History and Ikrema Sabri

From the Jerusalem Post:

‘Western Wall was never part of temple’

The former mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has made the claim that there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall was really part of a mosque.

“There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aksa [the mosque compound] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple,” he told The Jerusalem Post via a translator. “Because Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand.”

Sabri rejected Judaism’s claim to the Western Wall as part of the outer wall of the Second Temple.

“The wall is not part of the Jewish temple. It is just the western wall of the mosque,” he said. “There is not a single stone with any relation at all to the history of the Hebrews.”

Asked if Jews would ever be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount under Muslim control, he replied: “It is not the Temple Mount, you must say Al-Aksa. And no Jews have the right to pray at the mosque. It was always only a mosque - all 144 dunams, the entire area. No Jewish prayer. If the Jews want real peace, they must not do anything to try to pray on Al-Aksa. Everyone knows that.”

“Zionism tries to trick the Jews claiming that this was part of a Jewish temple, but they dug there and they found nothing,” Sabri added.

Archeologists overseeing Islamic infrastructure work on the Mount announced this week that they had unveiled a sealed archeological level dating back to the First Temple period.

The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century BCE, and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was built 70 years later, enlarged during the first century BCE by Herod, and destroyed by the Romans in the year 70.

The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque were constructed on the Temple Mount site in the late seventh century.

The controversial issue of the holy sites is expected to come up during negotiations ahead of a US-sponsored summit on the Middle East in Annapolis later this year.

Palestinian leaders, most notably the late Yasser Arafat, have consistently denied Jewish claims to the Mount.

Sabri made the comments in an interview with the Post’s Friday supplement, In Jerusalem, for a cover story on how religious leaders view the capital.

Religions, at least those who claim an Abrahamic heritage, stress truth as a virtue and lies as damnable sins. Here is a religious leader who follows in the tradition of Hitler’s friend - Haj Amin al-Hussein, Arafat’s mother’s uncle. He distorts history and invents “facts,” all in an effort to deny the legitimacy of the claims of Jews and Christians to the Temple Mount. His gaul is appalling, yet not surprising. It is no more than another manifestation of IslamoFascism’s plan to deny the validity of any religion outside of itself, in spite of the Quran’s words to the contrary.

Ikrema Sabri, just like al-Husseini before him, is not a true religious leader. He is, first and foremost, a demagogue of the lowest kind. Religion is used to advance his cause, to spread his hatred, his prejudices while gaining power and prestige, as he incites incite others to terrorism. The pompous idiocy of his words would be laughable and easily dismissed were it not for the fact, that neither Jewish or Christian religious leader have made any efforts to expose his politicization of his religious tenets in an effort to deny the undeniability of history. If no one protests, if this descendant of pigs and monkeys, is allowed to get away with his lies there may soon be some misguided souls who will look seriously at his words as a worthy scholarly view.

“…Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand.” Perhaps. Yet, nobody who is a student of history or current affairs can claim that those who profess to follow Allah, in the Middle East, are… in any way “fair.”

Chaim

Crossposted at: Freedom's Cost