it is a common practice throughout the ages for the victor or invader to convert the places of worship of the defeated party into places of worship for themselves, or to convert them to some other purpose.
few invaders have left things as they are, and one of the greatest insults directed at the defeated, especially if they are a historical enemy or a fierce defender, is the destruction of their places of worship.
as muslims expanded into the levant, egypt and north africa in the 7th century ad, they converted some ancient churches and temples into mosques. it is said that caliph omar prayed in a location close to the church of the holy sepulchre, refusing to pray in the church, so as not to be a precedent for muslims, but it seems that no one paid attention to this great initiative.
after the muslims invaded spain in the 8th century, many churches were converted into mosques, including the mosque of cordoba, which had been a church and returned to become a cathedral after the muslims were expelled from andalusia.
the hagia sophia church in constantinople, istanbul, in 1453, which was the largest in the orthodox world, was converted into a mosque, then ataturk turned it into a museum in 1935, but erdogan returned it to being a mosque in 2020.
similar things happened in india and elsewhere, but these things almost stopped with the increase in religious and political opposition to them, while they remained in some european and british cities, where non-arab muslim communities repeatedly converted churches into mosques, often with arab money, and often for influence within the group and material enrichment, and then portrayed the matter as a religious victory over the other religion.
the acceptance of the english and others to convert a church into a mosque is considered a common matter, and within the religious freedoms guaranteed to all, and the sale is often done due to the lack of churchgoers, or the authorities’ unwillingness to spend on it, and therefore nothing prevents the building from being sold to be converted to any other use, that does not conflict with the plans of the municipality of the area.
however, the uproar, excitement and commotion, which usually accompanied such matters, prompted many, over time, to stand against it. it was therefore not strange that a pressure group called “britain first” succeeded in collecting more than 50,000 signatures from the residents of the area, on a petition, appealing to the authorities to withdraw the license granted to an islamic group, which had purchased an abandoned church building with the aim of converting it into a mosque, and they did so, so the islamic group was defeated, and became involved in the building, which must be returned to its previous purpose, and no one is interested in that, and it will most likely be left as it is, and the presence of the remains of english christians buried inside the church played a role in stopping the conversion process.
this was followed by a massive campaign of defamation and hostility towards british muslims, which turned into something resembling a “crusade” against islam and muslims.
this is what we have previously warned against in dozens of articles over the course of thirty years, and we have repeatedly stated that the silence of christians over the islamic attack or the assault on their symbols and sanctities will not last long, and that there will come a time when they will close their ranks and will react against those who caused the insult to their churches, and this will have bad consequences, especially for peaceful muslim citizens who have no connection to all extremist movements, and who represent the majority.
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the american university of the middle east (aum) proves, day after day, that it is a distinguished university, and all international indicators give it a position that is even better than the official state university by far.