Hagia Sophia

Apropos the decision to change the status of the Istanbul landmark, Hagia Sophia, from a museum to a mosque by President Erdogan of Turkey. Over the centuries this historic building has been used as a church, as a museum, and as a mosque by successive empires and Turkish rulers and leaders.

Indeed, since Turkey is a historic country possessing three great cross-roads, one, the East-West divide, two, the European & Asian divide, and three, as the meeting point of the Muslim and Christian worlds, may I ask wouldn't it have been apt to allow this remarkable building to adopt a "multi-cultural" character to serve the inhabitants of numerous continents, faiths, races, and cultures, let alone historians?

Abbas R Siddiqi

Lahore