The Shaykh of the Azhar, Mohammed
Sayyed Tantawi, withdraw his
previous call to all Muslims to visit al Aqṣá mosque, as a means of supporting
Palestinians, amid strong angry
reactions to it.
"I’m not the one who issued this call, it
was the Palestinian deputy ambassador
and I supported it, as long as the invitation and the permission
comes from the Palestinian
side."
He defended the Palestinian official’s call as " he asked
Muslims to go to Jerusalem and buy
their [Palestinians] goods to save them from
poverty."
Tantawi seemed unconcerned about the Scholars
Front’s criticism and affirmed that
he and Pope Shenouda, "Agreed to visit Jerusalem, with Palestinian documents
or if Palestinians invited
us."
On the other hand a Palestinian scholar’s league issued a statement
in which they
urged Tantawi "Not to support Muslim’s visits to Jerusalem, which would have dangerous and
destructive
repercussions for the Palestinian’s case."
The statement stressed that "Visiting
Jerusalem
under occupation would be some sort of recognition of the occupation, and a call for normalization under
the pretext of the mosque."
For his part the head of the Sunnah [the sayings and the doings
of
Prophet Mohammed] and Sīrah [the life story of Prophet Mohammed] Center at Qatar University, Youssef al
Qaradawi,
issued a Fatwá, which banned visits by non-Palestinian Muslims to al Aqṣá [mosque] under Israeli
occupation.
"The boycott of Israel is the duty of every Muslim and we should resist the
status quo."
said the Fatwá of Qaradawi.
The call of Tantawi released a controversy in
religious circles, with
some considering it positive and others rejecting it totally.
In a
very long article in al-Arabi
titled "Visiting al-Aqsá with an Israeli visa is illicit" Nashwa al Deeb
listed some opinions on the
issue.
The secretary general of the Azhar Scholars Front, Dr.
Yehia Ismael Habloush, believes "It
will not be a financial support to Palestinians, if Muslims go their
now they will give the right of custody to the
occupiers." He wondered who would give us the visa, "Once
Israelis give us the visa we will have to obey
them."
A professor in the Azhar university,
Dr. Mohammed Abdel Ghani Shama, said, "There is no
security there, pilgrimage is obligatory when the road
is secure. The only acceptable visit to Jerusalem now is to
carry out Jihād [holy war], our tourist visit
would not convince the world that Jerusalem is Arab
land."
The head of the Sharī‘a
department in the Azhar university, Dr. Mahmoud Badr, said,
"Jerusalem should be visited only for Jihād,
what has been seized by force should be recovered by
force."
An Islamic intellectual,
Mohammed Emara said, "We have to display the case, before the
acting leadership in Palestine, to see
whether it is useful or not and to really evaluate the advantages and
disadvantages of this
visit."
The author of the article listed full details of one of the weekly
public meetings
of Pope Shenouda at which he challenged strong opposition to his ban on visiting
Jerusalem.
"Israelis seized al-Sulṭān monastery and those who visit Jerusalem are
normalizing
relations with Israelis and weakening the church’s position. They are also betraying me
personally as they don’t
obey the head of the church, who defends Christians interests" said the
pope.
He believes it is good
to have the same viewpoint as the state on this issue and he
blamed tourist agencies for promoting these trips to
Jerusalem.
"The ban also includes Copts
abroad and dangerously ill people," he
added.
However he stressed that the church and he
himself will not ban Christian officials who go
there on official missions.
