Of course Recep Erdogan's launched a new era of religious wars
Jonathan Tobin at JNS discusses the Turkish dictator's changing the status of Hagia Sophia cathedral back into a mosque and what it means:
A century later, Erdoğan is determined to consign such enlightened attitudes to the dustbin of history. The Turkish leader’s ambition to be the leader of the Islamic world is also motivating him to engage in the sort of gestures that will prop up notions about maintaining Islam’s domination of the region.And that's because he wants the new conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque anew to serve as a symbol of intent to re-conquer Jerusalem and Israel anew. This is why Turkey has to be looked upon as what they've become again: an autocracy that poses a serious danger.
In the same statement, he added that the reimposition of Muslim worship on the Hagia Sophia is “the harbinger of the liberation of Masjid al-Aqsa [the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount].” That’s a call for throwing Israel out of Jerusalem and the spot holiest in Judaism. That this incendiary comment came during the period when religious Jews begin the period of mourning for the destruction of the ancient Temple culminating on Tisha B’Av is probably coincidental but still chilling.
What happened in Constantinople was hardly unique. Invading Muslims did the same thing everywhere they triumphed during the period when they spread their faith by force of arms from India to Europe. And, to be fair, Christian forces repaid the favor when they reconquered Spain and the Balkans by converting mosques into churches.
So when Erdoğan echoes the Palestinian rhetoric of both the so-called moderates of Fatah and the extremists of Hamas about chasing the Jews from Jerusalem, he’s not just signaling his hostility to the Jewish state. He’s also making it clear that he wishes to claim the title of the guardian of Islam from Saudi leaders that many Muslims think are now tainted by their under-the-table relations with Israel.
Labels: anti-semitism, Christianity, Europe, House of Saud, India, islam, Israel, Jerusalem, jihad, Judaism, political corruption, Spain, turkey
