Built as a cathedral, it was made a mosque in 1453 by Ottomans. In 1934, it became a museum, but was redisgnated a mosque in 2020. On Saturday ‘taraweeh‘ prayers were held here after 88 years.
This comes two years after Turkish President Erdogan made the controversial decision to redesignate the Byzantine-era monument, a former cathedral and museum, into a mosque.
Both in India and Turkey, governments appealed to religious sentiments of the majority to garner public support during times of social and economic distress, writes Tuhin Das.
Rebuilding is a civilisational responsibility Indians owe to their ancestors, who were the only ones among all pre-Bronze Age pagans who managed to protect their way of life.
Turkey is set to convert the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The envoy said the highest court’s ruling in the case is similar to Ayodhya verdict.
The Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi case provides a template to imagine how the Supreme Court of India would have probably decided on the status of Turkey’s Hagia Sophia.
Yogendra Yadav's understanding of Abhay Dubey's book on Indian secularism is indisputable. But let's not forget that secularism forced even RSS to accept lower-caste Hindus.
With Hagia Sophia being reconverted to a mosque, which had been secularised by Ataturk in 1934, President Erdogan can drop the pretence of upholding Ataturk’s legacy.
The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.
Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.
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