This widely accepted Islamic belief raises the religious and spiritual importance to them of the Dome of the Rock and the adjacent al-Aqsa Mosque. Muslims are sensitive to and mindful of the circumstance that two mosques along with the rest of East Jerusalem are claimed and administered by the state of Israel, albeit without Israeli flags presently being displayed within the limits of the Haram area . In modern times there have been several instances of Israeli Jews raising flags on the Mount in defiance of the police practice of obstructing persons from doing so.
Islam was 1st introduced to the region of Palestine during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, when armies from the Arabian Peninsula under the Rashidun Caliphate conquered a territory previously under the control of the Byzantine Empire.
The majority of Muslims in Israel are Sunni Arabs.
As a result of the rise of the Ottoman Empire, from 1516 to 1917, the Sunni Ottoman Turks ruled the historic Palestine. Their leadership reinforced and ensured the centrality and importance of Islam as the dominant religion in the region.
The conquest of Palestine by British forces in 1917 and the subsequent Balfour Declaration opened the gates for the arrival of large numbers of Jews in the Palestine who began to tip the Mandate of scales in favor of Judaism with the passing of each decade. However, the British transferred the symbolic Islamic governance of the land to the Hashemites based in Jordan, and not to the House of Saud. The Hashemites thus became the official guardians of the Islamic holy places of Jerusalem and the areas around it …………………..
Within the branch of Islam, there also exists Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Israel particularly in Haifa.
Categories: Arab World, Asia, History, ISLAM, Israel, Middle East, Palestine