Road to Jerusalem Conference Issues Statement
The statement said that the love for the Al-Aqsa is in the hearts of all Muslims, since it is their first qiblah (direction of prayer) and along with Al-Masjid Al- Haram and the Mosque of God’s Apostle, it is one of the three mosques to which Muslims make pilgrimage. "The Blessed Aqsa Mosque is also the place of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Night Journey which is mentioned in the Holy Quran.
The participants, who included a group of Muftis, Awqaf Ministers, scholars and intellectuals from the Muslim world, were apprised by Jerusalemites on the situation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and its Muslim and Christian Holy Sites and the escalating and continuing aggressions and transgression that they are subjected to by the Israeli occupation which strives to Judaize the Holy City and impose its complete control over the Blessed Aqsa Mosque through aggressive practices.
These practices include settlement; land confiscation; demolishing the home of Jerusalemites; excavations that have reached down to the foundations of the Blessed Aqsa Mosque and now threaten to lead to its collapse. The occupation continues its aggressions against the Aqsa Mosque by planning to divide it temporally and spatially, this is seen through official statements that support the calls of extremists to divide the Aqsa Mosque and rebuild the so-called temple, the statement said.
After listening to the working papers, participations, interjections and all the dialogue at the sessions of conference, participants affirmed that the road to Jerusalem must go through the means and mechanisms.
They include exerting efforts to achieve the unity of the Arab and Muslim Ummah and at the very least agree together on the constants, the most important of which are the protection of the Ummah’s Holy Sites and religious antiquities in Jerusalem; and continuing to defend the rights of the Palestinians and the justness of their cause; for under division and fragmentation, none of the Ummah’s substantive goals can be achieved.
They also asked to remind the Ummah that financial and personal sacrifices must be made to defend the Ummah’s religious Holy Sites and religious antiquities, its land and its people. Further, they called for supporting Jerusalemite institutions, be they educational, medical or social, in a manner that guarantees that they continue to be sustainable and steadfast. Other means include supporting the projects of Jerusalemites related to housing, religious endowments (awqaf) and their upkeep; and supporting committees for zakat (required almsgiving) and for social, medical and economic welfare.
Further, they include calling on Arab and Muslim states and governments and the states that support the justness of the Palestinian cause to tie their bilateral economic, political and cultural interests to the violations and aggressions that are occurring against the Blessed Aqsa Mosque and Muslim and Christian Holy Sites and religious antiquities; in addition to the settlement violations that are taking place at the expense of the Palestinian people and Palestinian land.
The participants reaffirmed that the walls of Al-Aqsa and all that is within them, above and below the ground, and its environs are an indivisible part of the over 144 dunum (144.000 m2) sacred waqf. They added that the Al-Aqsa includes: the Qibli Mosque, the Marwani Mosque, the Dome of the Rock Mosque, the Cave of the Dome of the Rock underneath the Dome of the Rock, the Old Aqsa Mosque, the Khanthaniyah School, the Buraq Mosque, the plazas of the esplanade, its gates, hallways, roads, cisterns, aqueducts and aquifers, inner and outer prayer areas and structures and facilities both above and below the ground. The environs of the Mosque are blessed and are Islamic waqfs and include the Magharbeh Gate Pathway and the Buraq Plaza.
Further, they called for thwarting the Jewish narrative that aims to Judaize Jerusalem, its Holy Sites and all of Palestine in international arenas including academic and educational forums, international organizations, media institutions and social networking channels. As an offshoot of the Road to Jerusalem Conference, a committee shall be established that will be dedicated to monitoring the Jewish narrative on all fronts and will prepare counterstudies that will refute it.
The conference also praised a fatwa issued by the scholars from all over the Muslim World who participated in the Road to Jerusalem Conference. The scholars affirmed the importance of visiting the Blessed Aqsa Mosque and the presumption of its continuity.
Source: Petra
