Well, the secular experiment in Turkey is now dead and buried. Erdogan's dream of a World of PP is now being realized. The official announcement, when the Hagia Sophia cum Museum in Constantinople once again becomes the Grand Mosque in Istanbul, is being held up for a moment or two so that the harems can be restocked with Pepes and Kaylas. If you're going to celebrate a bang-up job you need a bang-up party.So Iran blasts away at the remnants of the world of Cyrus and Darius. Saudi Arabia lures in soothsayers from Lebanon in order to kill them as Sorcerers. Egypt closes the Great Pyramids at rumors of "Satan be There". Indonesia considers a resolution to smash the icons and statues of the non-Muslim era. Morocco orders all Philosophy to be banned from its universities [at the insistence of those free-thinking Sufis], Afghanistan has run out of Buddhist places to incinerate, and Pakistan --now almost Christian Frei-- turns its loving attention to the Hindu doctors and Cricket players who don't always eat halal....and this list continues, for the past few years, to almost every muslim nation on Earth.
It seems that Harvard's dream of building a New Harvard within Islam is on course.
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12 comments:
When the church where the Second Council of Nicaea was held, many years ago, gets redone into a mosque, Charly ululates. And when the Copts are being ethnically cleansed, he dances in the streets. It's all like clockwork orange.
And in the end the Droogs win.
FYI, countless mosques are reconverted churches. That icludes the (real) hagia sophia. Which they haven't turned back into a mosque, have they ?
Chill, breathe, think of this as akin to switching the yellow squirtable mustardoid on your big mac for dijon. Slightly different flavor but you're basically keeping the same delicious meal underneath.
They will soon enough and then decorate it with gore
And when Turkey does return the Hagia Sophia to a mosque, Charly, will you say anything any different? It still will be a flavor of mustard to you.
That is the whole point of being a Merovingian, no matter whether creators or destroyers rule the mustard at the Aristo's table is still adequate.
France Vichy, France Terroriste, France Louis'd, France Charlemagned, or France Mosqued. Barbarity or Civilization all indifferent before the Poupon on the Platter for the Lords of Planet Pepe.
After all, it is the Stinking Peasants, or those unpleasant bourgeoisie, who'll get the Red Crescent across their throat...Le Merovingian, in some place more remote from the butchering, will swill champagne and tut-tut about the condiments.
My, you got it AA. The Hagia Sophia converted back into a mosque would have been the correct illustration for your story. Had it happened.
Just to put things in a bit of context for Charly, who evidently thinks this is all about "switching the yellow squirtable mustardoid on your big mac for dijon", let me review a bit the history of the place.
The first Hagia Sophia church was inaugurated in AD 360, during the reign of Constatius II. The present structure was commissioned in AD 532 by Emperor Justinian I, who chose physicist Isidore of Miletus and mathematician Anthemius of Tralles as architects. The emperor had material brought from all over the empire – such as Hellenistic columns from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, large stones from quarries in porphyry from Egypt, green marble from Thessaly, black stone from the Bosporus region, and yellow stone from Syria. More than ten thousand people were employed. This new church was contemporaneously recognized as a major work of architecture. The theories of Heron of Alexandria may have been utilized to address the challenges presented by building such an expansive dome over so large a space.
The Hagia Sophia church was dedicated on December 27, 537, and served until 1453 as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations.
In 1453 Sultan Mehmed laid siege to Constantinople, driven in part by a desire to convert the city to Islam.The Sultan promised his troops three days of unbridled pillage if the city fell, after which he would claim its contents himself. The Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage, becoming its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city. Shortly after the city’s defenses collapsed, pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Throughout the siege the Holy Liturgy and Prayer of the Hours were performed at the Hagia Sophia, and the church formed a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city’s defense. Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became booty to be divided amongst the invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved or slaughtered; a few of the elderly and infirm were killed, and the remainder chained. Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders. When the Sultan and his cohort entered the church he insisted it should be at once transformed into a mosque. One of the Ulama then climbed the pulpit and recited the Shahada.
Ululululululu, says Charly.
Yes thank you Tecs - but if your point here is to state that Mehmet was one helluva savage with the Byzantines, you might want to read up on the 4th crusade and the sack of constantinople a couple of centuries prior to convince yourself that christians were no more civilized.
The sack of Constatinople in 1204 was done by the (Roman Catholic) Crusaders, not by the (Greek Orthodox) Byzantines.
The Crusaders inflicted a savage sacking on Constantinople for three days, during which many ancient and medieval Roman and Greek works were either stolen or destroyed. The famous bronze horses from the Hippodrome were sent back to adorn the facade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, where they remain to this day.
The Library of Constantinople was destroyed. Despite their oaths and the threat of excommunication, the Crusaders systematically violated the city's holy sanctuaries, destroying, or stealing all they could lay hands on; nothing was spared.
It was said that the total amount looted from Constantinople was about 900,000 silver marks. The Venetians received 150,000 silver marks that was their due, while the Crusaders received 50,000 silver marks. A further 100,000 silver marks were divided evenly up between the Crusaders and Venetians. The remaining 500,000 silver marks were secretly kept back by many Crusader knights.
Yes, very, very bad, and I'm still pissed at these bastards for doing that. Still, nothing compared to what happened in 1453, and its aftermath: Byzantium (and Christianity in that area) recovered after 1204, but did not survive after 1453.
>The sack of Constatinople in 1204 was done by the (Roman Catholic) Crusaders, not by the (Greek Orthodox) Byzantines.
Who said otherwise ?
Is this a pissing contest in which we are debating which team of exalted barbarians behaved more brutally than the other?
incidentally, the sack of constantinople lasted a whole year if I am not mistaken. will find ref later - off to sleep.
When the 4th crusaders went gangster on Constantinople they did much damage, and stole whatever they could, and severely weakened a frontline state against Islam--which was directly contrary to what they claimed to be "for". But they were gangsters, not ideologues intent on eradicating Constantinople and its culture. So Constantinople survived their presence; as the French survived the Norse invaders, or Portugal and Spain survived the presence of the Napoleonic looters.
Mehmed, in taking Constantinople, was not a gangster out for a pillaging good time [although many of his mercenaries were], but a committed ideologue to the dogma that Islam must expand and that the city of the enemy of the Ummah [ever since the days of Muhammad and his last message to his generals] must fall. His intent was not to clobber and steal, but to annihilate the city and its power and to absorb it forever into Islam. Thus the old Islamic policy of raising their asses to Allah over the bones or sacred sites of the Infidel Dead was carried out in spades.
The whole point of Ataturk's secularization was to neutralize this clash of civilizations, between Islam and the West, by seeking to forge a secularly minded, religiously muted, "modernity" for Islam. Not less brutal, nor less implacable, but motivated by the "reasons" of Planet Pepe rather than of the Koran. This has failed, spectacularly, and Erdogan's regime is now joining in with the grand revival of the clash of civilizations. and its religious ideology. The symbolism of taking Nicea and returning it to a Mosque is a clearcut message to the Ummah, and to the unbelievers, that only a Pepe of the most Versaillean sort could pretend to confuse with the search for mustard appropriate to his palette.
Charly disdains Christianity as much as he disdains a free republic, and would gladly see them both annihilated by Islam... just nobody mess with his Bleu Plate special.
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