Sheikh Ikrima Sabri to Al Jazeera Net: Closing Al-Aqsa on Eid is an affront to the Islamic Ummah.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and head of the Islamic Endowments Authority in Jerusalem, said that closing the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and then Eid al-Fitr amounts to contempt for the Muslim Ummah, calling for its salvation.

“Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and head of the Islamic Endowments Authority in Jerusalem, said that closing the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and then Eid al-Fitr amounts to contempt for the Muslim Ummah, calling for its salvation”

Al-Jazeera Net

For the first time since 1967, the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque was devoid of tens of thousands of worshippers who used to perform Eid al-Fitr prayers in its courtyards, as its doors remained closed for the 21st day in a row, under the pretext of instructions from the Israeli army’s internal Home Front ordering to prevent gatherings due to the state of emergency accompanying the war.

Al-Jazeera Net

Sheikh Ikrima added that the closure of Al-Aqsa “is a contempt for the Muslim Ummah that has not moved a finger on its behalf.”

He said that what is needed to save Al-Aqsa from its current condition is that “the Arab and Islamic states have the political and diplomatic ability to move, but we are disappointed by their stances toward Al-Aqsa.”

The Imam of Al-Aqsa further stated that Eid al-Fitr is a religious rite, and Muslims are forbidden from it by an occupying order, and thus sadness hangs over the city of Jerusalem, because this has not happened since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

He stressed that the relationship between Muslims and Al-Aqsa “will remain a covenantal, faith-based religious relationship, but abandoning the mosque is unnatural and uncivilized, and therefore the joy of the holiday and Al-Aqsa are mournful as they are.”

Al-Jazeera Net

Contrary to the usual, the mosque was devoid of family gatherings and initiatives to distribute sweets and gifts to children, exchanges of greetings, and the corridors leading to Al-Aqsa were devoid of vendors and their voices urging worshippers as they left the prayers to buy simple gifts for their children on the occasion of the holiday.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, who is exiled from Al-Aqsa, added that “it has never happened before that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is closed to worshippers for Eid prayers.”

He explained that Muslims used to seize the opportunity of the holiday to show happiness and joy and to bring delight to the minds of their children, “and today we see that Al-Aqsa is closed by an illegal order, and there is no evidence of the dangers being promoted.”

“Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and head of the Islamic Endowments Authority in Jerusalem, said that closing the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and then Eid al-Fitr amounts to contempt for the Muslim Ummah, calling for its salvation”

Al-Jazeera Net

As for the messages that Israel is trying to convey by preventing worshippers from reaching Al-Aqsa on a major religious occasion, the Sheikh said, “There is no doubt that the occupation’s ambitions and extremist Jewish groups are not hidden; they target Al-Aqsa and covet it, and they want to impose new realities on it through domination, control, sovereignty, and stripping the powers of the Islamic Endowments Office responsible for managing Al-Aqsa.”

He adds that the aim of all measures taken against Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is “to deter people, suppress them, and muzzle their voices, so that they do not dare to object to the policies of the extremist groups.”

It should be noted that the mosques of the city of Jerusalem have remained open since the first day of the war, and the closure remains limited to the first Qiblah, which is attended by about a quarter of a million worshippers during the last ten days of Ramadan and in Eid prayers.