Smoke before the real fire!!

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat last week said it was time for Israel to finally implement true religious freedom and allow Jews to pray atop the Temple Mount.

"The government is ultimately responsible for whether or not Jews can pray on the Temple Mount, not the Jerusalem municipality," Barkat told students at a religious high school. "My opinion is that everyone should be able to pray there."

Despite being the holiest site in the world to Jews and many Christians, none but Muslims are permitted to pray atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

Technically, anyone can pray there, but threats of Muslim violence have resulted in a police policy forbidding Jews and Christians from even mouthing prayers while visiting the Temple Mount.

Despite the ban, a growing numbers of Jews have been saying quiet prayres while visiting the Temple Mount, and many have been arrested for doing so as a result of Muslim authorities complaining to police.
The Muslims claim Jerusalem's Temple Mount as an "Islamic Trust," and therefore view "infidel" prayers as desecrating a site holy to them. Local Muslims have in the past responded with deadly violence to visits to the Temple Mount by prominent Jewish leaders.

In what is becoming an all too common occurrence, a Jewish man this week was denied freedom of worship at Judaism's most holy site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Right-wing activist Moshe Feiglin, who is expected to enter the Knesset as a Likud lawmaker in the upcoming election, was arrested on Tuesday after the Muslim authorities that control the Temple Mount spotted him quietly bowing down in prayer.

It is not the first time Feiglin has been arrested for praying atop the Temple Mount, and he joins a long list of others, many of whom have been detained for nothing more than silently mouthing Jewish prayers while visiting the holy site.

Out of fear of another violent Muslim reaction, the Israel Police cooperate with the Islamic Waqf that occupies the Temple Mount by forbidding visiting Jews and Christians from praying at or carrying Bibles into the compound.

Israel officially guarantees freedom of religion and worship for everyone in the country. The only group that is semi-officially discriminated against are Jews when they are visiting the Temple Mount.
This time the police are going so far as to recommend that Feiglin be officially indicted, even though there is no official law against Jews praying at the Temple Mount.

Groups of Jewish visitors were prevented from ascending the Temple Mount (Judaism's holiest site) by a mob of hostile Muslim women on Wednesday morning.

Like very day, the Jewish groups lined up below the Temple Mount's Mughrabi Gate, where police checked to make sure they weren't committing the heinous crime of trying to bring a Bible into the premises. The Muslim authorities forbid the presence of Jewish and Christian holy items, and, out of fear, Israel plays along.
As the groups began to move through the gate, a group of Muslim women blocked their path and began hurling insults at the Jews. Police officers managed to disperse the women, only to then be confronted by an even larger group of angry Muslim men.

In order to avoid any violence, Israeli police decided to close the Temple Mount to non-Muslim visitors and ordered the Jewish groups to leave.

A similar incident occurred on Monday, when new Knesset member Moshe Feiglin (Likud) attempted to use his parliamentary immunity to enter the Temple Mount, but was turned away by security officials afraid of a confrontation with the Muslims.

Feiglin said it was "a clear admission of the loss of Jewish sovereignty on the Mount."

In related news, Arab Muslim leaders have again warned US President Barack Obama to avoid visit the Temple Mount during his upcoming trip to Israel. Obama would almost certainly ascend the holy site with Israeli representatives or security, and Muslim leaders say this would legitimize what they call the Israeli "occupation" of the Temple Mount.

"We warn Obama not to cause damage to Palestinian interests or our holy sites," said a representative of the local Islamic Movement.