Saturday, April 03, 2010

Jews Attempt to Pray at Muslim Mosque - True?

You thought this was a Temple Mount story?

Well, almost. Just the other way around.

Here's the real story:-

A confrontation between Muslim tourists and guards employed by the Roman Catholic bishop at the world-famous Cordoba mosque saw two people arrested and two guards injured last night.

Trouble broke out when the visitors knelt to pray in the building, a former mosque turned into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century, where a local bishop, Demetrio Fernández, recently insisted that a ban on Muslim prayers must remain.

Half a dozen members of a group of more than 100 Muslims from Austria had started praying among the marble columns and coloured arches of the vast building when security guards ordered them to stop.

"They provoked in a pre-planned fashion what was a deplorable episode of violence," the bishop's office said in a statement.

[two security guards suffered serious injuries]

...A group of local Muslim converts have long campaigned for the right to pray at the mosque building. "The building is very big and the main cathedral occupies only a part of it," said Mansur Escudero of the Junta Islamica group.

"They publicise the building as a mosque because that brings in tourists, but they do not allow the Muslims who pay money to go inside to pray," he said.

Escudero said a space for Muslim prayers would not inconvenience visitors or disturb the cathedral and would promote dialogue and understanding between the two religions. He said there were frequent incidents of Muslims being prevented from praying.

"They argue that canon law does not allow Muslims to pray there, though they have been happy to permit visiting Saudi princes and other dignitaries, including Saddam Hussein, to pray," he said...Cathedral authorities reiterated their ban on prayers. "The shared use of the cathedral by Catholics and Muslims would not contribute to the peaceful coexistence of the two beliefs," the statement from the bishop's office said.

...Church authorities also recalled that archeologists had shown that, prior to the construction of the mosque in the eighth century, a Christian temple had stood on the same spot...


But doesn't it remind you of the Temple Mount situation, in reverse - even the archaeological evidence?

And what's good for the goose should be good for the gander, no?

Why should Jews, then, be prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount?

Do we not deserve the same rights that Muslims ask for themselves?

__________

Additional reports:
Times

and this one:

The incident occurred Wednesday when six members of a group of 118 Muslims knelt to pray at the Islamic fashion, which is prohibited in the building that became cathedrals in the thirteenth century and World Heritage Site by Unesco. Acknowledging the facts, the association MJO said, in a statement issued in Vienna, "the group was captivated by the beauty and spiritual atmosphere of the place, so much so that a small number of them decided spontaneously to pray, not having the slightest idea of the consequences that could entail." The MJO also confirmed the arrest of two young Austrians members of the group

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