Yusuf al-Qaradawi calls a jihad for Jerusalem

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars and a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Sunday that the confrontation with Israel on the Temple Mount should be defined as a religious campaign.

“It must be clearly stated that this is an Islamic campaign, since Al-Quds is not only a Palestinian issue or an Arab one. Al-Quds is the interest of the Islamic nation from the west to the east,” Qaradawi wrote on Twitter.

Qaradawi is considered the supreme religious authority of the Sunni Muslim world and the spiritual leader of both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. During the period of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Qaradawi issued a fatwa permitting suicide attacks against Israel.

On the religious level, Qaradawi advocates for a gradual Islamic revolution until the Islamic rule and the rule of the caliphate are fully implemented. He predicted that Islamic immigration to Europe would eventually lead to the Islamization of the continent.

Qaradawi is among one of several individuals and institutions that were recently blacklistedby Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The Palestine Religious Scholars Association later condemned Arab states for including Qaradawi on the blacklist, claiming he is a moderate who acts against heresy, extremism and terrorism.

Related links:

• Existing security cameras on Temple Mount also removed
• Jewish Home ministers vote against removal of metal detectors
• Report: Waqf opposed to new agreement
• Radical cleric: We won’t compromise on Temple Mount
• Erdogan slams Israel’s ‘disregard of the law’
• UN envoy: End Temple Mount crisis by Friday
• Metal detectors will be removed from Temple Mount
• MK: Build Synagogue on Temple Mount
• ‘Wake up and make the dream a reality’

“Israel to replace metal detectors in Jerusalem with smart surveillance,” Reuters, July 24, 2017:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel on Tuesday decided to remove metal detectors it had placed at the entrance to a holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City and replace them with smart, less obtrusive surveillance means, a cabinet statement said.

One more link:

Abbas lied brazenly to President Trump, claiming that his government “educates for peace” and that the Palestinian Authority is “raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace.”

Palestinian Authority endorses riots: “Allah, liberate our mosque from the occupation’s filth” — “Jerusalem is ours”

“‘Allah, liberate our mosque from the occupation`s filth’ – ‘Jerusalem is ours,’” by Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch, July 24, 2017:

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah continue to endorse the Palestinian riots in Jerusalem, encourage their “escalation,” and present the situation to Palestinians as if the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem are in danger and need “defense.”

PA and Fatah leaders have almost entirely ignored the terrorist attack earlier this month, when terrorists shot from within the Temple Mount plaza and murdered 2 Israeli border policemen. However, they are protesting fiercely against the metal detectors Israel has placed as a safety measure at the entrances to the holy site following the attack.

These metal detectors are presented by Palestinian leaders as constituting an Israeli “escalation,” “aggression,” and an “attack” against Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They view Israel’s actions as an intolerable violation of the so-called “status quo” on the Temple Mount, and interpret Israel’s security measures there as an encroachment onto what they see as Muslim property only. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that PA and Fatah leaders repeatedly state that all of the Temple Mount, including the Western Wall, belongs to Muslims only. They continuously spread the libel that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is under attack, and that Israel is plotting its destruction in order to build the “alleged Temple.”

During the last two weeks, PA and Fatah leaders have called for an “escalation” of the riots, urged Palestinians to “rage,” and even glorified death, encouraging Palestinians to die “for Palestine.”

An example of the PA’s message to Palestinians not to accept Israel’s security measures on the Temple Mount is seen in the cartoon above, which was published in the official PA daily. A Palestinian kicks over a metal detector, which flips upside down to form the word “ours” in Arabic and completes the statement: “Jerusalem is ours.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 23, 2017]

To illustrate the alleged “danger” posed by “the occupation” to the Islamic holy site, Abbas’ Fatah called on Allah for help to “liberate our mosque”…

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Palestinians often refer to the presence of Jews on the Temple Mount as “filth” and a “desecration” of the site – even PA Chairman Abbas has said this.

Abbas has also expressed his “pride” in Palestinians in Jerusalem for their current “resolve.” He has called on Arab and Islamic countries to support Palestinians in their “defense” of the Islamic and Christian holy sites, thereby alluding to the alleged “danger,” while warning Israel of the consequences of showing “contempt for the sentiments of the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims throughout the world”:

Speaking on behalf of PA Chairman Abbas, and referring to a “meeting of the Palestinian leadership,” Secretary-General of the PA Presidential Office Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim stated that Israel’s actions on the Temple Mount are in fact “a step on the way to establishing the alleged Temple”:

An editorial in the official PA daily also repeated the claim that Al-Aqsa is in danger, and that Israel is “Judaizing” the site. It called Israel’s actions on the Temple Mount a “brutal attack against Jerusalem,” and claimed they are a sign of Israel’s “plans to Judaize the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The editorial further quoted a speech by Abbas  in which he called for unity between Fatah and Hamas:

A Fatah Central Committee member presented Israel’s metal detectors, and the two-day closure of the Temple Mount, as Israel’s attempt at “preventing” Palestinians from praying, and reiterated the claim that Islamic holy sites are in need of “defense”: