Daily News Analysis

Zionists’ creeping annexation of Masjid al Aqsa

Crescent International

Muharram 09, 14352013-11-13

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Zionist provocations at Masjid al-Aqsa and the Haram al-Sharif are likely to lead to another intifadah in Palestine. The zionist occupying regime is discussing a draft law that would provide access for zionist Jews to set foot on the Haram al-Sharif and pray there. Muslims consider this to be an extreme provocation. Muslim reaction is likely to be strong and widespread. Perhaps this is what the zionists want.

Cairo, Crescent-online
November 13, 2013, 16:21 DST

Is another Palestinian intifadah about to erupt? The last one in September 2000 was sparked by then opposition leader Aerial Sharon accompanied by 1,000 Israeli policemen barging onto the grounds of Masjid al-Aqsa (Sharon is currently in a vegetative state, neither dead nor alive since 2006).

Now, the Israeli Knesset (parliament) is discussing a law that would designate “time and space” for Jews wishing to pray there. Tensions have already been running high for several weeks since Zionist settlers invaded the Haram al-Sharif (the noble Sanctuary) in October and then barged into the Masjid al-Aqsa with their filthy boots, desecrating the place and violating the sanctity of the noble Sanctuary.

With Palestinian leadership in the hands of such Western-zionist puppets like Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and the two revolutionary movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad largely confined to Gaza, the situation is very grim. Abbas and his Palestinian Authority will not do anything to prevent Zionist encroachment that is clearly aimed at giving the pushy Zionists a foothold on the noble Sanctuary.

The Haram al-Sharif is managed by the Supreme Muslim Council headed by Sheikh Muhammed Hussein. Upon learning of the Zionist draft law, he said: “[The mosque] is part of our creed: It is expressly mentioned by name in the noble Quran.” To emphasize the gravity of the situation, he said “An Israeli aggression against the mosque and the Haram al-Sharif is tantamount to attacking the Ka‘aba in Makkah, the most sacred spot in Islam.”

He expressed the hope that Muslims around the world would not remain silent in the face of such Zionist aggression since Masjid al-Aqsa is not merely a matter for the Palestinians. “I cannot imagine that Muslims around the world will remain idle as they see Jews desecrating their holy site. This issue transcends politics. It is greater than politics,” Sheikh Muhammed Hussein said.

The Sheikh’s confidence in the Muslim masses is not misplaced. It is, however, the rulers in the Muslim world, starting with the Jordanian monarchy that is theoretically responsible for the maintenance of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, that cannot be relied upon. King Abdullah II of Jordan is an American-zionist puppet.

The House of Saud occupying the Arabian Peninsula where the Ka‘aba is located, is equally devious. They are close allies of the Zionists, a fact that has become totally exposed in recent weeks. Neither King Abdullah of Jordan nor King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is likely to lift a finger against Zionist crimes even if it means the creeping annexation of Masjid al-Aqsa, the first Qibla of Muslims and the third holiest site in Islam.

Since Muslims took control of Jerusalem in 15 AH (638 CE), the Haram al-Sharif has been under exclusive Muslim control and served as an exclusive Muslim sanctuary. It was the second Khalifah (Caliph) Umar who took possession of the keys of the city from Sophronius, the Christian pontiff.

Masjid al-Aqsa is built on the spot where the noble Messenger of Allah (upon whom be peace) led all the other Prophets in prayer during his nightly journey to Heaven in what is referred to as Isra wal Miraj. The Dome of the Rock (the golden Dome Mosque)—that should not be confused with Masjid al-Aqsa, was built many years later over the rock where the Prophet’s (saws) heavenly stead, Buraq, was tethered. The entire area encompassing Masjid al-Aqsa, the Dome of the Rock and the surrounding quadrangle is referred to as Haram al-Sharif.

The mischievous Zionists peddle the fiction that Masjid al-Aqsa is built on the Temple Mount. Such a temple did not exist when Muslims took possession of the city. It was destroyed twice; the first time by the Babylonians in 587 BC. The Romans then destroyed the entire structure including digging out its foundations in 135 CE. No temple or its foundations have existed since then yet for their nefarious designs, the zionists peddle the myth that the area belongs to them and are determined to drive the Muslims out of there.

Their creeping encroachment on the Haram al-Sharif is part of a larger plan to first set foot there and then gradually annex the entire sanctuary. Since the Zionist occupation of the whole of Jerusalem in 1967—they had already occupied the western half of the city in 1948—there have been several incidents that point to their nefarious designs.

In August 1969, Denis Michael Rohan, a Christian-Zionist from Australia, torched the mosque's exquisite pulpit, which was put in place by Salahuddin Ayubi after liberating Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187 CE. The desecration led to widespread protests in the Muslim world.

Thirteen years later (in 1982), Alan Goodman—an illegal American Zionist immigrant serving in the Israeli occupation army—fired his automatic rifle at Muslim worshippers in the Dome of the Rock Mosque, killing two and wounding 11.

Until a few years ago, the Chief Rabbinate in Israel strictly prohibited Jews from praying or even walking in the area. Observant Jews would instead only pray at the outside wall. In recent years, however, there appears to be a change in policy. While publicly claiming that Jews are not to set foot there, the Rabbinate seems to have relaxed its prohibitions somewhat under pressure from the Zionist squatters, a rabidly racist lot, that come mainly from North America and Europe.

Muslim religious scholars dispute the site's importance to Judaism arguing that ”Judaism survived thousands of years without the Temple and without Jerusalem,” according to Ikrema Sabri, an imam at al-Aqsa Mosque. ”This place has been an exclusive Muslim house of worship almost uninterruptedly for 14 centuries. We as Muslims cannot succumb to Jewish myths and whims.”
Zionist provocations, however, are likely to lead to another intifadah.

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