c. 1999 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ Muslim leaders in Nazareth were set to lay the cornerstone Tuesday (Nov. 23) for a new mosque adjacent to the city’s Basilica of the Annunciation _ even as churches in the Holy Land closed Monday for a two-day protest.

Tourists from around the world faced locked and barred church doors at holy sites such as Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Nazareth’s Basilica of the Annunciation. The lockout expressed long-simmering church opposition to the construction of a mosque so close to a Christian holy site.”The closure is to make our voice heard and to give a message to the world,”said Latin (Catholic) Patriarch Michel Sabbah in a statement Monday.”Mosques should not be built in incitement and provocation.” The current crisis _ a symbolic struggle for religious prestige and power _ has soured relations between Nazareth’s dominant Muslim community and the city’s influential Christian minority, which regards itself as the centuries-old custodian of Christian holy sites that make the city famous.

But Sabbah, in his remarks, laid the blame for the dispute largely on Israel. He said the government had delayed for nearly two years a decision on the fate of a vacant land parcel next to the Nazareth basilica. The half-acre plot originally was to be developed as a millennial plaza before Muslims established a tent-camp on the site and issued demands to build a mosque.

Observers here note the planned visit of Pope John Paul II to Nazareth as part of his trip to the Holy Land in March still remains up in the air due to the dispute.

Fearing damage to planned millennial festivities, the Palestinian Authority also intervened in the issue over the weekend.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Authority-controlled Supreme Muslim Council, issued its first public statement criticizing the decision by local Muslim leaders in Nazareth to build the mosque so close to the church.”We pray to God that he will help the Palestinian people avoid a conflict among themselves,”said a statement by the council, which was published by the Palestinian news agency WAFA. The council described the mosque plan as an Israeli-inspired initiative.

The Palestinian Authority leaders also appealed to Christians to cancel the two-day closure of churches. Church leaders later described the Palestinian efforts as a positive attempt to promote”dialogue”but said they could not back down from the protest.

In Nazareth, meanwhile, Muslim members of the United List party, which has pushed for the mosque construction, said they were elated about Tuesday’s planned cornerstone-laying ceremony, which is to be attended by a number of high-ranking Israeli government officials.”I don’t know why the Christians have closed their churches,”said Sammer Abu Ahmed, a nephew of United List party leader Salman Abu Ahmed, the Nazareth city council member who led the movement to build the mosque in heart of the city’s pilgrim district.

Describing the planned construction as a historic moment for the city’s Muslims, whose needs have long been neglected and ignored, he said:”The Christians should be happy. It will be a symbol of brotherhood to have a mosque next to a church.” DEA END FLETCHER