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Museum to Mosque: Why Hagia Sophia Matters
Canceling history has become popular these days. It started in America but has spread to Italy, Spain, England, Belgium, and most recently Turkey. Some of the main techniques involve toppling and desecrating monuments and statues that function as outdoor museums, which tell the history of the... Read more -
Turkey court ruling paves way for turning Hagia Sophia back into mosque
A court in Turkey has announced that it has ruled in favor of a government-backed proposal to turn the city's famous Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque. According to state-run Anadolu Agency, Turkey's top administrative court annulled a 1934 presidential decree converting Hagia... Read more -
Hagia Sophia belongs ‘to all of humanity’, Eastern Orthodox patriarch says amid mosque plans
While Turkey’s president has made moves to close the museum at the former Christian basilica Hagia Sophia and revert it to a mosque, the Patriarch of Constantinople has said the massive site should remain as it is, a place of Christian-Muslim encounter that belongs “to all of... Read more -
A cultural genocide before our eyes
The last time Akida Pulat saw her mother, renowned Uighur anthropologist Rahile Dawut, was in 2016. Dawut had come as a visiting scholar to the University of Washington, where Pulat was studying for her master’s degree. She remembers her mother spending hours cooking Uighur polo, a... Read more -
Iran sentences Christian convert to 10 lashes for ‘disturbing public order’
Iran has sentenced a 21 year-old Christian woman to prison and lashing for “disturbing public order,” after she protested the destruction of a passenger jet by the military. Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi, a 21 year-old Iranian convert to Christianity, was arrested on Jan. 12 after... Read more -
Missionary Catholic bishop who toiled in the heart of Islam dies on Easter Sunday
A bishop who died on Easter Sunday after a lifetime of ministry in some of the most difficult places in which to be a Christian, has been praised for his “courageous and dynamic apostolate in the heart of Islam.” Comboni Missionary Bishop Camillo Ballin, who died on April 12 at age... Read more -
How “Triggerism” Replaced Factualism on Islam
One upon a time, whenever two or more parties disagreed, the logical thing for them to do was resort to argumentation: it was not enough to say “I’m right and you’re wrong” (unless they were children). The winner of the debate was the one who could better substantiate their... Read more -
The Writing on Egypt’s Wall
In the summer of 2018, a ludicrous string of events involving Egyptian blasphemy laws and mob rule culminated in the upheaval of an entire family. Egyptian authorities arrested Abd Adel Bebawy, a Coptic Christian, after he posted an image of God, the angel Gabriel, and a verse from the Quran... Read more -
Christian in Pakistan Tortured to Death for Bathing in Muslims’ Well
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Saleem Masih, a 22-year-old Pakistani Christian, was severely tortured by a Muslim landlord in Pakistan’s Kasur District because he used the landlord’s tube-well to bathe. Three days later, on February 28, Saleem died at Lahore General... Read more -
Finding freedom
Deep inside the walls of Evin Prison in Iran’s capital city of Tehran, a team of officials guard as many as 15,000 inmates they deem some of the most dangerous offenders under the current Islamic regime. The charges include murder, rape, and theft. For nearly 300 days in 2009, the... Read more