Al-Aqsa as "exclusive property"

In his UN General Assembly meeting address, Mahmoud Abbas said:

Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings, ladies and gentlemen, are the exclusive property of Muslims, and this was approved by the League of Nations in 1930, and we will not accept anything else, no matter the circumstances.

To what is he referring?

An International Commission was appointed by Great Britain following the 1929 riots. It was done with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations and its purpose was "to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem".

Among its conclusions is this:

(3)  The Ownership of the Wall and of its Surroundings.

The Commission has to pronounce a verdict on the Jewish claims, and the Jews do not claim any proprietorship to the Wall or to the Pavement in front of it (concluding speech of Jewish Counsel, Minutes, page 908)...Subsequent to the investigation it has made, the Commission herewith declares that the ownership of the Wall, as well as the possession of it and of those parts of its surroundings that are here in question, accrues to the Moslems.  The Wall itself as being an integral part of the Haram-esh-Sherif area is Moslem property.  From the inquiries conducted by the Commission, partly in the Sharia Court and partly through the hearing of witnesses' evidence, it has emerged that the Pavement in front of the Wall, where the Jews perform their devotions, is also Moslem property.

I am not sure that this conclusion was "approved".

In any case, Mount Moriah was conquered and occupied by Moslem Arabs in 638 CE

^

The Quran and Jewish Rights on the Temple Mount

Do Jews have rights to the Temple Mount, upon which today is the Haram E-Sharif esplanade with the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Is the Temple Mount a Jewish holy place? Does it possess sanctity within Judaism? Should it be revered and respected?

The Waqf, the Islamic religious trust which administers the Temple Mount under Jordanian custodial supervision, with a new council whose members identify with Fatah, Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkey, denies that and seeks to subvert any Jewish expression of identity with the iste.

Now, consider this from Omer Salem’s “Missing Peace” on page 63:-


Then Allah clarified to Prophet Muhammad unequivocally in the Holy Qur’an that Allah wishes Ahlul Qur’an (Muslims, i.e. People of the Quran) to have a one qibla [direction of prayer]– Masjid Haram in Mecca - and that Ahlul Kitab (Jews, i.e., People of the Book) have a separate qibla  – The Temple Mount, Jerusalem. 

Here is the prooftext for the two different qiblas

“And even if you bring to those who have been given the Book/Scripture every sign, they would not follow your qibla, nor can you be a follower of their qibla, neither are they the followers of each other’s qibla, and if you follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, then you shall most surely be among the unjust/wrongdoers.” (Quran 2:145)

If there was one verse in the Holy Quran that gives God-fearingJews the right to pray on the Temple Mount, or to share the Temple Mount with their Muslim neighbors, this verse is it.

Salem further explains there

Allah ordered prophet Muhammad to change the qibla from Masjid Aqsa (the al-Aska Mosque located on the Temple Mount) to Masjid Haram (the shrine in Mecca). The Qur’an records the change in qibla, and refers those who object to such change as “the fools”; here is the Quranic text: 

“The fools among the people will say: “What hath turned them from the Qibla to which they were used?” Say: To Allah belong both east and West: Allah guides whom Allah wills to a Way that is straight” (Quran 2:142)

To be sure, Salem is a moderate. He asks for patience is golden. He believes 

there will rise a group of Muslim and Jewish scholars (Imams and Rabbis) who will agree on how and when the Jews are to pray in peace on the Temple Mount. Jews have waited two millennium for such an honor, no harm will befall the Jewish people if they reach out to Muslim scholars and wait a little.

Salem is a Yale University alumnus and holds a PhD from the Al Azhar University in Cairo. 

Unfortunately, those Muslims who possess control thinking quite differently and for Jews, no rights on and within the Temple Mount nor to discover what is under.

At least we now know that Muslims, according to their own religious texts, should allow Jews to at least visit without interference or harrassment.

^

Questions on This Reuters Temple Mount Story

First, the entire Reuters article on the closing of the Temple Mount/Haram A-Sharif:

Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque shut as precaution against coronavirus by Muslim clericsAli Sawafta, Ammar Awad

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock will shut their doors until further notice, religious authorities said on Sunday, in a move to protect worshippers at Islam’s third holiest site.

Prayers will still be held on the huge open area around the two shrines and other Muslim prayer sites on the sacred compound known to Muslims worldwide as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount.

“The Islamic Waqf department decided to shut down the enclosed prayer places inside the blessed Aqsa Mosque, and until further notice, as a protective measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani, the Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Reuters.

“All prayers will be held in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa mosque and doors will remain open to all worshippers,” he added.

Al-Aqsa Mosque was built in the 8th century and Muslims regard it as next only to Mecca and Medina in importance.

The latest measure follows a series of ever-stricter restrictions imposed by political and religious authorities in the Holy Land to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Israel’s Chief Rabbinate said last week that Jewish worshippers should not come to the Western Wall or pray en masse there. The wall was built by Herod the Great as a restraining wall for the compound housing the Jewish temples of antiquity and is a sacred place of prayer for Jews.

Jerusalem’s Old City is sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three great monotheistic faiths. Christians revere it as the place where they believe that Jesus Christ preached, died and was resurrected, and the Holy Land church authorities have changed some worship practices to protect mass celebrants.

The numbers of those praying at Al-Aqsa during Friday prayers have fallen in recent weeks, amid fears over coronavirus, and officials stood by with bottle of hand-wash for those arriving and leaving.

The site’s religious importance makes it an especially sensitive area.

Questions:

1. If there area is huge, why cannot space for Jewish prayer be located?

2. Why is the area sensitive?

A Mosque - By Rabbinical Seal of Approval

At the end of a press release condemning the decision to permit Israeli MKs visit the Temple Mount

وختم البيان بالتأكيد على أن المسجد الأقصى المبارك مسجد إسلامي بقرار رباني 

And that translates as:

The statement concluded by stressing that Al-Aqsa mosque is an Islamic mosque by a rabbinic decree

Arab MKs have been using the opposition of the Chief Rabbinate to entrance into the compound for years but to have a rabbinical seal of approval that the site itself is a mosque?

The release (slightly edited to brevity):

Religious authorities in the occupied city of Jerusalem issued a statement on Saturday, confirming that there is no authority for Netanyahu to interfere in the affairs of Jerusalem.
The statement said: "We in the Supreme Islamic Commission, the Council of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Holy Sites, and the House of Ifta Palestinian, and the circle of the Chief Justice in Jerusalem, and the Department of Islamic Waqf and the affairs of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem,
First: The administration of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is entrusted to Muslims alone, and represented by the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem, which has jurisdiction and authority.
Second: The Prime Minister of the occupation can not issue a decision to allow ministers and deputies to enter the blessed Aqsa Mosque...his irresponsible decision is null and void.
Thirdly, we hold Netanyahu fully responsible for any tension in Al-Aqsa Mosque or in Jerusalem as a result of his irresponsible decision.
Fourthly, we affirm again and again that the Haram is for Muslims alone, and that any aggression or violation by the occupation authorities against al-Aqsa will not gain them any right in it.
Fifth: We reiterate the repeated and previous demand that the key to the Mugrabi Gate, which has been occupied by the occupation army since 1967, be reinstated.

^

The Temple Mount - A Muslim View

Excerpted and translated (via Google Translate) from Al-Bawaba, written by one Suffian Shawa:-

Israel will not demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque but will build the Temple in Jerusalem ..?     December 15, 2017 (also here and note the photomontaged picture with a Haredi Jew and also here)

Al Quds Al Sharif [Odd. Not Ah-Haram Al-Sharif?] is one of the holiest places in the world. It is a light that shines in the night and in the day. It is the heavenly melody, which is raised by the angels and the birds sing it until the people of the earth hear it. It increases their faith and increases their determination to hold on to it and not to give up any part of it. Upon one's arrival at the high gates of the holy city of Jerusalem, his sins are washed away and strengthened in the presence of the Lord, which is sacred to all the owners of the three heavenly religions.
The Jews occupied Palestine with the help of England as a national homeland for the Jews, aided by British colonialism, and in particular by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Balfour, in 1907 (sic!), where he issued the ominous promise. Then the Jews emigrated to Palestine (!) and established the small colonies first and then established the State of Israel in 1948 and occupied part of Jerusalem and then completed their occupation of Jerusalem in 1967


...Of course, the recognition of Trump is contrary to international law and to Security Council resolutions. It is not an American city to be given to whoever it wants. It is a Palestinian Arab city built by the Canaanites in 5000 BC. There is no right for the Jews at all.


