Western countries still plagued by Islamophobia over Hagia Sophia issue - Hadi

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has expressed his concerns on certain Western countries protesting Turkey's decision to convert the historical Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque.

The Prime Minister's Special Envoy to the Middle East said these countries showed that they were still plagued by Islamophobia.

"It is confusing why Western countries all over the world are protesting this change.

"They are supposed to be adamant supporters of secularism that separate religion from politics.

"Thus, it is crystal clear that they are still plagued by Islamophobia that they themselves created," he said in a statement today.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had recently announced the conversion of Hagia Sophia after a court annulled the site's museum status.

Mustafa Kamal, the father of modern Turkey, had converted Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum in the 1930s.

Hagia Sophia dates back to the sixth century when it was built as a church by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.

After the Ottomans captured Constantinople (later known as Istanbul) in 1453, they converted the building into a mosque.

Abdul Hadi added that while Western countries trained their guns on the Hagia Sophia issue, they have remained tight-lipped on the issue surrounding seized mosques.

"To top it off, they remain silent towards the Zionists who are planning to seize and demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque that used to be the first qibla (the direction of prayer) for Muslims.

"Similarly, thousands of Islamic mosques were destroyed and seized in Spain, including in Cordoba and other places such as the Babri mosque in India," he said.

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