Israel to reopen Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque flashpoint

[oberliner]

Israel shut Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site then promised to reopen it, after clashes in the city’s east where police killed a Palestinian accused of trying to murder a hardline rabbi.

The pledge also came after Arab and US calls for the Jewish state to reopen the Holy City flashpoint.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP the al-Aqsa Mosque compound would open early on Friday “for dawn prayers, after midnight” following its first closure in decades.

Israel said its clampdown on the site, known as Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, was a temporary measure aimed at calming tempers.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/middle-east-in-turmoil/israel-to-reopen-jerusalems-alaqsa-mosque-flashpoint/story-fn7ycml4-1227108118400

[Scootaloo]

1. I'm just curious...

But can someone explain to me how closing the mosque "calms tempers"? i mean what's the path of logic there?

[oberliner]

2. I'm also curious at to why Jews aren't allowed to pray there

Why not allow people of all faiths to pray there if they wish?

[Scootaloo]

3. In the mosque?

I dunno. As far as I'm aware, most religions' houses of worship tend to be for practitioners of that religion. Not a lot of taoist rituals happening in the nave of the local Russian Orthodox church, you know? I mean there's the Unitarians, but not everyone is a Unitarian.

[oberliner]

4. No, The Temple Mount, i.e. the holiest site in Judaism

Do you not actually know what The Temple Mount is?

Hint, it's not a mosque.

[azurnoir]

5. Isn't the Wailing Wall part of the Temple Mount?

do Muslims pray there?

[oberliner]

7. Is this a serious question?

That would be the wall around the Temple Mount - inside of which no Jew may pray.

Hence why so many Jews pray at the wall itself, since that is the closest they are allowed to get.

[azurnoir]

11. it's not because it's the remaining remnant of the second temple?what about the Holy of Holies

I thought that was forbidden to Jews lest it be accidentally trodden upon?

[Scootaloo]

6. Well, if you happened to miss the last fourteen hundred years or so...

You've got a Muslim shrine there, and an attendant mosque. The dome of the rock and the al-Aqsa mosque, respectively.

[oberliner]

8. There are about a hundred different structures inside of the Temple Mount

I am not sure why you oppose Jews being allowed within those walls to pray at this, the holiest site in Judaism, if they so desire.

There would be no need for them to set foot in any mosque in order to do so.

[Scootaloo]

9. I'm not sure why you're attributing an opinion I have not voiced to me

Oh wait, I know exactly why you would do that. oops.

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how the occupying power shutting down the mosque is supposed to calm people down.

[oberliner]

10. Do you think Jews should be allowed to pray there?

Israel shutting down the mosque is supposed to calm people because then Jews who want to pray near the mosque won't encounter Muslims who really don't want them to do so. Also, people on both sides who are angry at the police and/or at one another due to the recent attacks might be looking to head to the site in order to provoke a confrontation.

[Scootaloo]

12. What business is it of mine?

It's a Muslim religious site, currently. If they want to let people in to pray, good for them. if they don't want to let people in to pray, good for them. It's not something that will get my shorts in a twist, any more than if, say, a synagogue decided to not let Wiccans hold esbat inside - or for that matter if they did decide to do so.

i struggle with the notion of the state shutting people out of their own religious place, because members of another religion want to shoulder in to pray, honestly. That part I do have a problem with. I suspect this will be a fundamental difference in viewpoint between you and I.