UNESCO World Heritage site becomes the focal point of anti-Muslim narratives

Since its construction 1,500 years ago, the iconic Hagia Sofia in Istanbul has served as a cathedral, a mosque, and museum. The recent decision by a Turkish judge to reconvert the building into a mosque has provoked heated discussions about faith, politics and architectural heritage, but much of this debate has been tarnished by harmful Islamophobic tropes and narratives.   

A UNESCO World Heritage site, Hagia Sofia, was built in the year 537 as an Orthodox Christian cathedral during the time of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. Following the Ottoman conquest in 1453, it was converted into a mosque. In 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of secular Turkey, turned it into a museum, forbidding religious services. In early July, a top court ruled that the deeds of the building state it is a mosque and that the conversion to a museum was illegal. 

Today Hagia Sophia is Turkey's most popular tourist site, attracting more than 3.7 million visitors a year. Revered by both Christians and Muslims, the building presents four minarets while its interiors have Christian icons and gold mosaics next to panels of Arabic religious calligraphy.  

International warnings not to change the status of the monument were not listened to and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the building would open to Muslim prayers on 24th July. He also added that "Like all our mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be wide open to locals and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims."  

Due to its historical connection with Turkey, and with the Hagia Sophia specifically, the most furious reactions came from Greece, where criticism resulted in openly anti-Muslim remarks. 

Its Minister of Culture defined the decision as an "open provocation to the civilised world", reinforcing the Islamophobic contraposition between barbarism and civilisation.  

In many Greek media outlets, the decision was framed as proof that Islam is imperialist in nature, using false anti-Muslim narratives of aggressivity, barbarism and domination. 

In.gr, one of the main online news sources in Greece, published an article titled “Ιslamic Imperialism -  The force of Islamic rebirth is growing. Imperialism is obvious”. The author is Andreas Andrianopoulos, former politician and well-respected author. In the past few months, he has published a number of articles on In.gr claiming that Islam is not compatible with democracy, and therefore does not belong in Europe. A complaint by GTTO to In.gr has been ignored by the news outlet, which continues to see value in his vile Islamophobic articles.  In this piece, Turkey’s decision is depicted as indicating “the arrogant aggressiveness of Islam towards the retreating Christianity”. 

Protothema, a conservative tabloid with one of the highest circulations in the country, published an article titled: “Islam is not Europe, it is barbarian”. Although the article mostly centres on Greek-Turkish relations, the case of Hagia Sophia is used as a starting point to make dangerous generalisations about Islam as a whole.  

On Sportime, a far-right leaning sport tabloid, an article titled “Saint Sophia: And now, my dears, enjoy the ‘fruits’ of Islam” presents the reconversion to a mosque as an aggressive act against Christianity while providing inaccurate information about the situation.  

In all these examples, a decision by a Turkish court and a head of state is presented as a representative of Islam in its entirety. This discourse frames individual Muslims as responsible for acts over which they have no control, perpetuating ungrounded fears that all Muslims conspire to dominate people of different faiths or beliefs. 

The insistence that Islam is a fundamental ‘other’ to Europe and European values marginalises and erases the historic and ongoing presence of Muslims throughout Europe. It denies Islam’s influence in the arts, sciences and cultural traditions, and obscures long periods of peaceful cohabitation.  

The court ruling is contentious, and robust criticism of the Erdogan government is often legitimate, but this critique should not be underpinned by racist, xenophobic narratives that target and directly harm Muslims in Turkey and across the world.