Trump's decision goes back to the religious dimension of the Christian and Evangelical Christians who believe that the establishment of Israel and the rebuilding of Solomon's temple represent the foundation for Christ's return. They agree with the Jews in this difference with the Jews believing in the Messiah on condition that he be among the children of Israel.


What is important in this article is that Israel, according to the beliefs of their rabbis, who brought it from the tributaries of history, believe in a superstitious belief that Solomon's Temple was built by King Solomon to be a temple for the Jews and a dwelling place for the Lord Yahweh, who believes in the Jews after he is tired of dwelling above the clouds. (as if the Al-Buraq winged creature was real) They also claim that the Holy Mosque was built on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, which was built in Jerusalem or Jerusalem, and that they insist on rebuilding the third Temple. 


Under the auspices of the Holy Mosque, the Holy Mosque, the Holy Mosque in the Koran and honest conversations in the Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) the Mosque of the Holy Mosque in Mecca, God ordered our master Adam built it and the second is the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (!)...before any other building, whether Solomon's temple or other.

...The Qur'an states: "It is darker than those who forbid the mosques of Allah to mention His name and seek their destruction. . Al-Baqarah. This is a strict prohibition in preventing the demolition of mosques. Those who seek to destroy it are sinning against Allaah in this world and in the Hereafter it is a great punishment. This applies to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Al-Quds Al-Sharif especially since it is a holy mosque. Jerusalem.

...[Solomon] said: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious the Most Merciful. We spent the Book to the Children of Israel, to be scattered twice in the land, and to proclaim a great height. If the promise of the first came, we sent upon you." We have sent you the ball over them, and we have given you money and children, and we have made you more obnoxious. You have done well for yourselves, and if you have come to them, then the promise of the others comes to you, and to enter the mosque as they entered or once, And the interpretation of these verses as interpreted by Imam Al-Shaarawi Hama...

...Since we have chanted the ball to them, that is, God has returned the ball to the children of Israel and given them money. Now they are the owners of the sons and daughters of Russia and others. They are all in the army. We made you more obnoxious and alienation means begging the power of others. This is what Israel is doing with America. And Russia. If the promised promise is the time that the Lord has left open to the Muslims to return to the worshipers of God loyal to him religion then they will defeat the children of Israel and they will drag their faces in the dirt and then enter the Aqsa Mosque and entered the first time of the Amir of believers Omar bin Khattab .. And this is the word of God, and it shall not be revealed For him, Al-Aqsa Mosque will remain without demolition, God willing, because the Muslims will enter it as they entered it for the first time.

Anti-Semitism.

Historical mythology.

Radical political theology.

Anti-scientific.

You tell me how to make peace based on compromise with this outlook.

It's mainstream thinking.

Even 'moderate' Daoub Kuttab is published there.

^

Someone Wishes to Deny Me Access

On Sunday, I ascended to the Temple Mount, accompanying a group of American Jews.

At the end, I had the normative photograph snapped:

cropped from this one:

and I added this caption:

I know the backdrop is terrible but that's all there is. At present. 

— ‎at ‎Al aqsa mosque - المسجد الاقصى‎.‎

I've been photographed there many times, as in July 1971

and in 1972:

I also uploaded it to various social media platforms.  Like Twitter.

Daniel Seidemann reacted.  He is quite mainstream-accepted. He is often quoted as a knowledgeable source.

First, the evidence. He reacted so:

and I quickly replied, in two tweets:

& to your face if you adopt that tone:In 638 Arabs conquered Jlm and denied, from 1247 on Jews any rights there.They killed Jews who mistakenly walked in.They riot. Call us "stormers" and "breakers-in".Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty Art. 9 unfulfilled.That is terrible.

And then he continued (and he duplicated it at his TerrestrialJerusalem):

By the way, that "mistakenly walked in" refers to two Jews, one in 1873 and another, Asher Itzkowitz on April 11, 1947 both who were murdered by Muslims in the Temple Mount:

I also, later, added this snap of Article 9 of the Jordan-Israel 1994 unfulfilled Peace Treaty:

And then a Harry Reis jumped in an commented, too

Reis' bio reads: "Dorot Fellow. Frm. Special Assistant to #CEO @ADL_National, Research Associate at @WashInstitute, #proudly @BrownUniversity" and more here.

