Sunday, April 29, 2012

Can't Jews at least play football?

Notice how, in discussing the ridiculous position taken by some Muslim religious authorities to ban Islamic pilgrimage to the Temple Mount to protest Israel, the lack of free access and worship, aka "pilgrimage" as a Jewish right is somehow ignored:

While Islam's birthplace is in the Arabian peninsula, Jerusalem is intimately tied with Islam's beginnings. Muhammad's first followers prayed toward Al-Aqsa and only later turned their prayers east to Mecca. For centuries, Muslim pilgrims visited Jerusalem while on their way to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, now in Saudi Arabia. Many Muslims believe visiting Jerusalem deepens the sanctity of their pilgrimage.

But that pilgrimage route was abruptly halted after Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. East Jerusalem is home to the hilltop compound housing both Al-Aqsa and the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. As a result, many Muslims believe visiting the mosque would amount to recognition of Israel's claim to the area and be inappropriate when Israel prevents many Palestinians from entering...In February, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Muslims to visit Jerusalem. Abbas said it would underscore the city's importance to the Islamic world and bolster Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem, which they seek as their capital. "The flow of crowds and congestion in (Jerusalem's) streets and holy sites will strengthen the steadfastness of its citizens," Abbas said.

..."Visiting the state of the Zionist enemy – for non-Palestinians – is forbidden," Yousef al-Qaradawi, a widely influential Muslim cleric, wrote on his website. He said Jerusalem needs warriors not tourists. "Muslims are ordered to liberate (Jerusalem) and save it from (Israel's) hands."...
Doesn't anyone care about the Jews?

Can't they do this:


The compound is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. It is one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world, and control over the area is one of the thorniest issues at the core of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is revered as the holiest site in Judaism as home to the two biblical Jewish Temples. Jews today pray at the Western Wall located at the foot of the compound. Palestinians use the area to worship and rest – one of the few open spaces in the intensely crowded walled Old City of Jerusalem. They sit under the soaring pine trees and walk among the intricately painted turquoise tiles adorning the Dome of the Rock. Children play football nearby.



Even a little football?

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