How does a prayer go like in a mosque?

Is it an infraction against Islam to protest by performing the sunset prayer in the Hagia-Sophia courtyard?

• I live in Istanbul and there is the mosque-museum Hagia-Sophia. On behalf of Muslims, we want our government to struggle for Hagia-Sophia to get it opened as a mosque. One of Turkish-Muslim association began to a campaign in order to convey our wishes to the government. They proposed everyone, who wants to go along with, to perform the Sunset prayer in Hagia-Sophia's courtyard on tomorrow. Even, an Imam of Beytullah is going to lead us while praying. This idea sounds good to me because unlike another protest called "gezi parkı", which have caused a lot of damage on both people and environment, we want a protest that doesn't have hazardous effects and bad results. So I want to find out that would this protest be moral-ethical according to Islam or would not? Could it be supposed as showing-off? Because Islam forbids to pray in the intention of showing off ..

• Answer:

  Being Turkish, this is extremely disappointing that you have no knowledge of your own country. Hagia Sofia was built as a cathedral by Byzantines and used as such till 1453. In 1453, everything changed. Christians were severely oppressed. And then this savage act of killing the innocents inside and converting it to a mosque and depriving the christians of their own building http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople was taken by the Ottomans on 29 May 1453. In accordance with the custom at the time Sultan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_II limited his troops three days of unbridled pillage once the city fell, after which he would claim its contents himself.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Runciman_1-27http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Nicol_a_1-28 Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage, becoming its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Nicol_a_2-29 Shortly after the city's defenses collapsed, pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Runciman_2-30 Throughout the siege worshipers participated in the Holy Liturgy and Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia, and the church formed a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city's defense, such as women, children and elderly.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Runciman_3-31http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Nicol_b_1-32 Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became spoils to be divided amongst the Ottoman invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved, violated or slaughtered;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Nicol_a_2-29 while elderly and infirm were killed, women and girls were raped and the remainder chained and sold into slavery.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Runciman_2-30 Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Runciman_2-30 When the Sultan and his cohort entered the church he insisted it should be at once transformed into a mosque. One of thehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulama then climbed the pulpit and recited the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahada.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-Runciman_5-33 Fountain (Şadırvan) for ritual ablutions The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca As described by several Western visitors (such as the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B3rdoba,_Spain nobleman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pero_Tafurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-34 and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristoforo_Buondelmonti),http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-35 the church was in a dilapidated state, with several of its doors fallen from their hinges; Mehmed II ordered a renovation as well as the conversion. Mehmet attended the first Friday prayer in the mosque on 1 June 1453.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mb288-36 Aya Sofya became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-ne13-37 To the corresponding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waqf were endowed most of the existing houses in the city and the area of the future http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26 From 1478, 2,360 shops, 1,300 houses, 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravanserai, 30 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boza shops, and 23 shops of sheep heads and trotters gave their income to the foundation.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-bo145-38 Through the imperial charters of 1520 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Hegirae 926) and 1547 (AH 954) shops and parts of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul and other markets were added to the foundation.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26 Before 1481 a small http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaret was erected on the southwest corner of the building, above the stair tower.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26 Later, the subsequent sultan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_II (1481–1512), built another minaret at the northeast corner.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26 One of these collapsed after the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1509_Istanbul_earthquake,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26 and around the middle of the 16th century they were both replaced by two diagonally opposite minarets built at the east and west corners of the edifice.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#cite_note-mw91-26 To continue to treat it as a mosque will further emphasize the persecution of Christians and that's extremely bad. No one has the right to just take over somebody else's property. IF IT IS TO OPEN, IT HAS TO BE A CATHEDRAL. NOT A MOSQUE.