The flames of jihad on the Temple Mount

World media are filling their screens and blogs with violence – pictures of explosions and fire on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount; videos clips of Israeli SWAT teams pushing back rioters who are assaulting the police with Molotov gasoline bombs, rocks, fireworks, boulders and clubs. World power diplomats are calling on Israel to exercise maximum restraint, and cluck their tongues in disapproval at Israel’s ‘disruption of peaceful Muslim worship.’ These events may be on the news, but they are not new. The following is a brief reminder of history and context regarding riots on the Temple Mount.

The origin of connections between the Temple Mount and Islamic tradition

Muhammad actually never set foot on the soil of the Promised Land, dying in Medina in 632 AD.  Sixty years after his death in 691-692 AD the now-golden Dome of the Rock was constructed in Jerusalem, while the black-domed al-Aqsa mosque was completed in 701 AD. In later years an Islamist tradition developed that in the year 620 AD Muhammad rode a mythical horse named al-Buraq, taking his legendary ‘night journey and ascension’ (in Arabic  al-’Isrā’ wal-Mi‘rāj) to the ‘distant masjid or mosque’ (in Arabic  al-Masjidi ‘l-’Aqṣá); Quran 17:1, Surat al-Isrā’). But in 620 AD Islamist jihadi forces had not yet invaded any country, including Israel. Jihadi battles were happening only in what is today called Saudi Arabia. In 633 AD Syria was invaded, and only in 638 A.D. was Israel conquered by jihadi armies. The al-Aqsa mosque never existed in Muhammad’s day. What it represents is a form of Islamist Replacement Theology spin, where Islamic people and purported Islamic events were artificially injected into Jewish sites, replacing them with a false Islamist identity. The Islamist attempt to destroy and invalidate Jewish connections to the Temple Mount is at the heart of this age-old conflict. It is Replacement Theology on steroids, backed up by jihadi invasion, conquest and oppression.

Napoleon versus the British Mandate

Napoleon Bonaparte declared on April 20, 1799:

Yet when England occupied those territories, it had a distinctly different vision. Article 13 of the League of Nations Mandatory Charter given to Britain in 1922 denied the United Kingdom’s right to interfere with the Temple Mount site or with the administration of ‘purely Muslim holy places:’ “Nothing in this mandate shall be construed as conferring upon the Mandatory authority to interfere with the fabric or the management of purely Moslem sacred shrines, the immunities of which are guaranteed.’ The King’s Order-in-Council issued by the government authorities of Mandatory Palestine in 1934 also confirmed the Ottoman religious status quo. Jews were forbidden from accessing the Temple Mount, which was now considered by Christians to be an exclusively Muslim holy place.

The Mountain which had been conquered by jihad and made Judenrein by the sword of Islam was now having its anti-Jewish ‘Islamist Replacement Theology status’ validated by Britain, the fast-fading heir to a Christian and Protestant empire. A British Christian writer expressed his anger at Britain’s realpolitik submissiveness to Islam in 1922: “To permit a false religion to hold sway in ‘the city of the Lord’ (Matt. 5:35), or any other portion of the Holy Land, would be to thwart and countermine God’s set purpose, and be altogether contrary to His plans regarding the earth and man upon it” (Frank G. Jannaway, Palestine and the World; London: Maranatha Press, 1922; pages 232-233).

The Grand Mufti al-Husseini and the al-Aqsa pogroms

Starting in the 1920’s and continuing up to the present Islamist leaders have falsely charged that there is a national Jewish goal of seizing the Temple Mount and rebuilding a Jewish Temple there.

The British Shaw Commission of Enquiry concluded, “The outbreak in Jerusalem on the 23rd of August was from the beginning an attack by Arabs on Jews for which no excuse in the form of earlier murders by Jews has been established . . . The fundamental cause, without which in our opinion disturbances either would not occurred or would not have been little more than a local riot, is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews” (Report of the Commission on the disturbances of August 1929, Command paper 3530; Shaw Commission report; 1930).

Husseini, Hamas, Hitler and Hassan

Haj Amin Al-Husseini later spearheaded the Arab Revolt (1936-39) which led to the death of over 300 Jews and the destruction of many Jewish farms and orchards.

Al-Husseini co-operated with three forces which have played a strong role in genocidal attacks against the Jewish people:

In close cooperation with Adolf Eichmann and an Einsatzkommando (Special Operations force and mobile killing squad) under the control of SS Obersturmbannführer Walther Rauff,  the Mufti Al-Husseini planned to build crematoriums for the Jews in the Dothan Valley of Samaria. The testimony of Faiz Bay Idrisi, a senior Arab officer in the British Mandatory police, stated, “I remember what was said in police circles and among supporters of the Mufti in those months . . . Haj Amin al-Husseini’s master plan was to establish in the Dothan Valley, close to Shechem, giant crematoriums like Auschwitz, into which would be brought the Jews of Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and even North Africa, in order to slaughter them with the methods of the S.S. who operated in the death camps in Europe.”

