GAZA, (PIC)
Since the beginning of its brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army has directed its anger and hatred towards mosques, targeting them with destructive missiles to level them to the ground, disregarding all humanitarian, human rights, and religious considerations guaranteed by international conventions regarding the sanctity of targeting places of worship and religious symbols. Perhaps this is not surprising, as those who violate the lives of thousands of innocent people without moral or ethical restraints would not respect the houses of God with their roofs, walls, and minarets. However, the question remains: why does Israel deliberately engage in this targeting?
Dr. Ahmed Al-Shahrouri, a professor of Islamic law, in his response to the question posed to him by the Palestinian Information Center, believes that the Israeli targeting of mosques summarizes the narrative of fear that enemies of Islam have towards these mosques. He emphasizes that the malicious campaign against mosques is an old Western, Crusader, and Talmudic campaign par excellence.
Al-Shahrouri points out that our enemy knows the role of the mosque and knows that it is the mosque that nurtures the ranks of the resistance. “Our enemy knows that those who maintain congregational prayers in the mosque are the ones who carry the concerns of their nation and understand them.”
He notes that “the insistence on destroying mosques is a direct act of sabotaging the role of the mosque.”
He continues by saying that “our enemies have sought to destroy the role of the mosque in civil life, which is why they silenced voices and enacted laws that prevent preachers from saying what they want and prevent the preacher from preaching except with prior permission from governments and states that are subservient to their enemy and have no choice but to hear and obey.”
Targeting the soul and body of the nation
He concludes, “This danger is what we have repeatedly warned about for years when we talk about the role of the mosque in retaliating against the enemy. Therefore, the enemy wants to close our mosques and make them limited to performing rigid rituals devoid of spirit. Today, they are closing the mosque in terms of its physical and spiritual significance, and they target the mosque just as they target schools and hospitals.”
Al-Shahrouri delves deeper into his analysis of Israeli targeting of these symbols, saying, “They aim to treat the soul, and they aim to treat the body. The treatment of the soul takes place in the mosque and the school, so demolishing the mosque is like demolishing the school, and the treatment of the body is represented by hospitals, so they destroy hospitals.”
He underlined that the enemy does not want to leave any meaning of material or spiritual life in the world of this Muslim nation.
The secret lies in shaping the spirit of the fighting individual
Al-Shahrouri sends a message to the Israeli enemy: “Do as you please, burn as you please, and demolish as you please because the secret is not in the wall, the secret is not in the cement, and the secret is not in the roof. Rather, the secret lies in these pure souls that rise above walls and structures, these active spirits that you cannot kill their effectiveness, their jihad, or their steadfastness.”
In his last statement, the spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, affirmed that all the weapons possessed by the resistance “were of no use against the dirty American arsenal that we face in the hands of Zionist mercenaries in the field, were it not for the most important industry we possess, which is the industry of the fighting human being, that Palestinian fighter who no power on Earth can stand against his will and determination to confront the killers of his ancestors and fathers, the desecrators of his sanctuary, and the occupiers of his homeland.”
Abu Obeida wondered, “What will missile technology, fortified tanks, and modern aircraft with their lethal weapons do against the power of a believing fighter who spends two months or more in his defensive enclave, awaiting the advancing forces, awaiting victory over his enemy, and carrying out his mission, believing in the justice of his cause?”
The spokesman said, “It is our jihadist and religious duty to inform the two billion Muslims in the world that the Zionist enemy, within a hundred days, destroyed most of the mosques in the Gaza Strip, desecrated, burned, and razed those reached by its vehicles on the ground, and stopped the call to prayer and prayer in an evident religious war, as a continuation of what the Zionist religious gangs started in their war against Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Abu Obeida called on the Arab and Islamic world to “perform supplications of “Qunut” in all mosques and raise prayers for the victory of the resistance fighters.”
According to the latest announcement from the Government Media Office in Gaza on Thursday, the Israeli occupation army destroyed 157 mosques completely, partially destroyed 246 others, in addition to destroying 3 churches in Gaza.
