Allah protect him and grant him long life and more wisdom and power to lift the morale of united Islam and Muslims towards goodness and prophetic Humanity.
Does anyone edit your writing? This story is littered with grammatical errors! lol. Ag. Sophia was (and will always be) a Christian Church for a thousand years before any of the Islamic turkic tribes came along. Oh, you forgot to mention that….how convenient for your agenda.
Our religious mother tongue is Arabic…
Muslims worldwide know atleast 4 languages..
TRUTHFUL COMMUNICATION and WISDOM only are important .
To hell with your devilish cruel intentions–behind your English Grammar.
You know mostly just one language, how will you preach to others in their language your famous folly “Jesus a noble ‘human’ being Prophet is SON of GOD and was born by procreation, God forbid! ”
Whatever the grammar, you have changed the Original holy divine-book Hebrew “Injeel” to have about 330 versions of “man-made” Bibles.
Muslims respect all Prophets from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jesus-Eisa, Mohammed peace be upon them all, and worship the same One Almighty Supreme Being Creator who has more than 99 names and attributes; and is much bigger than the infinite Universe He created.
God is neither an animal, nor man, nor woman, nor planet, nor Sun, nor Moon, nor tree, nor River, nor Devil, nor Rain, nor Forest, nor Mountain, nor Science, nor Bomber Planes, nor Nuclear Bombs, etc and there are no God-men on earth, all are mere mortal human beings.
Please come back to the truth if God chooses you for enlightenment out of His Mercy:
http://www.islam-guide.com
Beautifully said Bro.
What ever it may be…we want to built third temple. Because it was Jewish temple place….
Author failed to make any logical argument but misplacing the facts about ahadith. The issue is simple. Mehmet II bought the property from it’s owners and designate it as mosque forever . Making it museum is considered as trespassing on private property.