On Sunday, February 24, the overseer of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab, was detained after several protests near the mosque. Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to Al-Aqsa, a mosque within Jerusalem. This journey is one of the most significant events in the Islamic calendar; however, when Israeli Jews gained control of Jerusalem they have had limited access to the mosque. In 2017, the Israeli authorities decided to deny the public access to the by closing off the gates surrounding the mosque. For years there has been large controversy, but on Friday, Muslim religious officials reopened the gates. Following the opening, many Palestinians gathered inside the complex and preformed prayers together. As a result, the Israeli officials arrested Salhab accusing him of trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims as well as Jews. While the Israeli officials perceived the opening of the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a threat to their authority and control of Jerusalem, it was simply a symbol of liberation for the Palestinians. The Muslim protesters stood up for their rights to enter their holy territory after years of being restricted by Israeli power. The arrest of Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab was a reaction to Muslims challenging the Israeli control of Jerusalem, but was unnecessary. While the protest was seen as a threat by Israel, the protesters simply gathered peacefully and worshiped without harming Jews in Jerusalem, so the arrest of Salhab was an exaggerated response. Instead, the Israeli authority should have addressed the situation differently and realized the Muslim population was not disturbing the Temple Mount, rather than view the gathering as a threat to Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a conflict over control of Jerusalem, but could be diminished if Israel allowed Muslims to worship in their holy land. However, it is unlikely the nations will come to an agreement if the conflict continues to have results like this event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday, February 24, the overseer of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab, was detained after several protests near the mosque. Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to Al-Aqsa, a mosque within Jerusalem. This journey is one of the most significant events in the Islamic calendar; however, when Israeli Jews gained control of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3155,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154\/revisions\/3155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}