Members of real estate worshipping cult throw tantrum, rocks at Jerusalem work site

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Hundreds of angry Islamic worshippers threw stones and scuffled with police today in an eruption of outrage over contentious Israeli renovation work at a disputed Old City holy site.

About 200 police streamed on to the hilltop compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, to try to quell the violence, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Witnesses said police hurled stun grenades.

Several dozen protesters barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque at the compound, which is Islam's third-holiest site. The protesters are angry about Israeli repair work on an earthen ramp leading to the hilltop compound, which they fear will damage the mosque.

Police said several protesters and several officers were injured in the faceoff, but gave no further details.

The clashes erupted at the end of Friday prayers at the site. Police had braced for possible riots during the prayers, which often have been a flashpoint for clashes.

Israeli security forces tripled their usual numbers around the Old City today morning, expecting confrontations. Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco told Israel Radio that around 3,000 security officers were posted around the city because of "intelligence indications" that disturbances could erupt.

Friday prayers at the site and is attended by thousands of Muslims every week. The compound sits just above the Western Wall, a remnant the second Jewish temple.

Israeli authorities promised that the plan to replace a centuries-old ramp damaged in a 2004 snowstorm would not damage the compound, about 60 yards way. But when work began earlier this week, it drew fierce protests in the Arab world, where many leaders accused Israel of plotting to harm Muslim holy sites.

On Thursday, a fiery Islamic leader appealed to fellow Israeli Arabs and Muslims around the world to rise up against the Israeli renovations.

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This real estate worshiping cult has no case. This is a made up "holy site" based on a false story about Mohammad who was never in Jerusalem. It is also part of a deliberate program by Muslim activist to destroy other religions by seizing sites of religious significance tot hem and appropriating them to Islam. They have done the same thing in India and other parts of the world. It is time they were called on this gambit. They are doing harm to Islam by participating in tantrums and making idols of real estate.

This story shows the lack of respect for sites wre Jews once worshiped.

Climbing over the rotting garbage, I realized I was the first Jew to enter this holy place in over 50 years. I am writing to you from Nineveh, the city of the prophet Jonah. Its present name is Mosul. I have had the privilege of seeing its ancient walls, of touching its stones, of going to the grave. Islamic tradition says is the prophet Jonah’s. There is a mosque at the site; but hundreds of years ago, the Iraqis we work with tell me, it was a synagogue. They tell me the reason the site is so sacred is because of the sacredness in which the Jews held it. Presently, there are no signs of this ancient synagogue.

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As I entered light came through the half-open roof, and I could just make out writing engraved on the walls. It was Hebrew. It was then that I knew had stumbled into the ancient synagogue of the city of Mosul-Nineveh. My heart broke as I climbed over the garbage piles that filled the room where, for hundreds of years, the prayers of Jews had reached the heavens. I realized I was probably the first Jew to enter this holy place in over 50 years. Over three-and-a half meters of garbage filled the main sanctuary, and what appeared to be the women’s section. I could barely make it out because of the filth, but there was Hebrew writing on the walls.

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There is much more as the Rabbi for the 101st Airborne went through the cemeteries and the ruins of Mosul looking for the evidence of a once thriving Jewish community.