KUALA LUMPUR: Four local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Saturday called on the world's Muslim community to protect the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem from Jewish settlers who have stormed the third-holiest shrine in Islam – with the tacit approval of and protection from Israeli authorities.
In a statement, leaders of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisation (Mapim); Alliance of World Masjid in Defence of Al-Aqsa; Secretariat for the Ulsma Assembly of Asia; and Kebajikan Sejagat Malaysia (Sejagat) denounced the most recent incident on Thursday, when 816 settlers laid siege to the mosque under protection by heavily-armed Israeli police.
Chairman of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani, said that Yeshiva students were among the settlers who stormed the mosque and performed Talmudic rituals while inside, deliberately provoking Muslim worshippers.
The latest incident occurred just a day after 1,000 Jewish settlers rushed the mosque.
So far, nearly 2,500 settlers have entered the Al-Aqsa, most of them having forcibly entered the premises during the ongoing Jewish holiday season.
"We are outraged over the deafening silence of Muslim leaders on the storming by 2,473 Jewish settlers of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, who then performed Talmudic rituals during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot – for the third consecutive day," the statement read.
The message was signed by Mapim president Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid; chair of the Alliance of World Masjid Datuk Seri Ahmad Awang; chair of the Secretariat Datuk Wira Abdul Ghani Samsuddin; and chair of Sejagat, Syed Al Attas.
The Muslim groups also condemned the Israeli regime for imposing strict control at the entrances of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, preventing many Palestinians from entering.
It is learnt that Israeli forces also detained and interrogated Al-Aqsa preacher Sheikh Ismail Nawahdeh.
The recent aggressive acts were triggered by the Union of Temple Mount Organisation, which had called on its supporters to increase raids on Al-Aqsa during the Jewish holidays as a means of Judaizing the mosque.
"The aggression cannot be tolerated. If the actions of the Jewish settlers are not challenged, they will be free to enter the mosque without any resistance.
"(Therefore) we call upon the world’s Muslim leaders to be united and respond strongly to the aggression on the Al-Aqsa mosque," they added.