Kenan Camurcu

When I opened my eyes in intensive care after the bypass surgery I urgently underwent due to a heart attack in the last days of Ramadan 2006, my first question to the nurse was whether the clock with hands opposite me showed night or day, and what day it was. This effort to determine coordinates might be related to my habit of looking at maps in various jobs. But it stems more from humanity's need to find constants. It's the philosophical problem of universals.

In a delightful mathematical conversation between Dücane (Cündioğlu) and Ali Nesin, Nesin recounted the astrophysicist Ali Alpar's answer from Sabancı University to the question, "How do we know that the sun is stationary and the planets revolve in orbits?" Alpar replied: "If you assume that, the calculations become much easier."

Constants are certainly functional, but they are also important.

The most significant reason for the "Palestinian cause" industry being so unreasoned, open-ended, fluid, volatile, uncontrolled, and effusive is its lack of constants. While it's understandable that those who derive high rents from this industry lean heavily on deceptive practices, many others, having abandoned reasoning, put their minds on holiday, and fled from morality, lack the universals to evaluate the circulating narratives. They are tossed about, drift wherever they are dragged, chase every slogan, and can even equate defending their false and cliché memorized beliefs with dignity and honor. They refuse to hear different and accurate information, and they create noise and uproar, engaging in lynchings to prevent efforts that point to different and false information from being seen or heard. These are the same actions taken by the Prophet's enemies in Mecca to prevent his words from being heard. It's the scene described in Surah Fussilat, verse 26.

The "Palestinian Cause" Without Constants

The "Palestinian cause," lacking constants or universals, acquires its industrial character from Islam's abandonment of being a moral principle and instead defining truth relative to what it perceives as rivals, adversaries, and enemies. There is no objective, independent truth, no intrinsic or essential truth in that universe. When fundamental moral principles about what should not be done in war are discussed, and contrary situations are listed, the actions of the morality-fleeing opponent are brought forward as legitimizing apparatus. This is a state of mind that justifies itself through a competition of deaths, and with that justification, concludes that it does not have to adhere to any religious or moral principles.

It is undoubtedly a tragedy for those who, due to lack of reasoning, unconsciousness, and profound ignorance, cannot even comprehend the topic we wish to discuss, to imagine that discussing these matters instead of the horrific situation created by the Netanyahu government in Gaza could be grounds for accusation. Their sole expectation is for people to join the herd, demonize Israel with political curses and condemnations, and thereby satisfy the headcount requirement of those seeking to carve out space for themselves in politics, economy, social life, etc.

No. We will not join the crowds at the peak of foolishness, useful to the profiteers of the Palestinian industry. We will continue to talk about what needs to be talked about.

How fortunate if the information I convey and the evaluations I make cause those whose minds have been plundered to hit a wall. But it probably won't happen. Because such minds prefer to maintain their guard to protect their existing beliefs rather than object based on the principle of whether what is said is true. In logic, there is the "ad hominem" principle: when one cannot object to the argument, they attack the person. It is the most helpless, most disgraceful, most vulgar way to escape from reality. It is the famous warning confirmed by the Hanbali scholar Yusuf al-Karmi (d. 1624), born in Shihem (Nablus), as belonging to Ali (Fawa'id al-Mawdu'a, p. 111, item 113): "لا تنظر إلى من قال وانظر إلى ما قال" – "Do not look at who said it, but look at what was said."

This is the standard of human perfection. This is the quality and level that both the elites and the common people of Islam in Turkey are light-years away from. Especially since they have gained power and wealth, they prove daily, by raising the bar, how ignorant, greedy, stingy, heartless, senseless, and conduits of evil they have become. They have made no contribution whatsoever to the country's intellectual and cultural needs, nor any respectable benefit to humanity's accumulation of knowledge. All they can do is boast about a reputable and honorable past and try to gain political superiority from it. For example, do Muslims who impress Westerners admiring the genius of Al-Khwarizmi (d. 847) in appreciating zero for nothingness, and who swagger with empty and hollow boasts, produce all the brilliant mathematicians of the world ever since? Plundering and looting the established, destroying the prosperous and built, and hostility towards nature, living beings, and people of different faiths are the only paths they know. The ambition they harbor for Israel, for instance, is merely a plan to plunder the immense effort and labor that turned a desert into today's Tel Aviv.

