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Hagia Sophia the latest Muslim-Christian tussle over holy sites

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Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia is to reopen for Muslim worship as a mosque after an almost nine-decade hiatus, in the latest historic tussle …
Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia is to reopen for Muslim worship as a mosque after an almost nine-decade hiatus, in the latest historic tussle with Christianity over religious sites.
The UNESCO World Heritage site was constructed as a cathedral during the Byzantine empire but converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
A Turkish court on Friday overturned a 1934 cabinet decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum, clearing the way for a July 24 reversion to its status as a mosque.
The move adds to a long list of such conversions of holy sites over the centuries. The following are examples:
– ALGERIA –
A 2017 file photo of the Ketchaoua mosque in the famed UNESCO-listed Casbah district of Algiers as workers complete the final stages of its renovation
RYAD KRAMDI, AFP/File
Algiers’ Ketchaoua Mosque was built in about 1612 and enlarged in 1794, making it one of the country’s main mosques.
The French, a year into their 1830-1962 colonial reign, turned it into the Catholic church of Saint Philippe.
The first mass was celebrated there on December 24,1832.
In 1838, it was consecrated the Algiers Cathedral and enlarged, destroying most of the old mosque.
But with Algeria’s independence in 1962, Ketchaoua again became a mosque, hosting its first Friday prayer in 130 years. Since then, it has been renovated with Turkish funding.
– CYPRUS –
The Lala Mustafa Pasha mosque, also known as the Saint Nicolas cathedral, in the eastern port city of Famagusta, in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
FLORIAN CHOBLET, AFP/File
Selimiye mosque in northern Nicosia, originally the Roman Catholic cathedral of Saint Sophia, was the work of French masons who accompanied the Crusades.

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