Al-Aqsa in DANGER!!

From: Idris Bakri bakrii@mustard.ee.byu.edu

In The Name of Allah, the Most Beneficient, the Most Merciful

Glorified be He Who took His servant (Muhammad) for a journey by nightfrom

Al-Masjid Al Haram (at Mecca) to the Al-Aqsa Mosque (inJerusalem), the neighborhood whereof We have blessed, in order that Wemight show him some of Our signs.

Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer. The Qur'an 17:1.With these eternal verses, Allah (God), stated in the heart of the Muslim scripture, the Qur'an, the never diminishing significance of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to Islam and Muslims.

Al-Aqsa, right inthe heart of the Muslim world, is to where our prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be unto him) journeyed at night in a miraculous mannerfrom the city of Mecca, where his call to Islam (submission to God)was still in its earliest stages.

At Al-Aqsa Mosque, he led all of theprophets of Allah that came before him in prayer and then ascended toheaven to receive Allah's command to the Muslims to pray five times aday.Eversince, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Jerusalem have been very special to Muslims all over the world. They pray for it and long to pray in it. And today, with Al-Aqsa being under the Israeli occupationfor thirty years, all Muslims pray for its liberation and for the freedom of their Palestinian brothers, who have become the soldiers at the front line of the battle to redeem Al-Aqsa.Occupation, burning, successive agression, closure and martyr after martyr have become Al-Aqsa'a story in the last thirty years.

Al-Aqsais really a deep wound right in the heart of the Muslim world. Intoday's unfair reality and materialistic world, Al-Aqsa has become asymbol of the undesired existence of the trouble-making Palestinians,Arabs and Muslims (so they say!).No wonder then, that when the dream of a historical parasite of opening a tunnel to undermine the foundation of Al-Aqsa Mosque findsits way to reality, Palestinians of all ages and all beliefs spring to the rescue.

They are Muslim Palestinians defending their very basicright of existence. Some are Christian Palestinians, also, fighting for the Muslim shrine. Al-Aqsa is more than a building with historicaland religious significance, it is an idea, a creed even, that we all have to stand up for what is right and true.Muslims love Al-Aqsa, pray for it, fight for it and die for it because, as they see it, they are fighting for the promise of a new and higher reality. A reality of peace, justice and mutual respect. This promised reality is not an imaginary one. It did exist when the Muslims liberated Al-Aqsa from the European Crusaders,allowing them to evacuate Jerusalem peacefully with their belongings and families.

This was the Muslims' response to the brutality of theCrusaders when they massacred the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem,Muslims and Christians alike.It is in this spirit of a higher reality, that we can understand whyPalestinian soldiers were carrying a wounded Israeli soldier, and were trying to get him to the closest medical team. This was their responseto the brutality of the Israeli military machine, which did nothesitate to deploy helicopters against unarmed civilians, trying to kill them and to kill their dream, of freeing Al-Aqsa Mosque.

We will continue to believe in Islam's message and its symbol,Al-Aqsa. We can see our promised reality of peace and justice to all,in the eyes of the innocent Palestinian children, as they die for Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Idris El Bakri

Jerusalem, Palestine

Muslim Student Association

Brigham Young University