It’s Friday, which means that tens of thousands of Muslims will be visiting the Temple Mount as they do every Friday.
Here is what it looked like one Friday in October, when 50,000 Muslims visited to pray.
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Muslim media typically reports 40,000-50,000 visiting every Friday. Even during COVID there were tens of thousands visiting every week when it was open.
As far as I can tell, more Muslims visit Judaism’s holiest site, under Jewish rule, on a typical Friday than ever visited even on Muslim holidays under Muslim rule, in history.
I have looked for any photo or description estimating the number of Muslims that visited the holy site even during Muslim holidays, and while some descriptions mention “thousands” of worshippers, never have I seen anyone report “tens of of thousands” as the site sees every single week nowadays.
A letter from a British resident of Jerusalem in the November 23, 1937 Manchester Guardian disputes the claim that 10,000 Muslims carried the Mufti around the Temple Mount by pointing out that only perhaps once a year does the Haram esh Sharif attract that many Muslims:
Only 13,000 Muslims lived in Jerusalem in 1922 and 40,000 in 1948 (compared to over 300,000 today) so 40,000 visitors would have been an astronomical figure to visit at any time under Muslim rule.
Now, during Fridays in Ramadan, Israel allows some 200,000 Muslims to visit Judaism’s most sacred spot.
I am confident in my claim that more Muslims will visit the site today, on a typical Friday, walking past Israeli guards, than had ever visited at one time in the entire 1200 years of Muslim control of Jerusalem.
The contrast to how Muslims didn’t allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount or the Cave of the Patriarchs at all under their rule couldn’t be more striking.
Never in history has there been as free access to holy sites for all religions than under Jewish rule, yet earlier this week the UN again accused Israel of “racial and ethnic discrimination.”
We are truly living in 1984 where ignorance is strength.
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