|
Jerusalem:
The Haram Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah,
the two holiest shrines in Islam, draw millions of pilgrims
annually. However, Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine, sees
only a few thousand foreign worshippers a year. The first two holy
mosques are in Saudi Arabia, while Al-Aqsa stands on
Israeli-occupied land that may be the most disputed religious spot
on earth.
Jews call the raised ground at the eastern edge of Jerusalem’s Old City the Temple Mount, while Muslims know it as the
Noble Sanctuary. Both claim sovereignty over it. Muslims have kept
up an informal boycott of the walled esplanade since Israel seized
East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordanin a 1967 war, saying
visits would amount to recognition of Jewish occupation of
Palestinian territory. Palestinian and Jordanian officials now
want to reverse that, according to a Reuters report.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Muslims last February to
resume the journeys to Jerusalem to counter what he called Israel’s
attempts to “Judaize” the city and in solidarity with the
Palestinians. “Visiting a prisoner is an act of support and does
not mean normalization with the warden,” he said.
Since then, several high-ranking Arab and Islamic leaders have
turned up to pray at Al-Aqsa and – they hope – kick-start a new
wave of pilgrimages. “Some Muslims haven’t visited Al-Aqsa Mosque
since 1967, but this was a big mistake,” said Palestinian
Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud Al Habash. “We have now decided
to correct our mistake.”
A senior Muslim official involved in the plan said one to two
million foreign pilgrims could visit Al-Aqsa annually if access
were free and unimpeded. “It would protect Al-Aqsa and also
provide an enormous boost to the Palestinian economy,” he said. He
asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Jerusalem was traditionally a stop for Muslims on overland routes
to or from the annual Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. What they
found was a tranquil esplanade with two jewels of Islamic
architecture, an elegant mosque highlighted by arabesque stained
glass windows and the octagonal Dome of the Rock clad in ornate
tiles and topped by a gilded cupola.
The Dome was built by Jerusalem’s Arab conquerors in 691 on the
spot where Muslims say the Prophet Mohammad began his Night
Journey to heaven. This is also where Judaism’s two Bible-era
temples once stood, the first destroyed by the Babylonians in 586
BC and the second leveled by the Romans in 70 AD. The Western
Wall, the last remnant of the second structure, is one of the most
sacred sites in Judaism.
The crowded plaza in front of the Western Wall and the calm
park-like enclosure around the mosque and the Dome seem worlds
apart. The one link from the Jewish Quarter of
Jerusalem’s Old City is a shaky wooden ramp leading to the Mughrabi
Gate, right next to the Western Wall. This is the main entry for
non-Muslim visitors.
Muslims enter the compound from the Muslim Quarter through 10
other gates through the ancient walls, past checkpoints manned by
Israeli security forces. Palestinian authorities escort their
guests through the Gate of the Tribes, at the opposite end of the
compound from the ramp. So few foreign Muslims have visited the
35-acre compound in recent decades that many Arabs were surprised
to hear the news in mid-April that Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa,
the second-highest religious authority in the Arab world’s most
populous country, had gone to pray there.
Gomaa and Jordanian King Abdullah’s chief religious adviser,
Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, added an interfaith dimension to their
tour by visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the
invitation of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Two
weeks before that, Habib Ali al Jifri, an influential Sufi
preacher from Yemen, had toured it with Abdullah’s brother Prince
Hashem. Their visit was less noticed, but after Gomaa turned up, a
pattern seemed to emerge. Several Jordanian politicians and a
Bahraini delegation have also made the pilgrimage to Al-Aqsa and
Muslim officials said more high-level visits were expected, both
from the Arab world and by Muslims from Europe and Asia.
In his appeal last February, Abbas condemned the expanding Jewish
settlement of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the
capital of a hoped-for future state, and accused Israel of
excavating near the disputed site with the aim of undermining Al-Aqsa
itself. Mohammad Ahmad Husein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
and Palestine, issued a fatwa approving the pilgrimages. But a
split appeared almost immediately. Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, one
of the world’s leading Islamic scholars, issued a fatwa (religious
edict) against foreign Muslims visiting Jerusalem.
Hamas denounced the plan as “a gift to the (Israeli) occupation by
legitimizing its presence”. The Egyptian parliament, dominated by
conservatives after a post-Arab Spring election, called on Gomaa
to resign. The mufti answered his critics via Twitter: “Visiting
Jerusalem increases one’s feelings of rejection of occupation and
injustice and helps strengthen the (Palestinian) cause.”
|
Comments
|
Quick links