Daniel then continued, fulminating and tweeting:

You explicltly display contempt for Muslim holy site in the backgound, and implicltly threaten to replace it. You should be denied access.

I came back with

Ah.So when they do that to me (all the time) they, according to you, should be denied administration privilege.I'm reporting you.

and then added,

But I can't quite tell if you are implicitly or explicitly illogical.

What bothers me is not Daniel's political orientation. We've been acquainted, basically friends, for 30 years or so since we debated as a Gush Emunim vs. Peace Now team in the late 1980s, if I am not mistaken. I get over that.

I was taken aback by the blatant twisting of my words, so as to provide Muslims and others with ammunition.  He reminded me of the way the photo montage of the Zionist flag was fashioned as if it was actually atop the Dome of the Rock, which first appeared in 1922 and then was used aggressively in 1929 to foment the murderous riots:

The heads of the Yeshivot in the Old Yishuv also used photomontages showing the Dome of the Rock with the Star of David and flags of Zion superimposed in fundraising appeals to Diaspora Jews. It thus came to be widely believed that a Jewish conspiracy was at work to replace the Muslim holy sites by a rebuilt Jewish Temple. The resulting tensions were exploited by both Palestinian Arab and Jewish nationalists.

An example: 

More here:

For a modern version in the LATimes, see here.

Furthermore, as I noted in my comebacks, I did not suggest taking a tractor to remove the Muslim presence, unlike the Muslim earthworks in 1996 when they used tractors for a few years to empty out the southern are of the Temple Mount to create a third mosque, the Marawani, and to destroy Jewish historical artifacts.  The Sifting Project is still going through the tons of earth and finding wonderful and important evidence of the Second and even First Temples, a reality the Muslims deny.

Haaretz does it all the time. Note the language:

Israeli Activists Celebrate Ancient Sukkot Rite Near Flashpoint Temple Mount.

Whipping up sentiment so as to convince Muslims and reinforce their irrationality of an imminent and, at times, even an official Israel-government sponsored intervention.

However, I do not want to avoid the main point: the fundamental and ongoing Jewish belief in a rebuilt and restored Temple. It is in our texts: the Prophets and the Talmud and the Rabbinic commentaries.  Religious proactive Zionism of Rabbis Kalisher and Alkalai were based on the renewal of sacrifices.  All this is unavoidable and cannot be denied.

But to compare this belief to Muslim-initiated violence against Jews, against the archaeological remains on the Temple Mount, to statements like that of PA head Mahmoud Abbas:

"The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours... and they [the Jews] have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."

or the previous claim of Yassir Arafat that the Temple wasn't in Jerusalem, that we witness is not only politically nasty, but totally provides the Muslim Arabs with Jewish-justified pretexts to injure Jews, and worse.

They act, with Seidemann's assistance - intended or unintended - with impunity because we Jews have no rights, as he would have it, not even to hope and believe in our tradition and heritage.  The Muslims can degrade us in favor of a winged horse, al-Buraq, but Jews cannot even be proud of real history and a hoped-for future.


P.S.

^

"Al Aqsa Is In Danger" 1921

One of the recurring themes of Arab propaganda, since even before the institution of the Mandate for Palestine, has been "Al Aqsa is in Danger!".

One of the early examples is from 1921, following the visit of Sir Albert Mond, Lord Melchett, to the country during which he referred to rebuilding the Temple of Solomon in a figurative fashion.

Here is from the Hansard record of Britain's Parliament debates discussing a phrase he used in remarks he made in Palestine in January 1921:

PALESTINE.HC Deb 05 April 1921 vol 140 cc108-9 

§58. Commander BELLAIRS asked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been drawn to the proposal put forward at a meeting of the Palestine Foundation Fund to erect a great temple on the site of the Temple of Solomon; whether he is aware that the site is now occupied by the Mosque of Omar; and whether, in view of the difficulties which such proposals cause to the Mandatory Powers, he will state that in no circumstances will Mohammedan institutions be interfered with? 

§Mr. AMERY My attention has been drawn to a passage in a speech delivered by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health [Sir Albert Mond], to which the hon. and gallant Member apparently alludes. I think it is clear that my right hon Friend was speaking figuratively and did not intend so literal an interpretation to be given to his words. In any case, I would draw attention to Article 13 of the draft Mandate for Palestine, which clearly sets forth the policy of His Majesty's Government with regard to all holy places, religious buildings, or sites in Palestine. 

§Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHY Is the hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that there is no intention whatever of interfering with any mosques by the Palestine Committees, and also that King Solomon is held in equal reverence by Mohammedans, Jews, and Christians? 

§Earl WINTERTON Will my hon. and gallant Friend make it clear that so far from His Majesty's Government wishing to interfere with the holy places, a Mohammedan guard has always been placed over the Temple; and will he convey to the Minister of Health the un-desirability of making the sort of figurative speech which he did, in view of Mohammedan susceptibilities? 

§Mr. AMERY I cannot be responsible for the extent of misinterpretation which may be put on figurative speeches, but it is certainly the case, as my Noble Friend stated, that a guard has been on the Mosque of Omar ever since the occupation, and there is every intention of safeguarding the holy places of every religion.

 From the press:

From this book:

And from this new book:

^

"The Al-Aqsa Mosque is not the current 'Al-Aqsa Mosque'"

As reported (via Google Translate with editing):

A Jordanian official confirmed that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is not the current 'Al-Aqsa Mosque'

 

Sulaiman al-Tarawneh in the book of the Temple of Solomon bin Dawood [son of David]: 

The traditional Arab-Islamic narratives include a perpetuated  myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque 

 

A narrative of the most complex narratives...The most important sanctities of the Islamic Ummah, and the uncovering of the hideout towards a national and Palestinian national symbol in the perspective of the roots of our Arab-Islamic heritage. His idea, as he has repeated more than once in this book, began with its sections, on the basis of biased and biased Islamic Arabism, to prove the roots of the authenticity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to deny the importance of the structure or its authenticity.

In the introduction to the book, he points out that the narrative of the book, its meanings, its axis and its route plan is the hidden, concealed or hidden Arab Islamic narrative about the structure in the Holy Quran, the biography of the Prophet, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the history of the Companions. The Quranic interpretation of all its readings and its schools, the Arab Islamic history, the stories, the stories and the trappings of a critical, interpretive, Hermetic perspective, a conceptual and structural interpretation about a fundamental point of problematic and explosive controversy: Was the industry of the origin of the holiness of Jerusalem and its surroundings first, The supposed son of David and the related and what is born of him and through him an Israeli Canaanite and a Jew through the centuries a reality or a myth or mythological concession? Or is it made by the eternal Al-Aqsa Mosque in its general sense, and not the Al-Aqsa Mosque in its Quranic reality and what is Islamic related to it in terms of historical Islam, Islam (legal) or Islamic jurisprudence?

...Here, our religious, historical, and mythological heritage presents mythical hypothetical rationales with all its mythological dimensions, and flimsy flimsy guides with doctrinal, prepositional, fabricated and fabricated theological doctrines for reasons of reinforcement that are not strong, to demonstrate the primacy of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the absolute sacred anthropological time, To form it, and thus it is a mythical predecessors necessarily to the structure of Solomon Ben David supposed in the structure of time sacred open dimensions to the groups and individuals.

"The traditional Arab-Islamic narrative includes the myth of the perpetuation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its perpetuation in the form of an eternal and undeniable Tuthini, so it is analyzed, dismantled and absorbed by the hidden Arab-Islamic narratives to the core, and related to the social, political, authoritarian, and Arab-Islamic mythology here is a Qur'anic, Anthropology.

This narrative is one of the most complex narratives, metaphorically, queerly and contextually...it claimed and still claims that Islam she is the sole owner of the Jewish Holy Land, because it is the heir of the religion and its sanctities exclusively, supremely, eternally...the sole heir to the Temple plateau, the Holy House and Palestine, and thus the Holy Land in the three Abrahamic religions! All of them have an Islamic stand that can never be waived, because it is a religion that does not erase the eternity of years! 

...Al-Tarawneh believes that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is definitely not the modest age prayer that was later called the prayer of Omar. It was never called by the Sahaba or the followers of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is a modest prayer in its construction. It was devoid of any aspect of the architecture of the building to limit it to the semi-random use of coffee, wood and logs without roofs, doors, or others. It was a naive framing of the place of prayer to identify it, not a mosque in any way.

