The Arson of Al Aqsa Remembered - 52 Years on

On 21 August 1969 an Australian Zionist by the name of Michel Dennis Rohan walked into the Al Aqsa Compound and set its Masjid Al Qibly on fire and calmly left. His second attempt in 10 days worked. It was a harrowing experience.

As the Muslim world marks this abominable act 52 years ago Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims continue to dwell on that day, as a loss-making venture to literately obliterate Islam from that Godly area of Jerusalem. A foretelling prophecy  this is what Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, wrote in his The Jewish State in the late 19th Century he hoped for.

While Israel continues to “Judaize” Jerusalem through its division, splitting the city into east and west, and restricting the movements of the Arab population into the holy places what happened on that 21 August seemed like day like yesterday with ordinary people in a hurry and frantic carrying buckets through forming a human chain to extinguish the blazes of the payer hall in the mosque.

Israel didn’t really help. It occupied the city two years earlier in the 1967 Six-day Arab-Israeli war, but dragged its feet in sending its fire-engines to put the blazes out.  At first, it refused to let the people of Jerusalem enter the gates of the holy places which they forcibly did to get to the fire. Once in the Noble Sanctuary they found the fire pumps sabotaged and hoses were cut off and this is why they had to carry water in buckets. It was a show of Christian-Muslim solidarity because priests joined in to extinguish the bellowing fire.

Fire trucks came from the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Al Bireh, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin and Tulkarem but they were prevented from entering the holy places by the Israelis pointing out this is the job of the Jerusalem Municipality now under Jewish control.

While it took hours to put out the fires, a good section of the eastern part of the mosque was ravaged, valuable historical architecture belonging to the era of the antiquity. It destroyed 1500 meters of space, that is a third of the Al Qibly Mosque and a priceless 1000-year-old wood and ivory Minbar – (pulpit) given by Salahuddin Al Ayubi when he conquered Jerusalem in the 1187 from the Crusaders. He brought the minbar, which was made by Nur al Din in Aleppo, with him especially from Damascus. With its decorative form, it was considered as a highly impressive piece of Islamic art.

The fire also destroyed the Mihrab of Muslim Caliph Omar bin Al Khatab, the inside of the mosque as well its gilded-wooden dome. Also, the mosaic panels, walls and ceiling were gutted with the area becoming a historical wasteland, a nonsensical act if there was one.

Two days later, on 23 August, Rohan was caught living in a Kibbutz, arrested and charged by the Israeli authorities with his 7-week trial held in October where he graphically spoke of his “visions”. There, he was declared mentally ill and sent to a lunatic asylum in Jerusalem for the next five years before being deported to Australia.

He told the Israeli judge he was instructed by a “heavenly voice” to build a Jewish Temple by destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque as a “Lord emissary” and King over Judea. He then added such would herald the second coming of Jesus.

His visions started in 1964 at a mental hospital in Australia. There he become involved – through mail – in the Church of God that is based in California which had its own apocalyptic visions, the coming of Christ and the end of the world.  The church, whose founder was Herbert Armstrong, appealed to Rohan who saw the second coming to be in Jerusalem.

At the time of the burning of Al Aqsa Mosque, Armstrong categorically stated he had no connection with Rohan, and he was only on their newsletter list just as millions of others. But Armstrong was very interested in archaeological digging in Jerusalem and in the finding of the Jewish Temple and the digging continues today.

But all the Israeli archaeologists did was to shake the underground structures, basis and columns of the holy city. At the time of the burning the Israeli government under Golda Meir was quick to denounce the act. She wanted to respond to the rising voices of condemnation and abhorrence in the Arab and Muslim worlds. She even offered to set up a committee to investigate the arson but this was rejected by Palestinian Muslim leaders who felt Israel was disingenuous.

They, and Arab politicians quickly saw an underlying Israeli hand in the burning of the mosque in Al Aqsa compound pointing to reports that Rohan was brought in Israel by the Jewish Agency and placed in a Kibbutz to learn Hebrew and become familiar with Israel.

The Jordan Ambassador in the UN Mohammad Al Farra, and at the head of a 24-Muslim nations made a complaint to the UN Security Council on 28 August, 1969 outlining the fact that Rohan was in Israel as its friend brought by the Jewish Agency.  He said this fact is of major worry to the Muslim world and shows there is a “criminal” and an “accomplice” in the case.

The Arab world was up in arms, both leaders and people with many even calling for Jihad against Israel but that soon died down with the Organization of the Islamic Conference formed a month after the attack with another UN Security Council Resolution no 271 passed against the arson and condemning the military occupation of Jerusalem by Israel.

It took nearly 40 years to repair the gutted Salahuddin Al Ayubi minbar. In 2007 a team of international experts in Jordan completed the reconstruction of this highly prized piece of Islamic artefact and art.