PA Mufti: Extremist Jews “conceal evil to Al-Aqsa,” want to establish “alleged Temple” through “religious war”

PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein: "Due to all the faith-based and religious aspects rooted in the heart of every Muslim and the belief of every Muslim, we say that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to the Muslims alone. Everything the Israelis claim… or the few [Muslims] who unfortunately belittle it… This is essentially a cultural collapse and hypocrisy nesting in their hearts, just as the ideas of the alleged Temple nest in the minds of these extremist Jewish groups who do not wish well for the Al-Aqsa Mosque. On the contrary, they conceal evil and harm to the Al-Aqsa Mosque… The Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic mosque ever since the existence of this land… and until Allah inherits the earth and all that is on it. [No one] has any connection to it whatsoever except the Muslims, according to our Shari'ah law, history, geography, and all the existing facts in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy city [Jerusalem]… I want to tell the whole world, including these Israelis, before 1967 they conducted many excavations… and did not find any artifacts whatsoever that have a connection to the Temple of the Jews or others… No archaeological remains were found for any Temple… The [Israeli] goal of demolishing the Dome of the Rock or the Southern Mosque (i.e., the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself) or any site in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque [plaza] to establish what is claimed to be the alleged Temple, is an issue that is explicitly included under a cultural war. They are attempting to dress it in a religious war and attempting to falsify history to say: "The Temple was here, therefore, we want to demolish the Dome of the Rock to build the alleged Third Temple."

[Official PA TV, In Jerusalem, March 17, 2026]

An abundance of evidence proves Jewish history at the Temple Mount; likewise the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem led by Arab Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini published a booklet in 1925 entitled "A Brief Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif" stating the Temple Mount's "identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute."

Muhammad Hussein also serves as Palestinian Supreme Fatwa Council Chairman and Deputy Secretary-General and acting Secretary-General of the PLO Popular National Conference of Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa Mosque – Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden during a Night Journey from Mecca to "al aqsa mosque", i.e., "the farthest mosque" (Quran, Sura 17). Five years after Muhammad's death in 632, Jerusalem was conquered by Islamic forces, and in the year 705, Muslim Umayyad leader Abd Al-Malik built a mosque in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. The mosque was subsequently named the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to identify it as the mosque mentioned in the Quran, thus giving significance to Jerusalem in Islam as a place visited once by Muhammad