Hamas and Qassam, who hate Judaism, know nothing but using the justification that "the same was done by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers to Gazans and Judea-Samaria (West Bank) Arabs" instead of questioning and judging their un-Islamic and inhumane heinous crimes targeting all Jews, including those pressuring the Netanyahu government on behalf of Gazans.

The same lack of constants also brings together leftists, whose minds are stuck in the dynamics of the Cold War era, with Hamas supporters. Yet, leftists should know best that there is never a time for political correctness. For instance, the claim that "Hamas is the representative of the Palestinian people" might be a slogan for morale and motivation in a conflict zone, but it carries no informational value; it cannot even come close to the truth. Hamas, whom they support against Israel, is not even the representative of Gaza, let alone the West Bank. How can the most tyrannical branch of Ikhwanism, which has not allowed Gazans to express their will for 17 years and has granted no right to exist to any opposition party, organization, or voice, be declared a legitimate representative?

The slogan "from the river to the sea (mine'nehr ile'l-bahr)," dreaming of a Jewish-free Arab Palestine, belongs to the leftist PFLP. Hamas gladly inherited this antisemitic legacy. It is no different from the "between two rivers (aram naharayim)" slogan belonging to the far-right factions of Israeli nationalism. The PLO and Fatah did not use this slogan. It is this antisemitic sentiment that allowed the PFLP to easily join Khamenei's "axis of resistance."

"War Is Lost When You Resemble the Enemy"

When Qassam militants killed and took hostage elderly, women, and unarmed people, including a 9-month-old baby (among them opponents of Netanyahu's Likud), Muslim factions and branches should have remembered Aliya Izzetbegović's words: "The enemy is not our teacher. War is lost not when you die, but when you resemble the enemy."

When one flees from morality and Islam, their mind starts working differently. According to that mindset, if Netanyahu slaughters babies, Hamas can also slaughter, kidnap, and use human shields. The Prophet's warnings about the ethics of war now hold no value whatsoever. We are in an age of ignorance where Hamas supporters applaud this distortion with enthusiasm. Islam is experiencing a great fiasco.

When Netanyahu began to rain death on Gaza in response to Hamas's Pearl Harbor-like raid on Israeli settlements, killing and taking hostage old, young, and children, Meshaal, a dollar billionaire from the organization's Qatar cadre, was quite relaxed: "Freedom is not gained for free. The Soviets lost 30 million, Vietnam 3.5 million, Algeria 6 million." When the interviewer asked, "How can Hamas expect support while killing and taking civilians hostage?" he replied, "Qassam is focused on soldiers. But civilian casualties can occur in wars. We are not responsible for this."

Meshaal lives a luxurious life in his opulent suite in Qatar. Israelis claim he has a fortune of around 5 billion dollars. From his ultra-luxurious life, where he spares no expense for his prestige, he sends this order to Gazans and West Bankers: "Our losses, the deaths of our people, are tactical. We want jihad to continue on all fronts and lives to be sacrificed."

If only the outcry of the Gazan woman, fed up with the simmering rebellion before the war, could reach unsealed hearts: "Hamas officials' children drive luxury cars, but my four sons are unemployed. All of Gaza is unemployed because of Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. These people don't care about the needs of the poor."

The ultimate disregard for needs and lives was the targeting of Thai agricultural workers by Hamas on October 7, the day of the Al-Aqsa Flood. 30 innocent workers were sacrificed to nihilistic violence. Not by mistake, but by premeditatedly shooting workers who were clearly foreigners. They raided their living quarters and chased them. Diagnosing the Qassam perpetrators of this murder and their unconditional supporters in various countries as sociopaths is accurate.

