{"id":1346,"date":"2017-06-19T15:24:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T15:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/new\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2017-07-13T17:50:11","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T17:50:11","slug":"muslim-officials-harass-us-congressmen-on-temple-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/19\/muslim-officials-harass-us-congressmen-on-temple-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Officials Harass US Congressmen on Temple Mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen there is a lack of resolve in protecting religious freedoms, it emboldens those who have no compunction about suppressing it,\u201d said Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Men wearing the insignia of the Jordanian\u00a0Waqf<\/em>(Islamic trust) stalked and shouted at a delegation of US Congressmen visiting the Temple Mount, claiming that the Americans were not\u00a0modestly dressed and accusing them of referring to the\u00a0Jewish history of the Temple Mount<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe walked up there, and were almost immediately approached by several men who started shouting,\u201d Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA) told the\u00a0Jerusalem Post<\/em>. \u201cWe were tracked the entire time we were there and found these individuals surprisingly intolerant and belligerent.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The trouble began when Muslim men accosted Elizabeth Jenkins, the wife of Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV), and said that she was not dressed appropriately, despite the fact that she was wearing long sleeves and a calf-length skirt. Police were required to disperse the tormenters.<\/p>\n

The group continued on their tour, only for their guide to be interrupted by a man demanding to know if there would be\u00a0any discussion of the Temple<\/a>\u00a0and insisting that the site be called the Dome of the Rock rather than\u00a0the Temple Mount. Men wearing the insignia of the Islamic Waqf, which administers the site, also attempted to confiscate the guide\u2019s maps and diagrams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is a lack of resolve in\u00a0protecting religious freedoms<\/a>, it emboldens those who have no compunction about suppressing it,\u201d said Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), co-chair of the Israel Allies Foundation\u2019s congressional caucus, which organized the trip.<\/p>\n

\n

\"French<\/p>\n

An injured Christian tourist escorted by Israeli police after being attacked. (Rotter.net)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThere was an effort to completely suppress not only any expression of religious conviction, but any articulation of historical reality,\u201d he added, saying the incident \u201cshows the fundamental dynamics of the greater contention throughout the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Palestinian religious leaders, under the initiative of former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrima Sa\u2019id Sabri, issued a declaration last week stating that the\u00a0Temple Mount is only holy to Muslims<\/a>\u00a0and that it is a \u201cdesecration\u201d for Jews to enter the site. AChristian tourist from France<\/a>\u00a0was assaulted by a mob on August 4 for waving an Israeli flag. There were also riots attacking Jews on Tisha b\u2019Av, the day of mourning for the destruction of both Temples.<\/p>\n

By Sara Abramowicz, United with Israel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen there is a lack of resolve in protecting religious freedoms, it emboldens those who have no compunction about suppressing it,\u201d said Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ). Men wearing the insignia of the Jordanian\u00a0Waqf(Islamic trust) stalked and shouted at a delegation of US Congressmen visiting the Temple Mount, claiming that the Americans were not\u00a0modestly dressed and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5180,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/5180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}