Former PA Mufti Sheik Ikrima Sabri: Jerusalem Is Not Holy for the Jews

Following are excerpts from an interview with former PA Mufti Sheik Ikrima Sabri, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on May 11, 2012:

Interviewer: Do you agree that in Jerusalem, there are places that are holy to the Muslims, the Jews and the Christians?

Ikrima Sabri: No, not to the Jews. I didn't say to the Jews. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab didn't find any synagogues of the Jews. There weren't any.

Interviewer: So in your opinion, today there are no places whatsoever in Jerusalem that are holy to the Jews?

Ikrima Sabri: No, none. They build new synagogues, but there are no archaeological remains [pertaining to the Jews]. For many years, they have been digging for archaeological remains, but they haven't found anything. How can we acknowledge something when they themselves admit that they have found nothing?

[…]

Interviewer: It was PA President Mahmoud Abbas who called upon the Arabs and Muslims to visit Jerusalem, in order to emphasize its Arab nature and to support its Arabs, wasn't it?

Ikrima Sabri: I ask you to stop. That's enough.

Interviewer: But I'm asking you whether he said this.

Ikrima Sabri: I don't want [to answer].

Interviewer: Fine.

Ikrima Sabri: Mufti [of Egypt] Ali Gum'a said that his visit… I'm moving on to another subject. He said that his visit was held after arrangements were made by the Jordanian authorities, right?

Go ahead, Sheik Ikrima.

Ikrima Sabri: My dear brother, I'm expressing my own view, and I have nothing to do with other people or countries. I already answered your question, and you posed it differently. I say to you: Nobody should enter Jerusalem on an Israeli visa or through security coordination with Israel. That's my answer to you.

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