It doesn't take much intelligence to understand the goal of those who label the issue as an Arab-Jewish war: to maintain power and money. The fan base is also insensitive to examples that would shake their sense of belonging. For example, they are indifferent to the fact that there is an Arab member in the Israeli Supreme Court, and that 19 Bedouin Arabs from southern Israel were massacred in the October 7 attack. They also did not see Hamas hitting the Akhmad Kadyrov mosque in the Circassian-populated Abu Ghosh. Furthermore, the release of Aisha and Bilal, Muslim Arab citizens of Israel kidnapped by Qassam militants during the October 7 attack, during a prisoner-hostage exchange did not interest those who blindly support Hamas. In other words, the issue is not an Arab-Jewish conflict or a religious matter.

If You're a Civilian, Know Your Place

The vast majority of Gazans wish for all Jews to be killed or ethnically cleansed from the land. This way, the wealth, civilization, and productivity built in Israel can be plundered.

However, there's an important rule they forget: when one talks about all Jews needing to be killed, the status and right to be a civilian are lost. Because being a civilian is defined by the principle of being against the policies of states and war machines. Just as a significant portion of Israelis oppose Netanyahu's war policy. But almost all Muslims, including those who oppose Netanyahu's war machine and struggle in the streets for this purpose, view Jews as cursed and creatures deserving to die. Those who think this way are not civilians; it means they have accepted being treated as soldiers. For this reason, the whining that arises when they are treated as soldiers has no meaning or value.

Moreover, Muslims who believe that Jews are cursed by Allah implicitly believe that Jews were created by a different God than their own. Or, according to this belief, Allah must both create and then greatly regret what He created. But He can't undo what He's done. Instead, He contents Himself with cursing the people He created, thereby declaring that their right to exist has been taken away. Some of His servants, taking it upon themselves to act, then undertake the great sacrifice of annihilating Jews in the name of God. This is a copy of the polytheistic universe of ancient Greece, a very perverse, strange, and dangerous creed.

We can deduce that the belief in a "cursed people" was not merely a metaphysical abstraction from the violence encountered by Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Europe when they arrived in their historical homeland. The Arabized indigenous people residing in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria justified their attempts to repel Jewish immigrants from Europe by claiming they were a "cursed people." Amin al-Husseini's request to Hitler "to destroy the Jews and give Palestine to the Arabs," and even his declaration of jihad to kill all Jews in support of Hitler "to solve the world's Jewish problem" (Traude Litzka, The Church’s Help for Persecuted Jews in Nazi Vienna, pp. 48-49), marks the darkest moment in Islam's criminal record.

To regard Amin al-Husseini's collaboration with Fascism as a proud historical achievement, to feel nostalgia for the Nazi brigade he established for Hitler, and to attempt to design the present by drawing inspiration from that dirty past is unacceptable. Therefore, it is necessary to start everything from scratch and abandon ideological obsessions built on false and misleading beliefs.

Are You Ready to Abandon Dogma?

Let's remember: when Qassam militants raided Israeli settlements near the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1200 people in one day and taking 251 Israelis, including babies, hostage, Gazans celebrated this horror in the streets by distributing halva, holding festivals, and firing into the air like a mass ritual. It was obvious that this shocking attack, which triggered an earthquake of magnitude 10 in Israel, would have severe consequences. Indeed, when Netanyahu began raining death on Gaza at the end of the day, those who had been dancing at the celebrations now started publishing distress videos, crying out, "Arabs, Muslims, where are you?"

In those days, Arabs from Gulf states were posting messages on social media, reminding that they had not been asked when a terrifying attack was launched against Israel, knowing it would invite retaliation. They were sharing information that would break the often-repeated narrative of deprivation and victimhood within the Palestinian industry. One message read, for example:

"Suddenly we learned that Gaza, home to 2 million people, has 36 hospitals. There are Arab countries with 30 million citizens and not that many hospitals. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza gets free water, electricity, gas, and fuel from Israel. Of course, there are no Arab citizens who don't pay their water, electricity, and fuel bills. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza receives $30 million a month just from Qatar. And $120 million a month from UNRWA. And $50 million a month from the European Union. And $30 million a month from America. There are Arab countries that are drowning in debt and can't find anyone to help them even with a million dollars. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza is not besieged; all goods, like foreigners and foreign nationals, enter here. Its residents used to travel to Egypt and from there to the rest of the world. Suddenly we discovered that Gaza lives better than many Arab countries. Suddenly we discovered that our minds were surrounded by a lie programmed by Muslim Brotherhood media."

