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Israeli border police officers prevent a Palestinian senile man from entering the Muslim Sancutary al-Haram al-Sharif in the old part of al-Quds, sep 27 2009, (Reuters Photo) |
When Israel occupied the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, the Israeli army Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren tried meticulously to convince one prominent commander of the conquering army to blow up the Aqsa Mosque "once and for all."
The story was mentioned elaborately in Avi Shlaim’s book “The Iron Wall-Israel and the Arab world."
"There was an atmosphere of spiritual elation. Paratroopers were milling around in a daze. Narkis was standing for a moment on his own, deep in thought, when Goren went up to him and said ‘Uzi, this is the time to put a hundred kilograms of explosives in the Mosque of Omar-and that’s it, we’ll get rid of it once and for all.’ Narkis said ‘Rabbi, stop it.’ Goren then said to him, ‘Uzi, you’ll enter the history books by virtue of this deed.’ Narkis replied, ‘I have already recorded my name in the pages of the history of Jerusalem.’ Goren walked away without saying another word."
On 21 August, 1969, an Australian Christian Zionist, bearing the name Denis Michael Rohan, set the exequiste Minbar of Sallahuddin on fire, using a flammable substance. The Israeli authorities seriously impeded efforts to extinguish the fire and the Minbar was completely destroyed. (a minbar is an elevated platform through which Imams/scholars of Islam give Friday sermons).
On April 11, 1982, a Jewish terrorist by the name of Allan Goodman entered the Dome of the Rock Mosque and started firing indiscriminately at Muslim worshipers, killing and injuring dozens of people.
Goodman, a member of the terrorist Jewish group, the Jewish Defense League, was eventually pardoned by the Israeli government after spending a few years in jail.
Jewish Extremists Today
| "Tourist visits" soon turned into occasions for performing Talmudic rituals. |
In fact, Jewish terror against Jerusalem’s Noble Sanctuary has never ceased. Indeed, on numerous occasions, extremist groups declared openly that their ultimate aim is to demolish the Aqsa Mosque in order to build a Jewish temple in the area.
While government-backed extremists kept up their terrorist plots against the Muslim sanctuaries, the Israeli government itself has been carrying out widespread excavations right beneath and in the vicinity of the Haram al Sharif which experts assert are destabilizing the foundations of the Aqsa Mosque. More to the point, the opening of an extensive net of subterranean tunnels near the site will also seriously undermine the mosque’s resistance to earthquakes.
Until fairly recently, the Israeli government and Chief rabbinate didn't allow Jews, especially religious Jews, to enter the Aqsa esplanade for both religious and political reasons.
However, in recent years, Israeli governments began allowing Jews to "visit" in small groups. The Israeli government claimed, rather mendaciously, that the matter didn’t go beyond legitimate tourism and that the Muslim Wakf (endwoment) authorities, which manage the sanctuary, had no right to prevent Jews from visiting.
But the "tourist visits" soon turned into occasions for performing Talmudic rituals and making incessant demands for obtaining "prayer rights". Eventually, it became crystal clear that Israel was only trying to desensitize Muslim sensibilities in the hope that Muslims would be forced to come to terms with "Jewish rights" to worship at the Islamic holy place. This is how the Israeli occupation authorities did with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron when it in 1994 unilaterally partitioned the erstwhile exclusively Islamic Mosque between Muslims and Jewish settlers, with the settlers receiving the lion’s share of the Mosque.
Destruction Is Their Goal
| This is the soul of our existence in this land. This is the soul of Islam in this region. |
According to Dr. Ikrema Sabri, imam and preacher at the Aqsa mosque, Israel harbors two goals with regard to the Haram al Sharif of Jerusalem: First, a tactical goal, namely to arrogate a foothold, under the disguise of getting "prayer rights," and a final goal, that is the destruction of the Noble Sanctuary and building on its site a Jewish Temple.
Indeed, the renewed violence at the Aqsa mosque on Sunday, 27 September, which was precipitated by Jewish extremists, should be viewed in the context of recurrent Israeli efforts to take over the Mosque, partially or fully, from Muslim hands.
