Erdogan ordered the conversion of another museum into a Masjid

International Desk: A church of Orthodox Christians in Istanbul, Turkey, which was once a Masjid, but is now being used as a museum. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered it to be turned into a Masjid again.

Al Jazeera reported that Erdogan gave the directive last Friday.

Exactly one month after the conversion of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Haya Sophia into a Masjid, it was decided to convert the church known as the ‘Carrie Museum’ into a Masjid.

About a thousand years old, this museum is an ancient monument in the 'Golden Horn' area of Istanbul, adjacent to Europe.

It was founded by the Byzantines as a church in the Khora area of Istanbul. The interior walls of the building are decorated with all the remarkable fourteenth century murals.

Later, when the Ottomans occupied Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, the church was converted into a Masjid, called the Carrie Masjid.

After 2nd World War,  the Masjid was turned into a museum after Turkey, led by Kemal Ataturk, took the path of secularism.

The building's church-era mosaic artefacts were recovered with the help of a team of American art historians. It was opened to the public in 1956 after renovations.

✓ Syeda Alish Ashraf