The address of Saudi Arabian writer Rawaf Al-Sain to Gazans also caused quite a stir:

"Saudi Arabia has given you everything. That includes establishing a state for you. King Fahd. When President Reagan asked him to finance the Contra rebel groups, he told him: 'One good turn deserves another. Then give me a Palestinian state.' They agreed on the establishment of a Palestinian state. King Fahd informed Arafat that they would establish a Palestinian state. After all this, Arafat showed no interest in the establishment of a Palestinian state for 10 years. None of you want a Palestinian state. This land belongs to Israel. According to the Quran as well. And you are people gathered from here and there. Mongols, Turkmens, Circassians, Armenians, Roma, you've come from everywhere. There's nothing in Palestine that belongs to you. The Israelites are the children of Isaac. We Arabs are the children of Ishmael. Isaac and Ishmael were brothers. Their father was Abraham. That makes them our cousins. So where did you come from? How can you be part of this? What are you doing among us? Israelis live in their homeland. You have no homeland. Don't try to deceive us. You are not Arabs. You caused Black September in Jordan in 1970. You plundered Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded in 1991. You bring evil to every country you set foot in. I can comfortably spend a night with a Jew, but never with a Palestinian. I would host a Jew in my home, feed them, give them a bed to sleep in, but I would not let a Palestinian into my home."

No one claimed that the information provided by Sain was false or incorrect. They merely insulted him, cursed him, and condemned him. Upon seeing a photo he published while in the hospital, they were convinced that Allah was punishing him.

Indeed, it is quite surprising that Gaza, with an area of 363 km2 and a population of 2 million, had 36 hospitals before October 7, providing free healthcare services with local and foreign doctors from all branches. My city of Kocaeli, with a population of just over 2 million and an area of 3500 km2, has 15 state hospitals, not all branches are available, and we have to pay a certain amount for treatment.

While updated data hasn't been published for a while, my city's socio-economy is under 25 billion dollars. This entire figure comes from production. When donations, funds, and aid from the UN and states before October 7 are taken into account, Gaza receives two or more times this amount in financial support. Not a single penny of it comes from production; it's all donations, aid, and support. Yet, despite this, aid has been collected for Gaza in Kocaeli for years. While the annual meat consumption per capita in Gaza, where Khamenei's "resistance office" sends 350 million dollars in aid annually, is 97 kg, Iranians, struggling economically, can only consume 12 kg of meat.

Antisemitism is the doing of Sunnism. While Shiism has nothing to do with this malice, the current Iranian regime, disliking historical and cultural Iran, follows antisemitic Sunnism and waves the flag in the imaginary Palestinian and Jerusalem cause.

One can either use the pretext of the Likud's massacre in Gaza and continue with unchallenged dogmas, or one can question how Hamas, which broke the 7-year de facto ceasefire and caused a devastating war, spent the billions of dollars it collected every year and why its leaders live in luxury in Qatar. We know that Muslims choose to continue with antisemitic perversion in their dogmas. One reason for this is their profound ignorance, making them unaware of the meaning of even being curious about the truth, while the other reason is their reluctance to face the truth that would emerge.

To demonstrate the falsity of political dogmas, one must delve deeply into the ideological obsession that has transformed into a religious culture that fortifies them. This is because language is shaped by the mental map. For example, the Fatimid Shiites taking Jerusalem from the Artuqids is called "seizure." That is, occupation. Sultan Selim, a Sunni, taking Egypt and Syria from the Sunni Mamluks and capturing Gaza by massacring almost a third of the population is called "conquest." Due to sectarian isolation, the Fatimids losing Jerusalem to the Crusaders is not lamented, while Saladin's "conquest" is celebrated.