...Al-Waleed bin Abdul-Malik...did not build a mosque in the place, did not call the Mosque Omar the name of the Al-Aqsa Mosque at all, Islamic sanctity was the land and not for the building, depending on what was fictional in the time of Solomon.

"The Al-Aqsa Mosque is not the current Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the Umayyad Abbasid Mamluki Ottoman Mosque, and the Marwani Chapel is evidence of the early ambiguity of naming the Umayyad building in Al-Aqsa Mosque because the term Al-Aqsa Mosque is an ancient religious heritage, Because the Al-Aqsa Mosque is radically different from the current "Al-Aqsa Mosque," which is the Jerusalem mosque or the mosque of Jerusalem as it was called by its sons in their correspondence. Knowing that the word "Jerusalem" Is the middle space of the three main parts of the Temple, and the term "Beit Hamakdash" is a Jewish name, the name of the temple itself, or its status as the principal; for it is the Jew of the holy house of Jehovah. The Jewish priests therefore refrain from mentioning the name of Jehovah explicitly; God is a machine and its name is the greatest button for the operation of that machine which compels it to respond, and the glory of the created human being to such an overlapping circumstance, so the temple was called the House of Jerusalem, "the house of Hamdakash," and the Holy one is Yahweh himself In the Jewish religious custom, evasion of the masculine religion In front of the greatest commoners.

And confirms Al-Tarawneh that all the evidence, hidden and visible, announced and hidden in the Arab-Islamic heritage undoubtedly refers to the truth of the facts not thought of by Islam, namely that the Holy Mosque of Al-Aqsa in the Surat Bani Israel "Isra" , This Al-Ra'awi Mosque on the night of the Isra and Al-Maraj is not the Al-Quds Mosque or the Mosque of Beit Al-Maqdis, which was built during the reign of Al-Walid bin Abdul Malik in 86 AH or 87 AH, after his father built it before the Dome of the Rock in 72 AH, in order to attract the people of the Levant to visit Jerusalem and visit the mosque Dome of the Rock...he invented it so that the people of the Levant would tour the place instead of the Kaaba, as narrated through more than one source of marking by the purpose, even though the most prominent of the raween was the son of many who was the protector of illiterate sons, From the confluence of the Levant to Abdullah bin Zubair, an anti-Umayyad, who took Makkah as the capital of his state, which extended in Hijaz and Iraq...

Well, well.

^ 

Jewish "Filth"

First, it was Mahmoud Abbas.

He said

"The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours... and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."

He was repeating an earlier canard officially promoted by the Palestinian Authority:

Jews praying at Western Wall are "sin and filth"

Then, it - you should pardon the expression - spread.

As far as to ... Canada:-

Ayman Elkasrawy, a teaching assistant at Ryerson University who in a sermon preached “purify the al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews,” has been dismissed by the university.
In a letter to B’nai Brith Canada, Ryerson President Mohamed Lachemi noted that Elkasrawy was “no longer employed by the university,” and added that “we remain actively engaged in addressing antisemitism in our community.” B’nai Brith had sent a letter demanding that Elkasrawy be fired on Feb. 21.Elkasrawy, who worked within Ryerson’s Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science, delivered his inflammatory supplications at the Masjid Toronto in June of 2016. The mosque later issued an apology for his remarks.

Thinking those thoughts and pronouncing them and teaching them is just, well, filth.

^ 

The Haram A-Sharif Is Not All One Mosque

As even this article in the Jerusalem Quarterly magazine indicates:

Al-Haram al-Sharif was central to the lives of the Old City’s inhabitants and other Jerusalemites. But, as the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, the al-Aqsa Mosque also attracted Muslim pilgrims from throughout the Arab and Muslim world. The Haram compound, with the al-Aqsa Mosque, was a focal point for all Muslims to come visit; as part of the hajj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims), pilgrims would pass through Jerusalem.

Quite simply, the Haram is a courtyard and in in it, among other buildings and monuments and groves is ... a mosque.

^ 

Ramadanandingdong

How many Muslims pray at the Al-Aqsa compound on the Ramadan Fridays?

This site has 200,000.

So does Ma'an.

So does Wafa.

Last year, 230,000 was reported:

And even 350,000 on the third Friday last year.