When Muhammad’s descendent occupied al-Aqsa

Jordan’s King AbdullahI bin Al-Hussein was a 38th generation direct descendant of Muhammad through the House of Hashim [Hashemite]. As conqueror of the Temple Mount in May 1948, he oversaw the following:

For more information see Jerusalem Divided: the Armistice Regime, 1947-1967, by Raphael Israeli, Psychology Press, 2002,  page 24.

What happened in June 1967?

On June 7, 1967 the Israel Defense Forces captured the Old City of Jerusalem. After nearly 2,000 years the Temple Mount was once again in Jewish hands. On June 17, 1967 then-Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan met Islamic religious authorities on the Temple Mount. It was decided to permit the Jordanian Awqaf  (waqf) Ministry to continue to administer the site. Jews and Christians were given the right to visit the Temple Mount provided that they respected Muslims’ religious sensibilities, but they were not allowed to pray there. Only the Western Wall was to be recognized as the Jewish place of prayer. Muslim were in charge of ‘religious sovereignty’ on the Temple Mount, while ‘overall sovereignty’ became Israel’s.  Israel would be responsible for security around the perimeter of the site, while the Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem Waqf would be responsible for events within the compound. Today, the Jerusalem Waqf controls the Temple Mount, schools, orphanages, Islamic libraries and museums, mosques, the Shari’a courts as well as many residential and commercial properties in greater Jerusalem.

‘Al Aqsa is in danger!’ October 1990

In early October 1990 a small Jewish extremist religious group (the ‘Temple Mount Faithful’) stated that they were going to lay a cornerstone for a Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  On 8 October 1990, mosque loudspeakers in the Kidron Valley and on the Mount of Olives proclaimed that “al-Aqsa was in danger.” The immediate result was an Islamic riot where 17-20 Palestinians were killed and over 100 others injured (after they attacked Israeli Border Police on the Temple Mount).

According to the Israeli Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Events on Temple Mount on 8 October 1990, “The members of the Waqf knew that the High Court had refused the Temple Mount Faithful petition to lay the cornerstone of the Third Temple, and did not respond to requests by Israel Police officers on the morning of the incident to calm the crowd. This, even after the police informed the Waqf that they would also prevent the Temple Mount Faithful, and anyone else, from visiting the area, though such visits are allowed by law… The incident itself began when, suddenly, violent and threatening calls were sounded over the loudspeakers “Allahu Akbar” [Allah is Greater], “Jihad” [Holy War], “Itbah al-Yahud” [Slaughter the Jews]). Immediately afterwards, enormous amounts of rocks, construction materials and metal objects were thrown at Israeli policemen who were present at the site. Many in the incited, rioting mob threw stones and metal objects from a very short range, and some even wielded knives. The actions of the rioters, and certainly the inciters, constituted a threat to the lives of the police, the thousands of worshippers at the Western Wall and to themselves. This was a serious criminal offense committed by masses who were incited by preachers over loudspeakers, and this is what led to the tragic chain of events . . . Nineteen policemen were injured as well as nine Western Wall worshippers. According to Police statistics, 20 people were killed and 52 injured on the Temple Mount.”

“A new Israeli temple in the place of al Aqsa mosque” – September 1996

On September 24, 1996 a new archeological exhibit called ‘the Rabbinic tunnel’ was opened to both the Israeli public and international tourists. It was the culmination of nearly 30 years of archeological excavations outside of the Temple Mount’s external buttress walls. A tunnel was dug outside of these supporting walls which had been constructed by Herod the Great in order to expand the workable surface of the Temple Mount. The tunnel and the retaining walls were not part of any Temple at any period in history.

Even though the tunnel was more than two football fields away from the al-Aqsa mosque and totally outside the Islamic precincts, the head of the PLO Yasser Arafat declared that the opening of the tunnel was a “big crime against our religious and holy places.” Palestinian Authority spokesman Sa’eb Erekat declared, “Well, the thing is … it was the Israelis who announced that they will open this tunnel in order to build … a new temple now in the place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque” (CNN, September 29, 1996).

On September 24, 1996 Voice of Palestine radio urged listeners to “move immediately and effectively to face this serious criminal scheme. We appeal to them all to shoulder their religious and national responsibilities in these serious circumstances and to confront these painful incidents and tragic dangers facing holy Jerusalem” (Voice of Palestine radio from Jericho monitored by BBC, September 24, 1996, 1050 GMT).

On September 25, the Palestinian Authority and Arafat’s Fatah faction brought busloads of Bir Zeit University students to attack Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint outside Ramallah. Molotov cocktails and rocks were thrown at the IDF who initially repulsed them with rubber bullets and tear gas. Whereas at other times PA police had previously prevented crowds from approaching Israeli checkpoints, this time they stood aside. As the rioting spiraled out of control, PA police joined in, firing on Israeli soldiers.

In a speech in Gaza at that time, Arafat invoked Islamic references to war, reminding the crowd that “to the believers who fight for Allah, kill and are killed, heaven is promised” (quoted in The New York Times, Oct. 4, 1996).

