# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 4) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 22, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678 "2025-02-22T21:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 209
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4161 "2026-04-26T20:47:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Obviously, that’s proof that Obama was up to something nefarious. Isn’t everything? > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Mark Lynch is seeking to become the Republican candidate for Senator in South Carolina. (Lindsey Graham holds this seat but Lynch feels Graham isn’t conservative enough.) > Lynch posted this message online today: > > > Muslim worship in the Hagia Sophia is going to officially end when I get elected to the U.S. Senate. Surely SOME reporter has asked Lynch to reveal exactly how he thinks any US official will acquire the power to dictate who worships inside the Hagia Sophia. (Maybe he’s under the impression that it’s in South Carolina…??) ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4162 "2026-04-26T20:58:25Z")
Especially since it’s now a museum. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4163 "2026-04-26T21:02:48Z")
How many Greek Orthodox Church members are there in his state? He must be trying to appeal to some constituency. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4164 "2026-04-26T21:18:34Z")
Nah, he probably thinks the Southern Baptists would take over the Hagia Sophia once the Muslims were expelled. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4165 "2026-04-26T21:25:13Z")
And how many people in South Carolina even know what the Hagia Sophia is? It’s a pretty bizarre thing to post about. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4166 "2026-04-26T21:33:03Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And how many people in South Carolina even know what the Hagia Sophia is? Wasn’t she in _Houseboat_? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4167 "2026-04-26T21:40:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It’s a pretty bizarre thing to post about. Absolutely. Reporters should be asking ‘WHAT on Earth put _ **that** _ bee in your bonnet??’ Maybe he saw a movie or something. But as far as I know “_returning the Hagia Sophia to Christian hands_” isn’t high on any MAGA lists at all. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4168 "2026-04-26T22:05:46Z")
I think it might have been the justification for one of the Crusades? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4169 "2026-04-26T22:11:47Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Especially since it’s now a museum. It was converted into a museum in 1935. But it was converted back into a mosque in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4170 "2026-04-26T22:13:29Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > He must be trying to appeal to some constituency. People who call themselves Christians and who hate Muslims. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4171 "2026-04-26T23:41:21Z")
I did not know that. Glad I got to see it while I could, ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4172 "2026-04-26T23:58:34Z")
Note: Tourists can still visit the Hagia Sophia Mosque, but viewing the interior is supposed to be done outside of prayer times, and I think only from the upper gallery. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4173 "2026-04-27T00:48:32Z")
There appears to have been only one Crusade directed toward the recapture of Constantinople after it fell in 1453\*, and I suppose reconverting Hagia Sophia could be considered one of its aims. In any case, it turned aside to relieve the Ottoman siege of Belgrade and stopped there. \* From what I’ve read, the fall of Constantinople is commonly regarded as the end of the Middle Ages, which began with the fall of Rome in 476. However you look at it, bookending the Middle Ages with the demise of the Western and Eastern empires has a nice symmetry. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4174 "2026-04-27T03:35:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > People who call themselves Christians and who hate Muslims. Christian nationalists are behind the wheel of the Republican Party, and who knows what kinds of weird shit they have on their priority list. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4175 "2026-04-27T04:14:18Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Absolutely. Reporters should be asking ‘WHAT on Earth put _ **that** _ bee in your bonnet??’ > > Maybe he saw a movie or something. But as far as I know “_returning the Hagia Sophia to Christian hands_” isn’t high on any MAGA lists at all. My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that Lynch vaguely heard some report of the Hagia Sophia being converted back into a mosque in 2020. And there was some historical background in the report about how the Hagia Sophia used to be a church. Lynch, being an idiot, missed the point that its conversion from being a church was back in 1453 and thinks that it was a church as recently as 2019. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4176 "2026-04-27T04:45:48Z")
The whackdoodle distracts reporters from asking about his _stance_ on Epstein and the basis for his (Lynch’s) devotion to a sub-human who was into sexual assaulting young women. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4177 "2026-04-27T05:02:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Note: Tourists can still visit the Hagia Sophia Mosque, but viewing the interior is supposed to be done outside of prayer times, and I think only from the upper gallery. Right, I was there a few months ago. Non-Muslims can view most of the interior from the upper gallery. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4178 "2026-04-27T07:22:31Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > - From what I’ve read, the fall of Constantinople is commonly regarded as the end of the Middle Ages, The fall of Constantinople, the discovery of the Americas and the invention of the printing press. It was a busy time. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4179 "2026-04-27T14:21:43Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The fall of Constantinople, the discovery of the Americas and the invention of the printing press. It was a busy time. I’d add Martin Luther to the mix. Although I can see the argument that he was more an early result of the start of the modern age rather than one of the causes. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/4180 "2026-04-27T17:19:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that Lynch vaguely heard some report of the Hagia Sophia being converted back into a mosque in 2020. There is a non-zero but probably less than 50% chance that he thinks it is in Jerusalem and is another name for the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678.md?page=208) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678.md?page=210)