Jude Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salem, an advisor to the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, praised Pope Francis as being dedicated to achieving "human fraternity."

Two symbolic sites, the Hagia Sophia and the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, could serve as models for international and interreligious cooperation, writes Peter Dziedzic.

Pope Francis' brief words at the Sunday Angelus are the Vatican's first public response to the Turkish president's move to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.

The Unesco World Heritage site in Istanbul, founded as a Christian church in the 6th century, transformed into a mosque in the 15th century and then into a museum in 1934, will reopen as a mosque on July 24 with Friday prayers.

An appeal is being made to Turkey's highest administrative court to have it reject a proposal of having Istanbul's iconic Hagia Sophia revert to being a mosque instead of a museum.

My heart rate spiked. My hands began to shake and sweat and then turned cold. I was suddenly alert, alarmed. Were we just zoombombed?