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Dr.
Paul L. Williams, PhD
Iraq to Build Massive Mosque Over the Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel
January 7, 2010
The Iraqi government plans to convert the
Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, one of the most sacred sites for Christians
and Jews, into a massive new mosque.
What’s more, the Iraqis intend to erase all Jewish markings from the
tomb so that no indication of its historic significance will remain for
future generations.
The plan to transform the ancient burial site into a mosque was reported
this week by Ur News, the Iraqi news agency, and Shelomo Alfassa,
Director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries.
Mr. Alfassa says that Iraq’s Antiquities & Heritage Authority "has been
pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of a Jewish
connection to Iraq – a land where Jews had lived for over a thousand
years before the advent of Islam.”
The desecration of the tomb, Mr. Alfassa adds, is taking place under
"the pretext of restoring the site.”
Similar confirmation comes from Professor Shmuel Moreh, Israel Prize
Laureate in Arabic Literature and Professor Emeritus at Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, who says that he is aware that the Hebrew
inscriptions have been erased and that the plans for the new mosque are
well underway.
The ancient burial site of Ezekiel is located in Al-Kifl, a small town
south of Baghdad.
Ezekiel, whose prophecies included the Valley of the Dry Bones and the
return of the Jews to Israel, lived in the sixth century B.C., having
accompanied the exiled Judeans to Babylon.
Throughout the centuries, thousands of pilgrims visited the site of his
tomb annually before Iraqi Jewry came to an abrupt end in 1979 with the
rise of the Islamic Revolution. Though well over 100,000 Jews lived in
Iraq, this number has been decimated to no more than eight, Professor
Moreh said. "There are others,” he added, "but they barely know that
they are Jews; in many cases, their parents did not tell them.”
Now the remaining Christians are killed or forced into exile. Over the
holiday season, increased attacks by Islamists have taken place on
churches and convents and a dozen Iraqi Christians have been put to
death.
The violence, according to Monsignor Louis Sako, Archbishop of Kirkuk,
is part of a project of "ethnic cleansing” against the Iraqi Christians
that is taking place with the covert blessing of the Iraqi government.
According to local sources, nearly 2,000 Christians have been killed in
Iraq since 2003, the year of the fall of Saddam Hussein; thousands more
have been driven into exile.
Iraq – the Biblical Mesopotamia – is almost as rich in Jewish history as
the Land of Israel. It is the land where Abraham discovered monotheism,
and where the prophets Ezra, Nehemiah, Nahum, Jonah and Daniel, along
with Ezekiel, are also buried.
The plans for the mosque over the bones
of the prophet have met with scant media attention and little outcry
from Jewish and Christian communities.
About Dr. Paul L. Williams,
PhD
Dr. Paul L. Williams, PhD, is an American
author, journalist and consultant on radical Islam and
counterterrorism. He is also an adjunct professor of humanities.
He is the author of six books, including The Day of Islam: The
Annihilation of America and the Western World, in which he
expands on the American Hiroshima scenario he believes to be
imminent, in which simultaneous nuclear attacks on 7 to 10
American cities would create havoc in American society. Prior to
this, he served for seven years as a consultant to the FBI about
terrorist and mafia criminal organizations. |
