From 1935—nine years after the Republic of Turkey was established by Ataturk—to 2020, the legendary structure was operated as a museum by the national government. Beginning in 2013, some Islamic religious leaders in the country sought to have the Hagia Sophia once again opened as a mosque. In July 2020, the Turkish Council of State and President Erdoğan reclassified it as a mosque.While Erdoğan's move was praised by Muslim Brotherhood (MB) clerics, senior officials at Egypt's Al-Azhar, the most important religious institution in the country and the leading institution in the Sunni Islamic world, were vehemently opposed. They argued that turning a church into a mosque was forbidden and that the building should remain either a museum or a church. One of the sheikhs even stated that the move reflected the MB's enmity to human civilization.