The Prophet Had No "Jerusalem Cause"

Despite the Prophet's sphere of interest extending to Damascus, and even though Bayt al-Maqdis/Al-Aqsa Mosque was the qibla for 15 years from the beginning of revelation, no word about the "conquest of Jerusalem" ever came from the Prophet's mouth.

The Prophet, who took preventive measures against an attack and occupation attempt from Damascus towards Medina and went as far as the Byzantine border, did not plan to conquer and seize Jerusalem when passing by it, nor did he say "Jerusalem is Islam's." The slogan "Jerusalem is Islam's" is both anachronistic and a hegemonic imagination that denies differences. For this reason, it is neither Islamic nor humane. No story worth boasting about can come from Saladin Ayyubi's conquest of Jerusalem, who murdered the great Islamic philosopher, the innocent Suhrawardi, on fabricated charges.

In the contemporary Muslim world's obsession with the conquest of Jerusalem (Madinat al-Quds), the industrial aspect is dominant. It is a nascent cause that became a focus with Yasser Arafat's invention of the "Palestinian nation." It does not feature on the agenda or in the list of main issues of the 20th century, when the age of empires had closed.

When the Ottoman Empire's territorial losses accelerated, there is no mention of sensitivity towards the "Palestinian cause" from prominent Islamist figures. No single Muslim intellectual, scholar, or leader can be shown to have expressed concern about Jewish immigration to Palestine, fleeing the ghettos and aggressive antisemitism in Europe. Nor was there any lament for Palestine when it came under British administration after World War I. The "Palestinian cause" emerged the moment an industry arose from conflict and dispute.

Who gave the name "Quds" (full name "Madinat al-Quds," the holy city) to Jerusalem, which had been known by its thousands of years old name Yerushalayim? The Umayyads. Who made the Al-Aqsa Mosque mentioned in the Quran, referring to Solomon's Temple, a mosque by building a mosque there? The Umayyads. The struggle of conservative politicians and Sunnis to preserve the Umayyad legacy is an expected choice from them. But what can be said about those who are against the Umayyads' oppression and distortion fighting for that legacy?

Those who adhere to these coordinates of thought present the "Hebraization of place names" as a major expose and conspiracy. Is it possible that they don't know that all the place names there are originally Hebrew, and that the Romans and their successors transformed them into their own languages and Arabic? We can certainly entertain the possibility of such ignorance, but perhaps they intentionally conduct such campaigns.

Muslims see no harm in dedicating themselves to perpetuating the domination and despotism of the Romans, who gave the name "Palestine" to those lands. This is because Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood and architect of its ideological genetics, worked with Philip Ireland, the US Ambassador in Cairo, to prevent the strengthening of the leftist Wafd Party (Abdurrahim Ali, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun Qira’a fi’l-Milaffati’s-Sırriyye, p. 19). The Ikhwan youth he trained infiltrated communists on behalf of the US and the Palace, acting as informers and receiving a monthly salary of 5 Sterling for this work (Mahmud Assaf, Maʻa’l-Imami’ş-Şahid-i Hasane’l-Banna, p. 22). Richard Michel states that the government effectively used the Brotherhood's strong intelligence to catch leftists (Richard Michell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 167). This genetic heritage lies behind the Islamists' lack of difficulty in adapting to the Palestinian industry.

There's a Mosque Far Away

The list of dogmas for those who attribute themselves to Islam is quite long. Those concerning Jerusalem (Madinat al-Quds/Holy City) and Al-Aqsa Mosque (the distant mosque) are at the top. The popular narratives, slogans, and fervent rhetoric on this topic are like hundreds of fabricated anecdotes, stories, and fantastic tales narrated by an unknown person with the nickname "Abu Hurayrah," who came to Medina just 2 or 3 years before the Prophet's death and whose name is not even known. There is a mental distortion focused on conquering Jerusalem. But they don't even notice the contradiction within their own paradigms and don't ask themselves: Why do they accept the Dome of the Rock, i.e., Omar Mosque, as the "symbol of Jerusalem" rather than the small mosque at the back that the Umayyad Caliph Marwan (d. 705) built and named "Masjid al-Aqsa"?