It is almost certain that attempts by Jewish extremists to gain a foothold at the Aqsa sanctuary will continue and escalate in the absence of real and tangible deterrent counter measures from the Muslim world.
The Israeli Jewish society is increasingly drifting to religious fascism, with religious groups and parties gaining growing political influence. Moreover, the Israeli government itself is constantly tacitly and even openly encouraging extremist messianic Jewish groups, such as the Temple Mount Faithful, to "expedite" the destruction of the Aqsa Mosque and "rebuilding" of a Jewish Temple.
Messianic Jewish groups, including the national religious camp, e.g. the settler camp, believe that the building of the temple would usher the advent of the Jewish messiah or "redeemer" who would rule the world from Jerusalem and bring about final redemption for the Jews.
But the Aqsa Mosque is an integral part of the Muslim religion and many of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would rather die rather than see their first Qibla (direction toward which Muslim stand during prayer) and third holiest mosque usurped, let alone destroyed, by Zionist Jews.
A few weeks ago, Sheikh Hamed al Beitawi, one of Palestine’s most prominent Islamic scholars, issued a stern warning to Israel and Jewish extremists.
He equated any aggression against the Aqsa mosque with an attack against the two sacred mosques in Makka and Madina.
"Al-Aqsa is not a matter that can be taken lightly. This is the soul of our existence in this land. This is the soul of Islam in this region. Hence, any plot against this sacred place will trigger off a huge fire that will only end with Israel’s destruction and extinction."
And while Israel, official Arab regimes and the West might view the Shikh’s words as "exaggerated rhetoric" there is no doubt that the Sheikh has the ears of million Muslims who think that their very existence, survival and dignity are at stake and that they have nothing to lose in case something awful happen to the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Muslims' Devotion
| "And We gave (Clear) Warning to the Children of Israel in the Book, that twice would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance and twice would they be punished!" |
Al-Masjidul Aqsa (the Aqsa Mosque) is Islam’s third holiest place after the Sacred Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina in Saudi Arabia. According to Muslim traditions, the Prophet Muhammed peace and blessings be upon him (pbuh) was taken at night around 621 A.D. from Makkah to Jerusalem by the archangel Gabriel and from there taken in a miraculous journey to the seventh heaven, reaching the Throne of the Almighty.
A special Sura or chapter of theQuran, called Suratu Isra’a, is dedicated to this paramount event in the life of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). The Sura begins with the following verse: " Glory to ((Allah)) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest (Aqsa) Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)."
The same Sura prophesizes the ingathering of Jews in Palestine, their mighty arrogance and eventual destruction at the hands of "true servants of God."
"And We gave (Clear) Warning to the Children of Israel in the Book, that twice would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance (and twice would they be punished)!
When the first of the warnings came to pass, We sent against you Our servants given to terrible warfare: They entered the very inmost parts of your homes; and it was a warning (completely) fulfilled.
Then did We grant you the Return as against them: We gave you increase in resources and sons, and made you the more numerous in man-power.
If ye did well, ye did well for yourselves; if ye did evil, (ye did it) against yourselves. So when the second of the warnings came to pass, (We permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces, and to enter the Mosque as they had entered it before, and to visit with destruction all that fell into their power." Sura 17 [4-7]
Toward the end of the Sura, the Quran once again predicts the ingathering of Jews in Palestine and creation of the modern state of Israel.
And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land (of promise)": but when the second of the warnings came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd.
But in the immediate following verse, the Quran also reminds the children of Israel that the Quran is truth and their ultimate destruction in the Land of Palestine is a certainty.
"We sent down the (Qur'an) in Truth, and in Truth has it descended: and We sent thee but to give Glad Tidings and to warn (sinners)."
Hence, the ingathering of Jews in Palestinian is an essential condition that must be met before their destruction.
The word "destruction" here mainly connotes destruction of political power, not necessarily physical annihilation.
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