{"id":46723,"date":"2010-10-05T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T02:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/2010\/10\/05\/professor-proposes-hagia-sophia-as-place-of-worship-for-christians-muslims\/"},"modified":"2010-10-05T02:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-05T02:01:00","slug":"professor-proposes-hagia-sophia-as-place-of-worship-for-christians-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2010\/10\/05\/professor-proposes-hagia-sophia-as-place-of-worship-for-christians-muslims.html","title":{"rendered":"Professor Proposes Hagia Sophia as Place of Worship for Christians, Muslims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of the \u0130<\/span>stanbul-based Islamic Research Center (\u0130<\/span>SAM), Professor Mehmet Akif Ayd\u0131<\/span>n, has suggested that Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia) be opened to Muslim worshippers on weekdays and to Christians on Sunday. A former Byzantine church and then Ottoman mosque in \u0130<\/span>stanbul, Aya Sofya is currently open as a museum.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ayd\u0131<\/span>n said that as a Muslim he is disturbed to see that Aya Sofya is still closed to worshippers. \u201cI believe the continuation of the culture of coexistence at Aya Sofya, which I hope will improve in Turkey, is more important and acceptable than its remaining as a museum. I\u2019d like it, as a Muslim, to become a mosque. But if Aya Sofya is supposed to be opened to Muslim worshippers on weekdays, then it should be opened to Christians on Sunday. Aya Sofya was built as a place of worship. It served people in this way for more than a thousand years, both as a church and mosque. It is neither a church nor a mosque now. It disturbs me to see that Aya Sofya has become a museum and a tourist destination,\u201d he added in an exclusive interview with the Zaman daily.<\/p>\n

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has been under growing criticism both in Turkey and abroad for not allowing worshippers inside Aya Sofya. Ayd\u0131<\/span>n also said Aya Sofya would stand as the first example of religions coexisting in one space if his proposal is realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[14332,12627,16628,14331,16627,13916,16629],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}