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| Middle East |
| One wall collapsed in al-Aqsa Mosque |
| 2003-09-24 |
| The Islamic al-Awqaf department in Jerusalem have accused the Israeli authorities of being behind the collapse of an internal wall in al-Aqsa mosque yesterday after it had prevented its engineers form maintaining it. "It’s the Jews fault!" The collapsed wall is situated near the Islamic museum on a hill in old Jerusalem where the mosque is situated. This wall is considered new in comparison to other parts of the mosque. The director of the Islamic Awqaf in Jerusalem Adnan al-Husseini said that the wall collapsed as a result of "the Israeli intervention in our work and preventing us from maintaining it after we stated it was in an urgent need for a rapid action to prevent its collapse." Hummm, I seem to remember that the Israelis warned that part of the mosque wall was in danger of collapse because of internal renovations quite some time ago. The muslims in charge said no and told the Israelis to butt out. The Israeli archeologist Eliat Mazar had visited the site following the collapse directly. She also said "it seems terrible. This collapse might cause a terrific series of collapses." If this "holy" mosque collapses, especially during prayer services, you know who gets blamed. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 Ah yes, Allah the voice of the moon godlet |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-24 9:48:42 PM |
| #11 "This is the Voice of Allah. You have squandered my blessings upon you by killing your brothers, the Jews. Let the Al Aksa Mosque collapse upon you, and your blood be mingled with the earth placed there by My prophet, Solomon. Return to truth, or you shall all be destroyed." |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-9-24 6:08:46 PM |
| #10 This is not including the excavation under the Mosque that is being dumped into a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. Archeological evidence is being destroyed that tie the Jews to the Temple Mount. Although, since the 'rebellion' began, I think the IDF has stopped any further work. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-24 2:22:34 PM |
| #9 "Israelis and Palestinians have known about decay at the wall for at least a year. But while the bulge is an engineering problem, repairing it is a political one. The two sides are bickering over not only who has the authority to fix the damage but also what caused it and how serious it is. [...]Some Israelis, like Barkay, complain that Muslim religious authorities have been given too much autonomy to run a shrine that is sacred to both sides (Jews call it the Temple Mount). Muslims counter that Israel is quietly encroaching on Al Aqsa. 'When you have competing claims to a holy site, as these two sides do,' says Gershom Gorenberg, who wrote a book about the site, 'it becomes very difficult to do even simple, mundane things.' "Like erecting scaffolding. Adnan Husseini, who directs the Muslim religious trust known as the Waqf, says his engineers have always been in charge of maintenance of the Old City's peripheral wall, and have repaired similar problems before. The base of the south wall has layers of Herodian stone that were constructed 2,000 years ago. But the upper part, where the bulge has appeared, has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries, most recently by the Ottomans. The Waqf began repairs in April but was stopped by Israeli authorities, who wanted to oversee the project. Husseini believes Israelis are deliberately exaggerating the severity of the problem to justify their intervention. 'Their real agenda is to take over the place,' he says. [...] "Husseini blames natural erosion for swelling in the ancient mortar. But some Israeli authorities believe the damaged area, several yards in diameter, is linked to Palestinian construction. In the late 1990s, the Palestinians put a new floor in a large chamber under the compound that Jews call Solomon's Stables and Muslims refer to as the Marwani Mosque, and bulldozed a new entrance. A report drafted by Israel's Antiquities Authority last year cited the refurbishing as one possible cause of cracks in the stone, and said rainwater might be seeping through the mosque and into the southern wall." from Newsweek |
| Posted by: growler 2003-9-24 2:10:04 PM |
| #8 Is C-4 good for holding the bricks together? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2003-9-24 1:47:48 PM |
| #7 Yeah, they must have moved the stack of land mines that shimmed up the NE corner. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-9-24 1:28:43 PM |
| #6 What happened? Did the wall come down after they snuck out all that ammo holding it up? Ah, the "holy places"... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-9-24 1:14:49 PM |
| #5 You guys are cracking me up with these comments!!! |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2003-9-24 12:24:48 PM |
| #4 Quickly! Summon the elite bricklayers of the al-Aqsa Mortar Brigades! |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-9-24 12:05:04 PM |
| #3 They should bring in some special assistance from India to "fix" the thing... |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2003-9-24 10:28:51 AM |
| #2 Coding from the Palestinian Programming School: if(event == good) { Will_of_Allah; } else { fault_of_Jews } |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-24 10:08:17 AM |
| #1 Allah? BZZZZZZZZZ!! Wrong Answer! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-9-24 9:55:30 AM |