Thread: 1/ There's an intra-left debate going on with regards to the future of liberalism. Some of the best voices on this are @ZaidJilani @shadihamid and @zackbeauchamp - and its part of the reason why I am finding myself in favor of the reclassification of #HagiaSophiaMosque
2/ #HagiaSophiaMosque was built in AD 537 as a Byzantine Empire cathedral, was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral by Crusaders in 1204, converted back in 1261, converted a mosque in 1453 by the Ottomans, and secularized to a museum in 1935 by Ataturk.
3/ Let's not pretend, as @ClaireBerlinski is surely about to reprimand me, that Erdrogan did this out of concern for the Ummah or Islam. For that matter, none of the previous conquerors likely had spiritual motives paramount.
4/ Elections and invasions alike have consequences. As the song says, "It's nobody's business but the Turks." #IstanbulNotConstantinople
5/ Turks today are Muslims, not secularists. There isn't much call for (Christian) Spain to restore the Cordoba mosque and there isn't much pressure on (Orthodox) Greece to allow the Athens mosque to finally open. See: ft.com/content/ae4fa6…
6/ Fundamentally, secularism is a state religion that in Turkey has created space for Islamists to thrive, in France has led to absurd paradoxes on hijab vs face masks, and in China has led to cultural genocide. Secularism is a technocratic Classical Liberal notion
7/ the truth is that Secularism fails to value people's faith - and is the source of a latent hostility towards faith - well documented by intellectually honest conservatives like @SouthernKeeks at @ArcDigi - in the Left as a whole.
8/ This is because at the heart of Classical Liberalism is the Englightenment fiction that reason can be objective, that Super-rationality exists. (See the Platonia dilemma thought experiment by Douglas Hoftstadter) superrational.blogspot.com
9/ a sibling to Secularism born of the Enlightenment is what Nils Gilman called the "racial liberalism consensus" in an excellent article about the great irony of Obama's presidency - and the collapse of that consensus today (h/t to @zackbeauchamp) the-american-interest.com/2018/03/02/col…
10/ And rightwing populists like Erdrogan/ Johnson/ Trump/ Modi gain power precisely because, as @zackbeauchamp argued last year, we are living through a reactionary "anti-liberal moment" -due to the failure of liberalism to address its failings vox.com/policy-and-pol…
The great "Battle of Harper's Letter" is an acknowledgement of this failing - a weak attempt to assert values of free speech by classical liberals. Liberalism's failure has led to reactionary woke-ism nationalreview.com/the-morning-jo…
12/ the problem was also diagnosed today b David Brooks in @nytimes - with an intriguing suggestion that we need to replace liberalism with "personalism" - via @shadihamid whos is cited in Brook's piece nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opi…
13/ check out the twitter thread by @shadihamid here -
Thread intermission. Gotta pray #Zuhr
14/ So how does the relate to #HagiaSophiaMosque ? simply, that technocratic liberal arguments for why it should remain a museum fail to address the legitimate desire of devout Muslims to pray in a building intended for prayer
15/ Prior to today, neither Muslims nor Christians could pray in #HagiaSophiaMosque - today, at least Muslims can. I believe that someday Christians will also be permitted to recite their Liturgy therein. (alas, not likely during Erdrogan's illiberal tenure)
16/ Are Muslims allowed to recite azaan in the Cordoba mosque? At the very least there is parity. And @UNESCO should lead the call to open #HagiaSophiaMosque to Christian observances. I believe that Turkish Muslims as a whole would support this too
17/ The critique from even my own Muslim liberal friends like @WajahatAli hinges on the assumption that this is some slippery slope would somehow have repercussions for Muslims in Kashmir, Palestine, China, etc.
18/ however that is a technocratic Liberal argument with no connection to the lived experience of Islam in Turkey. Let's also be clear that illiberal regimes will oppress Muslims regardless of what Turkey does or doesn't do.
19/ The bottom line is that #HagiaSophiaMosque is a monument to the one God above all Abrahamic faiths and was built for worship. I am glad that God is worshipped in Cordoba, too. Were I dictator, I'd rather have #HagiaSophiaMosque be a church than a museum.
20/ That said, Turkey is a Muslim majority country. And as another friend of mine (critical of the decision) observed, the Turks have a sense of who they are. Liberals, especially, must respect that.
21/ Also see this thread by @IsmailRoyer raising some good questions.
Another related thread from the ground in Turkey. Validation of my assumption that there is genuine joy here at the opening, irregardless of Erdogan's motives
