South of Occupied Jerusalem on top of the mountain of Sharafat village the fire caused premeditatedly by fanatic Israeli settlers almost erased 600 years of Islamic history embodied in Al-Badriyin Mosque.
Sharafat
Sharafat is a Palestinian village south of Jerusalem City in the middle of which is Al-Badriyin Mosque a small building deeply rooted in history.
Sharafat is one of the oldest villages of Occupied Jerusalem. It covers an area of over 973 dunums and has a population of about 3000 Palestinians. The village is surrounded by a number of Israeli settlements that were built on seized Palestinian land.
Arson attack
Before you enter Al-Badriyin Mosque you find a large banner that informs you about the history of the mosque which dates back to about 600 years.
Sheikh Ismail Awad the Mu’azzin of Al-Badriyin Mosque is usually the first one to arrive at the mosque before the Dawn Prayer to open the mosque turn on the lights and recite the Adhan (call to prayer).
On the day of the attack Awad entered the mosque to find out that parts of the building had been set ablaze.
“When I arrived at the mosque I noticed a fire. First I thought the fire was caused by a short circuit due to the cold weather and heavy rain but then I saw fire in different locations in the mosque including the Mihrab” he said.
Sheikh Awad said that he rushed to put out the fire using prayer rugs and phoned a number of the mosque’s neighbors asking for help.
According to Awad the Israeli settlers who set fire to the mosque poured incendiary materials on the mosque’s carpets in an attempt to burn the mosque completely.
He added that within 15 minutes they managed to put out the fire and prevent it from expanding to other parts of the mosque.
The Palestinian residents of Sharafat and neighboring areas following the incident started campaigns to collect funds to rehabilitate the damaged parts of the mosque and buy new carpets.
The Israeli settlers responsible for the attack spray-painted racial slurs and pro-settlement slogans on walls adjacent to the mosque.
Vicious crime
Muhammad Ahmad Hussein the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem strongly condemned the vicious attack on Al-Badriyin Mosque calling it “a blatant aggression against all beliefs and religions and a grave violation of all international laws”.
He stressed that this settler attack is the result of the racist incitement policy pursued by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians.
Sheikh Hussein called on the concerned Arab Islamic and international organizations to act toward ending these attacks and pressure the Israeli occupation to make the settlers stay away from mosques and other holy sites in Jerusalem and the rest of the Palestinian territories.
