PA Mufti: Attack against Muslims in New Zealand is like "desecration of the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque" or spilling of "Martyrs'" blood

Headline: “40,000 worshippers held Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque”

“Forty thousand worshippers held Friday prayers at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas…

[PA Grand Mufti and Palestinian Supreme Fatwa Council Chairman] Sheikh Muhammad Hussein said in a Friday sermon that what happened at a mosque in New Zealand (refers to a shooting attack on March 15, 2019, 50 murdered –Ed.) is no different than the desecration of the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs), or the spilling of the blood of the dozens of Palestinian Martyrs (Shahids).

The sheikh emphasized that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque is a tenet of faith and place of worship of the Muslims alone, and that the [Gate of] Mercy structure and mosque (refers to a compound that was opened by the Jordanian Waqf in violation of a court order; see note below –Ed.) are an inseparable part of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque’s houses of worship.”

February 2019 Temple Mount clashes – Muslim riots broke out on the Temple Mount starting Feb. 18, 2019, after the Israeli police closed a compound near the Gate of Mercy after the Jordanian Waqf had violated an Israeli court order by reopening the compound the previous week. The compound was ordered sealed in 2017 given that it was managed by the banned Islamic Movement in Israel and used for illegal construction and antiquities destruction.