Erdogan’s ambition to be Caliph of the New Ottomans becomes more obvious at Hagia Sophia

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From Google translate, the description of the video below:

There was great excitement before the first Friday prayers performed in Hagia Sophia Mosque.

Ali Erba?, the Head of Religious Affairs, who went to the pulpit to read the sermon before the prayer, had a sword with the symbol of the conquest.

CONVENTION TRADITION
In the Conquest tradition of the Ottoman period, two green banners were hung on the pulpit of the mosque as a symbol of conquest. A sword was placed at the entrance of the pulpit.

Turkish Diyanet head: Sermons with swords ‘traditional’

Turkey’s religious chief on Friday explained that swords were traditionally held during religious sermons delivered at weekly Muslim prayers as a symbol of conquest.

After leading the Friday prayer at the Hagia Sophia Mosque — the first prayer following its reversion to being a place of Muslim worship — Ali Erbas told reporters: “Khutbahs [Friday sermons] had been delivered with a sword, without interruption, for 481 years. If Allah permits, we will resume this tradition from now on.”

“This is a tradition in mosques that are the symbol of conquests,” explained Erbas, who heads Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), adding that the Hagia Sophia Mosque is one of those symbols of conquest.

The Hagia Sophia served as a church for 916 years until the conquest of Istanbul, and a mosque from 1453 to 1934 — nearly 500 years — and most recently as a museum for 86 years. […]

Top Imam Ali Erba? climbed up staircase of Hagia Sophia’s pulpit with Ottoman sword

Ali Erba?, the top imam and president of the controversial Directorate of Religious Affairs of Turkey, used an Ottoman sword to climb up the staircase of the pulpit of Hagia Sophia.

His move was not accidental. As the Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt points out, this is a highly symbolic movement that fulfils Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman aspirations.

“The longing of our nation that had become a deep wound is over,” said Ali Erba? in his sermon, “the doors of the Hagia Sophia Mosque as in other mosques of the country will be open to all the servants of Allah.” He even warned that “those who touch the fundamental goods and values are cursed.”

Sermons with swords part of Turkey’s tradition, head of Diyanet says

Turkey’s religious chief on Friday explained that swords were traditionally held during religious sermons delivered at weekly Muslim prayers as a symbol of conquest.

After leading the Friday prayer at the Hagia Sophia Mosque – the first prayer following its reversion to being a place of Muslim worship – Ali Erba? told reporters: “Khutbahs (Friday sermons) have been delivered with a sword, without interruption, for 481 years. If Allah permits, we will resume this tradition from now on.”

 

“This is a tradition in mosques that are the symbol of conquests,” explained Erba?, who heads Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), adding that the Hagia Sophia Mosque is one of those symbols of conquest.

The Hagia Sophia served as a church for 916 years until the conquest of Istanbul, and a mosque from 1453 to 1934 – nearly 500 years – and most recently as a museum for 86 years.

H/T M.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

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