In three days of violence 14 Israeli soldiers and 44 Palestinians were killed. The violence had been stirred up by the Palestinian Authority. It spread a poisonously false charge that al-Aqsa was under attack. It created out-of-control violent attacks by Palestinian Arabs on Israeli troops and civilians. This was a repeat of the Islamist violence against Jews which had exploded in 1920, 1928-29, 1936 and 1990.

The rose of Sharon and the rise of Sharon – September 2000

On September 28, 2000, then-opposition leader of Israel Ariel Sharon visited the al-Aqsa compound accompanied by a large number of armed security guards. After Sharon left, a violent Palestinian demonstration erupted with people throwing stones and other projectiles at Israeli riot police. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd, injuring 24 people. On September 29, 2000, Israel deployed 2,000 riot police to the mosque. After Friday prayers Muslims hurled stones at the police and at Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall. The police then stormed the compound, firing both rubber bullets and live ammunition at the rioting Palestinians (4 killed and 200 wounded).

Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh reported on September 19, 2002, that the rioting and the official reason behind it were planned and fabricated in advance by the Palestinian leadership:

Close to 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis were killed in these clashes, which lasted five years.

Once again, the 2000 AD Islamist violence was deliberately triggered against Jews. The fig leaf was a supposed Jewish attack on al-Aqsa mosque, but the real reasons were more sinister and had to do with another goal – jihadi destruction of the Jewish people’s state.

To view how Islamists perceive these events, watch Al Jazeera’s program.

The Ramadan riots – July 2017

On July 14, 2017 three Islamist terrorists attacked and murdered two Arab Israeli policemen at the conclusion of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.  Within a very short time their terrorist attack was being justified in Islamic circles (surprise, surprise) as a noble response to a ‘Jewish attack on the sanctity of al-Aqsa mosque.’ This false charge exploded like fireworks on a haystack, spreading like wildfire throughout the world’s media outlets. British commentator Melanie Phillips has written an excellent commentary on this dynamic – Incitement, lies and the strange eclipse of the Dome of the Rock.

Note the declarations of the most prominent Islamist leaders at the time of these riots, and how they echo the bloodthirsty cries of Haj Amin al-Husseini and his comrades:

Those who love Israel and believe in God’s divine hand accomplishing her restoration in our day – need to be aware of these dark machinations on the part of those who oversee the waqf of al-Aqsa and those who stir up violence among Palestinian and Muslims worldwide.

The current round of Ramadan riots – May 2021

When Ramadan began in late April 2021, Israeli police put up anti-riot barriers beside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, preventing young Arabs from gathering in the evenings. At the same time, violent videos were being posted on TikTok of Muslims attacking religious Jews in Jerusalem. Simultaneously, an Israeli court decision from 1973 evicting Arab squatters from property (originally Jewish owned in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrach area) was finally about to be actualized. On April 22, a far-right Jewish group clashed with Muslims in front of the Damascus Gate, with some wounded on each side.

The Hamas terror organization in Gaza declared that Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque were being threatened, and avowed that the “gates of hell” (an Arabic euphemism for ‘total war’) would be opened. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah simultaneously began banging warm drums and threatening hostilities. Jerusalem Post reporter Seth Frantzman explains: “The statements by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are not isolated. They occurred as a coordinated message . . . preparing the ground for further violence . . . This is also a Hamas ploy for power in Jerusalem, a city it has had a foothold in but in where it has had difficulty raising its head. It is a Hamas ploy for power in the West Bank after the Palestinian Authority postponed elections. It is also a way for Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to appear relevant. They also want to drive a wedge between Israel and its new peace partners in the Gulf, knowing that the violence in Jerusalem will pressure Bahrain, the UAE and others to make statements . . .  The bubbling crisis could now affect Israeli relations with the Gulf and may also spark the interest of Washington and Europe.”

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanua stated that Israeli actions “represent an escalation of aggression against our people, a flagrant breach of their legitimate rights, and a blatant violation of the freedom of worship . . . The continuation of these racist measures, vandalism in Al-Aqsa Mosque, restrictions on our people, and the pursuit of worshipers will result in a massive uprising against the occupier and its racist plans that target Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Israeli politician Mansour Abbas (RA’AM party) condemned Israeli security forces, using language eerily similar to the words of Haj Amin al-Husseini: “I wholeheartedly condemn the violent assault on the holiness of the al-Aqsa mosque and the worshippers. Al-Aqsa mosque is for us a red line. Muslim control over the Temple Mount and the mosque is total/exclusive” he tweeted.

Attacks by mostly young Muslims against Israeli Police and IDF Border Patrol triggered riot-control measures and resulted in some wounded. When rioters attacked Police from within the al-Aqsa mosque, Israeli security forces entered the mosque and arrested rioters. Busloads of rioters on their way to Jerusalem were prevented from entering the city.

The rocket’s red glare

Over the past 27 hours, Islamist rockets have been fired from Gaza against Israeli kibbutzim and cities. They have either been intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket network or have fallen in uninhabited areas. Some mortars have also been fired at Israeli targets.

Israel has long planned specific military exercises in the coming week focusing on simultaneous enemy attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. The exercise is appropriately named ‘Chariots of Fire’ (see 2 Kings 6:17; 13:14).

How should we then pray?

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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