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Muslims Mark Anniversary of Israeli Burning of Al-Aqsa
CAIRO, Aug 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Tuesday, August 21st marked the 32nd anniversary of the torching of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest shrine in Islam, by a Zionist.
At the University of Jordan Tuesday, demonstrators torched the Israeli flag and chanted anti-Israeli slogans to mark the anniversary the burning of Al-Aqsa mosque in 1969, witnesses said.
Around 200 students marched peacefully inside the campus up to the main gate where they burned the Israeli flag and chanted slogans denouncing Israeli military action in the Palestinian territories, they said.
They also urged the international community to intervene and put an end to the hardships of Palestinians.
An Australian Jew named Denis Rohan set fire to the mosque on August 21, 1969, causing a blaze that nearly destroyed the ancient holy structure.
The Israeli government distanced itself from the crime, claiming that the perpetrator was insane and therefore couldn't be prosecuted.
The arsonist's act is recalled every year among Palestinians and Muslims worldwide as a landmark in the history of continuous and ongoing Israeli crimes against Muslim holy sites.
The fire gutted the mosque's 900-year-old Saladin "minbar", or pulpit, and caused irreparable damage inside.
Palestinians at the time accused Israeli authorities of failing to exert enough efforts to put out the blaze.
According to Al-Bawaba website, the pro-Hamas Palestinian Information Center said Israel even "sought to hinder Palestinian efforts to put out the fire."
The Higher Islamic Commission in Palestine called on Palestinians to gather at the mosque Tuesday to mark the anniversary, to pray at the holy place and to "defend it from Judaization," according to a statement quoted in news agency reports.
The call came amid an Israeli plan to prevent residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering the city, which was occupied in 1967 and immediately annexed to Israel as its "eternal and undivided capital."
The international community has never recognized Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital, and related U.N. resolutions stipulate that the city is illegally occupied Arab land from which Israel should withdraw troops.
For their part, the Islamic and Nationalist Forces, a coalition of 14 Palestinian movements steering the Intifada, or uprising, issued a statement Monday calling on Arabs and Muslims to save the city from "Israeli aggression" and "plots to distort the Arab culture in Jerusalem."
"Jerusalem, with its Muslim and Christian holy sites, its Arab and Muslim deep history, and the threats it is facing… has become a symbol of our struggle to defeat the occupation," the statement said.
In 1996, Israel secretly opened a tunnel under the mosque, which Muslim archaeologists have said could undermine the foundations of the old structure.
The opening of the tunnel sparked bloody confrontations and street battles that lead to the killing of 65 Palestinians.
The Noble Sanctuary, al-Haram al-Sharif, is at the heart of occupied Jerusalem and it encloses over 35 acres of fountains, gardens, buildings and domes. At its southernmost end is Al-Aqsa Mosque, and at its center is the celebrated Dome of the Rock.
It is the third most important site in Islam after Makkah and Madinah, and a showcase for Islamic architecture and design from the Umayyad to Ottoman empires, which continues to be an important religious and educational center for Muslims to the present day.
The entire area is regarded as a mosque, and comprises nearly one sixth of the walled city of Jerusalem.
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