Oh my Goodness! This is It! —————————

Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia on Friday hosted its first Islamic prayers in 85 years, despite fierce criticism of the Turkish government’s campaign to revert the building to a mosque after being a museum for decades. For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the much-publicized congregational worship represented the “conquest” of the 1,500 year-old domed monument.

Curtains hide Christian mosaics and symbols at prayer times. The head of the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Erbas, gave the Friday sermon with an Ottoman sword in hand. He read verses about conquest from the Qur’an and gave a stirring, almost provocative speech about “the ones” who turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum being “damned,” an indirect reference perhaps to the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Supporters of the conversion campaign saw its successful outcome as a source of national and religious pride, while opponents were concerned about keeping modern Turkey’s secular legacy intact