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Pray For A Peaceful Al-Aqsa Mosque – OpEd

Tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers prayed peacefully at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the first Friday of Ramadan despite fears of unrest due to tensions over the Gaza war. The Islamic Waqf, which manages the holy site, announced that some 90,000 people attended the Friday midday prayer. Israel had implemented safety restrictions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, over ninety thousand Palestinians came to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam that is located in East Jerusalem. This year Ramadan coincides with a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which has largely halted fighting after a devastating war that left many thousands dead in Israel and Gaza. Last year, amid the Gaza war, Israeli authorities imposed restrictions on visitors coming to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Only men aged 55 and older and women over 50 were allowed to enter the mosque compound for security reasons, while thousands of Israeli police officers were deployed across Jerusalem's Old City and no major violence occurred. By long standing convention, Jews are allowed to visit but not pray in the compound, which they revere as the site of their second temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The Israeli government has said repeatedly that it intends to uphold the status quo at the Mosque, but many Palestinian use fears about the future of the Mosque as a flashpoint for violence. Last year, Israel allowed Muslims to worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the same numbers as in the previous year despite the war raging in Gaza and no major violence occurred. There is open land on the Temple Mount, and a small Jewish house of worship "hologram", which is a 3D projection created with lasers, could be built adjacent to the Dome of the Rock and 600 feet north of the Al-Aksa Mosque, provided that Muslims would agree to cooperate. Anyone who could arrange such Jewish-Muslim cooperation would really be the Messianic Ruler of Peace (Isaiah 9:5). Christian support for such a cooperative venture would also be important, and anyone who can bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together in mutual respect and cooperation would surely fulfill the greatest of all Messianic predictions, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning knives; nation shall not take up sword against nation, they shall never again teach war." (Isaiah 2:4) Indeed, Jewish/Christian/Muslim agreements establishing world wide peace would not be possible without great spiritual leadership in all three communities. Thus, each Jewish-Christian-Muslim community could consider its leadership to be essentially Messianic, Indeed, such Jewish/Christian/Muslim cooperation would not be possible without great spiritual leadership in all three communities. Thus, each community could consider its own leadership to be essential Messianic aids as is foretold: "Saviors [plural] will come up on mount Zion" (Prophet Obadiah 1:21) and this would fulfill the culminating verses of Isaiah's Messianic prophecy as enlarged upon by Prophet Micah (4:3-5): "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning knives. Nation shall not take up against nation, they shall never again teach war, but every man shall sit under his grapevine or fig tree with no one to disturb him, for it is the Lord of Hosts who spoke. Though all peoples walk, each in the name of its God, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." If each people truly follows the best of its own religious teachings; the Messianic Age of world wide peace will surely have arrived, and then-and only then-will the Jerusalem Temple of Solomon be rebuilt, and God's Holy Kingdom established on earth. A total of 51,600 deaths in Gaza were reported by the UN, as of January 14, 2025, including 7,000 from natural causes and 2,000 killed by Hamas. War-related fatalities were: 22,600 civilians and 20,000 combatants for a civilian/combatant ratio: ~1:1 The writer, a board member of Honest Reporting, has closely reviewed the data for 15 months. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says, "From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate." I say we can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both people first and the land second. "From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by 'a two state for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully solution.'" As the Qur'an states: "Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what is better; then you will see that one who was once your enemy has become your dearest friend..." (41:34) And as the Qur'an states: "'Believers, be steadfast in the cause of God and bear witness with justice. Do not let your enmity for others turn you away from justice. Deal justly; that is nearest to being God-fearing." (5:8)