Al Aqsa Mosque Masjid
By Khaled Amayreh
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Tension flared up at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday, October 25, when hundreds of Israeli troops stormed the Islamic holy site, beating worshipers and firing tear-gas shells, rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades.
“They are beating people and desecrating the holy place in utter disregard for civility and human decency,” Adnan al-Husseini, the highest-ranking Muslim Wakf official, told IslamOnline.net.
“They are clamping a siege to the Aqsa Mosque and preventing Muslims from accessing the place.”
According to eyewitnesses, at least 10 Palestinians were injured, some badly, while others suffered tear gas inhalation.
As many as 20 Palestinians were arrested.
Sheikh Muhammed Hussein, a prominent scholar and religious leader, described the situation at Al-Aqsa as “very dangerous,” warning it could get out of control.
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“Israeli soldiers are beating everyone, including women and children,” he said.
Earlier, Muslim leaders urged Muslims to flock to Al-qsaMosque to repulse renewed attempts by government-backed Jewish zealots to arrogate a foothold at the exclusively Islamic shrine.
The calls were relayed through loudspeakers at the Aqsa compound, prompting the Israeli occupation authorities to cut off electricity supply to mosques in the area.
The Muslim leadership in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) called on Muslims to be on constant alert to foil a plan by Jewish extremists to hold prayers at the Aqsa sanctuary on Sunday.
The zealots say they want to commemorate a visit to the Aqsa Mosque by Maimonides (Musa Ben Maymon), a prominent Jewish rabbi of the Middle Ages, 843 years ago.
“They are trying to prove that they are the masters here, that they have sovereignty over the holy place,” said Hussein.
“But this is an exclusively Islamic holy place. It has always been like this and it will always be like this.”
Al-Aqsa is the Muslims’ first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka`bah in Makkah and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
Jews claim that their alleged Temple of Solomon exists underneath Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and want to destroy the Muslim holy shrine to build their temple.
Al-Husseini, the highest-ranking Muslim Wakf official, appealed to the entire free world to shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities to stop “this brazen aggression on Islam and Islamic holy places.”
“What is happening today at Al-Aqsa Mosque is unprecedented in terms of its disrespect for the sanctity of the place,” he lamented.
“The Israeli state is trying constantly to sow tension and terror and when Muslims protest the Israeli aggression, Israel claims that Muslims were exaggerating and blowing up out of proportion.”
The Palestinian official asserted that the Muslim holy site was facing “a real and overwhelming danger.”
“And if Muslims, governments and peoples, don’t move fast to save Al - Aqsa Mosque from Israeli designs and plots, tomorrow might be too late.”
SAVE AL-AQSA MOSQUE -
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