On Islam-Israel ties

On Islam-Israel ties

In response to my letter in The Jakarta Post on Nov. 17, 1999,
entitled Israel destroys mosques, Mr. Kevin Price accused me of
being prejudiced and one-sided and did nothing to promote the
cause of peace. He also said that I did not realize that Israel
has already been diplomatically recognized by Egypt, Jordan and
PLO (the Post, Nov. 25, 1999).

It's his right to say that. But I think such accusations go to
the wrong address, because, in my letter, my focus was to deny
Dirk Vleugels and David Jardine's statements that Israel did not
destroy mosques, by presenting some facts that actually show
Israel has done so.

I can even give you an additional list of Israel's
sacrilegious acts. I don't know whether or not Dirk Vleugels,
David Jardine or Kevin Price intentionally manipulated the facts.

My statement was partly based on the citations of Grace
Halsell's articles in the Washington Reports on Middle East
Affairs. She was an American writer and former speech writer at
the White House during President Lyndon B. Johnson's
administration.

Mr. Kevin is right in saying that the arson attempt on Al
Aqsha Mosque was done by "a crazed fundamentalist Christian from
Australia", not by a Zionist zealot. The Australian terrorist has
been identified as Denis Michael Rohan. I'm not sure about this
man's identity because some said he was an Australian tourist in
Jerusalem, but the others said he was an Australian-born
terrorist. But today there is a hypothesis, which has been
particularly developed in the United States, that there is a
secret pact, based on the bible and the messianic spirit, between
Zionists and Christian fundamentalists to destroy Al Aqsha
Mosque.

According to Grace Halsell, there is a strain of Christian
fundamentalism known as "dispensationalism", which believes that
God will destroy the world through a terrible battle or
Armageddon (World War III?) to prepare for the second coming of
Christ. Halsell wrote that there are Christian fundamentalists
who donate generously to Jewish terrorism, including Terry
Reisenhoover, an oil and gas tycoon, Dr. Hilton Sutton, chairman
of the Mission To America and Dr. James DeLoach, pastor of
Houston's Second Baptist Church. They boasted that they had
established a Jerusalem Temple Foundation specifically meant to
aid those intending to destroy the mosque and build a temple.

However, the spirit to build the Temple of Solomon (Haykal
Sulaiman) for Zionists on the site of Al Aqsha Mosque keeps
burning. Since the Israeli occupation in 1967, Al Aqsha Mosque
has been the target of several attempts by the Jews to destroy or
burn it, including several attempts to make it collapse through
underground excavations.

On Aug. 14, 1970, The Gershon Salmon group was formed, an
ultra-fanatic group dedicated to the so-called rebuilding of the
Temple of Solomon on the site of Al Aqsha Mosque once it has been
demolished. Ten years later, on April 19, 1980, a group of Jewish
Rabbis and sages held a semi-secret conference devoted to
exploring ways and means "to liberate the Temple Mount from
Muslim hands".

Mr. Kevin asked why Indonesians seemingly continue arguing
about the Jewish-Muslim conflict, while their "Muslim brothers"
are making peace with Israel. The answer is Muslims here still
consider Israel a colonialist power who unhesitatingly conducted
sacrilegious acts.

DARUL AQSHA

Jakarta