Omar's Dome of the Rock is a mosque built upon the ruins of the Jewish Kaaba, the David-Solomon Temple, with the guidance of the old Jewish Ka'b al-Ahbar, whom he never separated from. Moreover, he built the mosque exactly at the spot of the rock considered by Jews as the "Holy of Holies," after asking for its location (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim, 8/416). The name of the mosque itself (Qubbat al-Sakhra/Dome of the Rock) comes from this. Legally and morally, it was a complete squat.

In the Isra and Mi'raj story narrated by Aisha, the sole narrator of all strange stories about the Prophet, the "rock" (sakhrah) in question was attributed with the quality that the Prophet ascended to heaven from there. It is quite clear that the scenario aimed to Islamize the "rock" by stripping it of its identity as the "Holy of Holies" for Jews.

The "Mescid-i Aksa" (distant mosque) mentioned in the first verse of Surah Al-Isra is the equivalent of Abraham's Kaaba in Mecca, and the temple in Jerusalem that Solomon completed, taking over its construction from his father David. According to some views, Abraham built both temples first.

In the Palestine industry, we know that Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque are presented as a package that does not include these facts. The "liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque" cause is used to mean taking those places from the Jews and cleansing the aforementioned area of Jews, but what is actually intended to be liberated is the Jews' qibla, their holy place, the Prophet's first qibla, the Temple of Solomon (masjid). Islamists mistakenly believe that the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which they make the subject of angry shouts in demonstrations, is a mere mosque and swear to rescue it from the hands of the Jews.

Not a single empathetic person will emerge from among Muslims to bow before the truth, nor can they. Because this religious identity is like a social inclusion. It is not a religious belief, dignity, personality, or identity that can be achieved individually, similar to Abraham being a nation on his own (An-Nahl 120). Therefore, knowing that it will have no effect on their minds, we will make a comparison merely to register the contradiction: If adherents of any religion had conquered Mecca in history and built a temple on the ruins of the Kaaba, and today fought to prevent anyone from touching that structure, Jews would feel the same way about the Marwan and Omar mosques built on their qibla. In the face of this objective reality, one either comprehends the issue and chooses the idea, stance, and preference dictated by honor (or simply remains silent) or, with a chosen people complex, deems everything they do, even if wrong, as their right. Muslims' eyes see nothing but the latter.

Muslims, who raise a hue and cry about the rebuilding of the Kaaba of the Jews, the Temple of Solomon, would, if the same situation concerned the Kaaba, argue for the right to rebuild the Kaaba and for the existing structure on it to be demolished. This is because they are antisemitic and categorically deny Jews their rights.

We know that Islamists and all factions of Muslims disregard objective reality. This is because Muslims are only concerned with invasion and capture. They view conquest, occupation, and invasion as a divine right. That's why they mourn the loss of Andalusian land to its original owners, to that extent. Even though only a portion of the cathedral in Cordoba, a central structure seized and converted into a mosque, was restored as a church, Muslims cannot tolerate even that. They complain that the adhan cannot be recited there and that great injustice is being experienced.

In "The Spanish Princess" series, when the Spanish princess went to England as a bride and didn't see a hammam, she was surprised and gave examples of the quality of daily life inherited from Andalusia. While Spaniards have made their Muslim Arab past, including linguistic traces, an indispensable part of their cultural heritage, there is not the slightest reference to the contributions of other cultures among Muslims. They lack the qualities, characteristics, education, courage, and self-confidence to inspire such a conception of civilization.

They celebrate the conversion of Hagia Sophia, a symbolic structure of Eastern Christianity, into a mosque, but they cry out for the restoration of structures that were churches converted into mosques in Muslim lands lost to their original owners. Is there any example of a symbolic, central religious structure, a mosque, being converted into a church in Muslim towns occupied by Christians? When Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Crusaders, they didn't touch the Marwan and Omar mosques, did they? Apart from one or two sections in the annexes being used for logistical purposes. But the first thing Muslims do after an invasion is to completely transform the central symbolic place of worship into a mosque. They call it "the symbol of conquest."

