Turkey takes up the Temple Mount dig conspiracy theory

From Yusuf Kanli at Hurriyet Daily News:

A close friend with very sensitive ears and an extremely analytical brain was expressing worries the other day. “What if something very, very unusual that may change the entire cultural-historical setup of the Middle East takes place?” he asked. I could not understand. “What?” I asked, expecting him to present me with a radically different Egypt analysis or say something on the Syria situation.
...

“What if all of a sudden the second holiest site of Islam, the al-Aqsa Mosque collapses into rubble?”

Silence. I could not understand what he was saying and definitely it was beyond my comprehension capability to accept any claim that Israel might undertake such a heinous, suicidal move.

My friend explained that under al-Aqsa, the Israelis have dug many tunnels over the past two decades or so, turning the area into something like a huge gruyere cheese. He said if more digging was done the whole mosque might implode down and vanish. Worse, Israel, my friend claimed, might explain to the world that the mosque collapsed by itself, it could not be blamed, it played no role in the collapse. As even at Camp David the Israelis were demanding sovereignty underneath al-Aqsa while giving sovereignty above ground to the Palestinians (the demand frequently cited as the prime reason of the collapse of Camp David peacemaking) would Israel allow reconstruction of al-Aqsa?

I was perplexed. My immediate reaction was “But if Israel takes such an odd move, Turkey, governed by the current political Islam team, could even declare war on Israel.” My friend smiled and fired back “No, nothing will be done. The international community would say whatever possible would be done and an international effort would soon get underway to rebuild al-Aqsa but as the Middle East nations will be busy with various forms of civil war, the Israelis will get away with what they have done and consolidate their claim on Jerusalem by getting rid of al-Aqsa as well.

It was a very extreme assumption or conspiracy theory from someone rather credible. Would I take it into consideration or just write it somewhere for future use? Better to share it and perhaps render more difficult such a grave development taking place. 

it took this long for the crazy Arab rumors of Jews digging under the Temple Mount to reach Turkish Islamist nutcases?

I've been reporting these stupid theories for at least six years, but I was curious for how long Muslims have been pushing this meme.

I found my answer here:

What a coincidence! The idea that Jews were digging to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque started right after Jews returned to the Old City after being ethnically cleansed by Arabs for 19 years!

It must be that the Jews started the digs 45 years ago, just waiting for the exact date that the Islamic and Arab worlds as well as the world at large would be too distracted to do anything about it! Then, at just the perfect time, the small detonations could occur.

Or perhaps Israel will unleash its artificial earthquake combined with a stone-melting chemical..

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)