Hagia Sophia shaping to be the focal point of drama

Amid all the protests, a constant theme is coming up again and again: how the Pope acts during his visit to the Hagia Sophia. For instance, this article from the U.K. Times describing the 25,000 person protest that was held today in Turkey:

The loudest boos, however, are reserved for references to the Pope’s proposed visit to Saint Sophia, the magnificent Byzantine basilica where Mehmed the Conqueror prayed after he took the city for the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It remained as a mosque until the Turkish Government turned it into a museum in the 1920s, to the annoyance of Islamists. If the Pope prays or so much as crosses himself when he enters the vast domed building, he will have staked a claim on the place, the protesters say.

More on the embarassment these protests are to Turkey's EU hopes:

Away from the scene, however, rather than complaining about the visit, secularist columnists have been upbraiding the Government about the mixed messages it has given the Pope and the lost opportunity to show that Turkey, a European Union candidate, is part of the Western world rather than a remote Islamic outpost.