Turkish
leader: Muslims won’t remain silent over Temple Mount
Turkish President’s inflammatory rhetoric singles
out Israeli security measures on the Temple Mount.
Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, condemned Israeli security precautions at the Temple Mount,
threatening that the Islamic world would not remain silent. Erdogan addressed
reporters Sunday in Istanbul before departing on a visit to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
and Qatar.
“No one can expect the Islamic
world to remain unresponsive after the humiliation Muslims suffered with the
restrictions at the Noble Sanctuary,” he stated. Earlier last
week, Israel installed metal detectors at the shrine following a
deadly attack by Muslim terrorists there who killed two
Israeli policemen. Palestinians perceive the metal detectors as an
encroachment on the rights of Muslims, who have blamed the security measures
for their protests in various spots throughout the world.
Erdogan called
on Israel to remove the detectors in a phone conversation with his
counterpart Reuven Rivlin on Thursday. In the conversation, Rivlin slammed
Turkey’s lack of condemnation of the attack. “Israel was
maintaining and would continue to maintain the status quo at the holy sites,”
Rivlin told Erdogan.
On Saturday, Erdogan stated that
the “metal detectors and other restrictions should be immediately lifted and
returned to the status quo. Everyone should be guard against provocations at
this sensitive time.”
Similarly, Turkey’s Prime
Minister Binali Yildirim condemned Israel. Yildirim tweeted that Muslims’
access to Al-Aqsa “being restricted for any reason is unacceptable.”
He further tweeted, “We are
waiting for Israel to right this wrong by heeding the Islamic world’s sensitivities,”
according to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.
“Terror is a common threat to all
humanity. Terror has no religion, language, or race. We strongly condemn terror
once more,” the statement added.
Israel installed metal detectors
and cameras at the site’s gates, which Palestinians claim changes the status
quo on the Temple Mount
Israel refused to remove the
detectors, explaining that such security measures are similar to procedures
taken at other holy sites around the world.
By: World Israel News Staff and AP
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