HNW urges government to play active role in saving Al-Aqsa Mosque

Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR RI) Hidayat Nur Wahid, also known as HNW, has called on the Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to play an active role in efforts to protect and save the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which remains under threat of damage by Israeli Zionists.

He said the mosque is a heritage belonging to Muslims. According to him, efforts to damage the mosque have been ongoing since 57 years ago, namely on 21 August 1969, when an arson attack was carried out by a Zionist extremist.

“To this day, the condition of the Al-Aqsa Mosque has still not been liberated and needs to be a matter of common concern for all of us,” HNW said in a statement in Jakarta on Friday.

He said the tragedy of the Al-Aqsa Mosque arson 57 years ago was also one of the factors behind the establishment of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“The effort to save and liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially from the criminality of that arson and the erasure of its existence, became the mandate for the establishment of that international Islamic organisation,” he said.

According to him, the struggle to protect and liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque remains highly relevant today, because Israeli Zionist efforts to damage and take control of the holy site are still ongoing.

HNW said Muslims were even banned from worshipping at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan last year, and the ban also occurred during the Eid al-Fitr prayer.

Recently, according to him, the Israeli side has allowed illegal Israeli settlers to enter and perform Jewish ritual worship within the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

“This is clearly a form of desecration of Islam and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it contradicts a number of international rules or agreements that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a heritage belonging to Muslims,” he said.

For this reason, HNW said it is only proper that the unity of the world’s Muslims be rekindled to protect and save the mosque. Indonesia, he said, could be the initiator of that unity once again.

“Including through empowering the OIC to carry out one of the main purposes of its establishment, namely to save the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” he said.