NEWS STORY: Christians appeal on Nazareth mosque plan

c. 1999 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ In an unprecedented appeal, the heads of the major Christian church denominations in the Holy Land have written Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak expressing opposition to Muslim proposals to construct a large mosque directly in front of Nazareth’s Church of the Basilica The Christian leaders asked Barak to […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ In an unprecedented appeal, the heads of the major Christian church denominations in the Holy Land have written Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak expressing opposition to Muslim proposals to construct a large mosque directly in front of Nazareth’s Church of the Basilica

The Christian leaders asked Barak to take”urgent steps”to resolve the dispute. “We believe that the place currently proposed for the building of a mosque, besides being a government-owned property, is not compatible with the larger vision of peace and harmony amongst all the faith communities in Nazareth,”the letter said. It was signed by the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Latin church in the Holy Land, as well as by the Vatican’s official representative here.


Speaking privately, Vatican sources also are warning that construction of the mosque in the strategic site could harm the prospects for a visit by Pope John Paul II to Nazareth in March of the year 2000 and dim festivities for the upcoming Christmas season.

The land sits directly along Nazareth’s main thoroughfare in front of the Church of the Basilica, one of the most important Christian sites in the Holy Land. Christian tradition holds that the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary at the site.

The empty land parcel, in state custody since the 19th century Turkish Ottoman period, had been slated for development as a public plaza as part of Nazareth urban renovations for the year 2000. But local Muslim activists seized the property nearly two years ago.

The activists erected a large tent mosque on the site and refused to move out, demanding a multistory mosque be constructed on the land.

Last Easter, a festering dispute exploded in violent Muslim-Christian clashes in Nazareth. Both Muslims and Christians now fear violence could again erupt as Christmas nears, and the sectarian tensions could spread to other mixed Muslim-Christian communities, such as Bethlehem.

At a press conference at the site Thursday (Oct. 7), Nazareth Muslims decried church”interference”in the issue.”I’m sorry that the church figures oppose the construction of a mosque here,”said Salman Abu Ahmed, the leader of the Moslem group.

Abu Ahmed said the land, adjacent to the small tomb of a noted Muslim sheikh, was historically part of a Muslim”Wakf,”or trust.


The joint letter by Christian church leaders to Barak on the conflict is a highly unusual display of unity in a community marked by centuries of internal rivalry. Even more unusual is the fact that the signed and sealed document, dated September 11, has now been made public, underlining the appeal to Barak to”act decisively”to resolve the problem. “We are not opposed to any place of Muslim worship be it in Nazareth or elsewhere,”the letter says.”However, we are equally insistent in our belief that any place of worship should take into consideration the realities and expectations of all faith communities at any particular time and place.” So far, local Muslim leaders have rejected all proposals they relocate on an another site further away from the church.

At Thursday’s press conference, however, Abu Ahmed said the Moslem group might accept a compromise proposal for a mosque on part of the half-acre site.

But the church leaders, in their letter, suggested the Muslim insistence on building adjacent to the church property may contain elements of a”religious-political challenge”to the Nazareth Christian community, which once was the dominant force in the city and today is a shrinking minority among the predominantly Muslim population.

Catholic church officials here, however, have blamed Israeli government officials for fomenting the Muslim-Christian dispute and playing one religious group against the other for political gain. During the previous election campaign, a number of Likud politicians linked to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to permit the Muslims to construct a mosque on part of the land. “We believe that the party responsible for the crisis is the Israeli government, and the government should solve this crisis in a way that doesn’t penalize local Nazareth Christians,”said one church official. “We are not against mosques,”stressed an aide to the Latin (Catholic) Patriarch Michel Sabbah.”But we believe that mosques should be built for prayers and not for provocations.” Responding to the appeal Thursday (Oct. 7), Israeli Tourism Minister Amnon Lipkin Shahak said the government was working intensively on the matter and hoped to find a solution within the next few days.

DEA END FLETCHER

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