Should Ayia Sofia remain a museum or become a christian temple as it once was and why?

Built in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia 鈥?Greek for "Holy Wisdom" 鈥?was Christendom's greatest and most celebrated church. After parrying centuries of jihadi thrusts from Arabs, Constantinople 鈥?now Istanbul 鈥?was finally sacked by Turks in 1453, and Hagia Sophia's crosses were desecrated, its icons defaced. Along with thousands of other churches in the Byzantine Empire, it was immediately converted into a mosque, the tall minarets of Islam surrounding it in triumph. Nearly 500 years later, in 1935, as part of reformer Kemal Ataturk's drive to modernize Turkey, Hagia Sophia was secularized and transformed into a museum.

Is there a Muslim temple that has ever been transformed into a museum in Europe? Should that ever happen?

thanks

Frank

Should Ayia Sofia remain a museum or become a christian temple as it once was and why?norton ghost

To begin with the last paragraph of your question, many mosques have been transormed even into churches in Spain, where the "spirit" of Ferdiando, Isabella and the Holly Inquisition still survives and dominates...

As for the most common example of a mosque transformed into a museum, I just mention the Haseki mosque at Monastiraki - Athens (museum of ceramic art), while in a close distance, at the area of the Roman forum there is another mosque, transformed into....nothing.

Hagia (Aya) Sofia must remain a museum of religious art, because it belongs to no nation or religion but to the whole humanity as a mastepiece of architecture and art.