Word: aqsa
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SOON after early-morning prayers at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque one day last week, flames burst from the ceiling beneath its famed silver dome. For three hours, the fire raged, destroying part of the roof and an 800-year-old pulpit of exquisitely carved cedarwood and inlaid ivory, a gift from the Islamic hero Saladin (1137-1193). Before Israeli and Arab firemen could extinguish the flames or anyone could investigate the fire, the entire Middle East was echoing with outraged Moslem demands for jihad-holy...
...Aqsa is one of the holiest shrines in all Islam. It is inside a 34-acre compound that also contains the Dome of the Rock mosque, built on the site from which Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven. The compound ranks behind only Mecca and Medina in importance to Moslems. Al Aqsa itself is considered a particularly propitious place from which to begin a had, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Jews also revere the compound as the traditional site of Solomon's temple...
Automatic Assumption. In their fury, many Moslems automatically assumed that the Al Aqsa blaze had been started deliberately-and by an Israeli. Hundreds of Arabs rushed to the still-burning mosque, threatening firemen who were trying to control the blaze and shouting "Nasser! Nass-er!" When Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan arrived on the scene, he was jeered. An Arab mob coursed down the Via Dolorosa-the path Jesus took to the Crucifixion-shouting "Death to Israel!" Police blocked them at the fifth Station of the Cross...
...Hejaz, whose bones lie buried there. Abdullah, right hand relaxed on the hilt of his ceremonial dagger, * walked easily, far ahead of his bodyguard. Talking animatedly with his companions, including his grandson, 15-year-old Emir Hussein, the King went up the steps to the entrance of the nearby Aqsa Mosque, slipped off his shoes, prepared to join 4,000 other Moslems at prayer. At that point a young man in Western clothes stepped from behind an iron grille gate. Within a few paces of the unsuspecting monarch he whipped out an American-made automatic, fired five bullets into Abdullah...