Egypt's Minister for Religious Affairs Mohammed Hamdi Zaqzuq urged the world's Muslims to head to Jerusalem "en masse" to bring home the holy city's Islamic significance, in remarks published Wednesday.
"If millions of Muslims go to Al-Aqsa Mosque (in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem), it will be impossible for Israel to swallow the city and make it its capital," Zaqzuq told the government weekly Al-Musawwar magazine.
The thorny question of Jerusalem and its holy places, which both Israel and the Palestinians claim, proved the largest stumbling block during negotiations for a final peace deal at the Camp David summit in July.
"I think that Muslims should go there en masse continually and throughout the year to show the world and Israel that (Jerusalem) is not just an Arab or Palestinian issue but a primarily Islamic issue," Zaqzuq said.
The minister also said he had cancelled a visit by 13 Egyptian rectors of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, to the Palestinian territories, scheduled for the current holy month of Ramadan, due to the "dangerous security situation" -- CAIRO (AFP)
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