Last night, 100,000 Arab Muslims said the Isha and Tarawih prayers on the Temple Mount. This is the most I ever remember reading about for the nighttime prayers.
So far during Ramadan, that is about the number that have been there for the morning prayers as well.
This year, apparently for the first time, Israeli police are visible during prayers. This is to forestall the violence we've seen in years past, especially attempts to stay overnight and attack Jewish visitors on weekday mornings.
Waqf officials are very unhappy about that.
A former Waqf spokesperson, Abdullah Maarouf, told Al Jazeera that the visible police "are imposing a permanent presence inside it in a way that provokes worshippers, especially during major prayer times such as Friday prayers and Tarawih prayers."
Marouf believes that through this measure, the occupation authorities are attempting to impose their image as the actual controllers of Al-Aqsa's affairs and the true supervisors of what happens there. Furthermore, the police want to convey the message that they are the ones who direct the Muslim masses at this site.The Jerusalemite academic described this as a "dangerous shift" in the way the police deal with this holy site, as the occupation seeks to use it to assert its presence as the sole administrative and political authority over Al-Aqsa Mosque."The danger lies in the fact that these actions pull the rug out from under the feet of the Islamic Endowments [Waqf] Department, completely neutralizing its role and turning it into a mere manager of some Muslim affairs at Al-Aqsa, not the manager of the mosque itself," Marouf added.
Hate to break it to you, Maarouf, but that's the way it has been for 58 years.
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