Even 300 Gazans were allowed in (how many Jews are allowed into Gaza to visit the synagogue there [yes, Jews lived in Gaza]?).

Here's from a news item the previous week:

Sheikh Omar al-Qiswani, the Al-Aqsa Mosque's Palestinian director, told Anadolu Agency that only about 100,000 worshipers had prayed at Al-Aqsa on the first Friday of Ramadan, compared to some 250,000 last year.

Here's a video clip taken from the top of the Al-Aqsa mosque:

Now, I ask you, does that really appear to be 200,000 persons congregated there?


_____________

UPDATE:

Check this out:

^

The New Language War

Language is a war zone.

And it could be fatal.

We read:

PLO Urges International Media to Refrain from Using 

Term ‘Temple Mount’ to Refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque

Palestinian Liberation organization PLO expressed concern over the use of the inaccurate term “Temple Mount” to refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem, urging all international media representatives to adhere to international law and correct any other existing terminology used.


“The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is not a disputed territory and all other terms, therefore, are null and void,” stated the statement...This entire area enclosed by the walls which spans 144 dunums (almost 36 acres), forms the Mosque.

...the Mosque has been under exclusive Muslim sovereignty and control since the construction of the Dome of the Rock in 692 CE. As such, any entrance to the Al Aqsa Mosque must be agreed and coordinated by the Muslim Waqf.  Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound is located in East-Jerusalem, an internationally recognized part of the Occupied State of Palestine, stressed the statement.

Consider this

Moreover, the Qur'an expressly recognizes that Jerusalem plays the same role for Jews that Mecca has for Muslims. We read: "They would not follow thy direction of prayer (qibla), nor art thou to follow their direction of prayer; nor indeed will they follow each other's direction of prayer...." (Qur'an, Sura 2:145, "The Cow") All Qur'anic commentators explain that "thy qibla" is obviously the Kaba of Mecca, while "their qibla" refers to the Temple Mount Area in Jerusalem. Some Muslim exegetes also quote the Book of Daniel as proof of this (Daniel 6:10).

Well, we learn that in Malaysia, someone thinks that

Jerusalem is the key to understanding the historical process of the Middle East and the world at large...we will indeed see...[the] imminent happy ending that was prophesized to us in the Qur’an and the Sayings of our Prophet. The Muslims will wake up from their slumber and the Jews will receive their promised Divine punishment. The Zionist State will be destroyed and whatever they have built will be raised to the ground.

Anyway, the PLO pressure is partially effective on CNN.  A bit of reserach should have informed all that 

The Muslims’ name for Jerusalem was Bayt al-Maqdis.

and

The Umayyads cast aside the non-religious Roman name for the city, Aelia Capitolina (in Arabic, Iliya) and replaced it with Jewish-style names, either Al-Quds (The Holy) or Bayt al-Maqdis (The Temple).

So who, exactly, is distorting history, not to mention the fact that Al-Aqsa Mosque was built after Muslims conquered the city in 636/8 CE ("the Mosque has been under exclusive Muslim sovereignty and control since the construction of the Dome of the Rock in 692 CE") and the Crusaders ruled the city for just over 200 years ("The Crusaders conquered the city in 1099 and held it until its conquest by the army of Saladin in 1187... The Sixth Crusade put Jerusalem back under Crusader rule (1229–44)") and the British ruled in for 31 years and Israel for 47 years.  And is there such a thing as "Muslim soverignty"?

Moreover

as late as 692 the idea of Jerusalem as the lift-off for the Night Journey had not yet been established. (Indeed, the first extant inscriptions of Qur'an 17:1 referring to Jerusalem date from the eleventh century.)

Is the 'recommendation' working?

Here's the Independent

...right-wing Israeli politicians became increasingly vocal about asserting Jewish prayer rights in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews revere as their most sacred spot –the site of their two ancient temples. It has been an exclusively Muslim prayer area since the seventh century and Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Defence Minister during the 1967 Six Day War, decided to keep it that way after Israel occupied Arab East Jerusalem.

Temple Mount not mentioned.

Sydney Morning Herald

Jordan-Israel relations plummet over al-Aqsa mosque strife in Jerusalem

Temple Mount is mentioned. 

And now I have seen the report of Ohad Hammo on Channel Two TV with the final scene with its "Temple Denial" theme:

"they [the Jews] have no Temple according to us"

^