The True Story of the "Distant Mosque"

In a video I came across on social media, Mustafa İslamoğlu explained that when the Kaaba (Masjid al-Haram) was seized by Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr (683), the mosque named "Masjid al-Aqsa" was built by the Umayyad caliph as an alternative place and temple to the Kaaba. We could have hoped that this authentic historical reading would profoundly shake the established false belief, with its exaggerated rhetoric, had it not been for the profitable and difficult-to-dismantle Palestine industry.

The Umayyad caliph Marwan, by encouraging the mosque inherited from Omar to be known as "Masjid al-Aqsa," undoubtedly distorted the Quranic verse for his political gain. However, all factions of Islamism—Sunni, Shia, Salafi—continue that distortion.

The "distant mosque" (Masjid al-Aqsa) is Bayt al-Muqaddas, which David began building and his son Solomon completed (Allama Tabataba'i, Al-Mizan, 13/6). (Tabarsi, Majma' al-Bayan, 6/412). The historian Maqrizi also states that this structure is Bayt al-Muqaddas, meaning the David-Solomon Temple, which was called the "distant mosque" due to its distance from Masjid al-Haram (Kaaba) (Imta' al-Asma, 8/196).

There are scholars from Twelver Shiism who object to this assessment. Based on some narrations, they argue that Masjid al-Aqsa is not Bayt al-Muqaddas, but rather Bayt al-Ma'mur on the fourth heaven. This implies that there is no structure called Masjid al-Aqsa on earth. According to this claim, Imam Sadiq said the following about Surah Isra, verse 1: "(On the night of Mi'raj) Gabriel took the Prophet up to the fourth heaven, where Bayt al-Ma'mur, meaning Masjid al-Aqsa, is located." (Allama Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, 18/394).

Contrary to popular religious culture's dogma, the temple/mosque built by David and Solomon is the structure upon whose ruins the second caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab built a mosque when he captured it in 637 (Tabari, Tarikh al-Umem, 3/611). The old Jewish Ka'b al-Ahbar told Omar that the foundations of the Temple of Solomon, the holiest spot for Jews, were there (Abu al-Fida, Al-Mukhtasar, Institut für Orientalistik, 1935, p. 40).

Allama Ja'far Murtada Amuli, one of the pioneers of alternative Sira writing, states that when Omar entered Bayt al-Muqaddas, not only was there no mosque called Al-Aqsa Mosque, but there was no mosque there at all (As-Sahih min Sirat al-Nabiyy al-A'zam, 3/137). It is clear that the mosque built by Omar and developed by the Umayyads was accepted and popularized over time under the name "Masjid al-Aqsa." Ibn Khaldun, perhaps to clarify this confusion, specifically states that the structure called "Masjid al-Aqsa" is "Omar's mosque" (Kitab al-Ibar, 1/433).

Hazrat Ali, who astutely foresaw where this would lead, also warned people against visiting "Masjid al-Aqsa" instead of (or in addition to) the Kaaba and explicitly forbade this behavior. He even said that the Kufa mosque was far superior to that mosque (Hurr al-Amuli, Wasa'il al-Shi'ah, 5/261, Hadith: 6495). In Ali's comparison of the Kufa mosque with Omar's mosque, a strong reaction against unnecessary and misplaced sanctification can be seen. Even today, the exaggerated interest of Shia members from Khamenei's faction in the fake Al-Aqsa Mosque confirms the foresight in Hazrat Ali's warning.

Historical records show that Umayyad caliphs made special efforts to promote the Omar mosque as "Masjid al-Aqsa." Numerous fabricated narrations/hadiths are also evidence of this. Shia sources provide examples of Imam Ja'far Sadiq's struggle against these lies and fabrications. In one of them, Imam Sadiq says: "Whoever claims that Omar's Al-Aqsa mosque has virtue is a liar." (Kulayni, Al-Kafi, 3/491).

In the religious culture of the Palestine industry, there is also an end-of-history and doomsday war scenario. The "Gharqad tree" story, related to the hope and good tidings that Muslims will kill all Jews at the end of time, is central to this scenario. In the third and final article of the Palestine industry series, we will examine this topic and conclude the matter.

Translated by Gemini