By Muslim Mirror Netwrok

Jeddah : On August 21, 2022 marked the 53rd agonising anniversary of the immoral attempt to burn the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Zionist entity. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the first of the two Qiblas and the third of the Two Holy Mosques. On this occasion, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) reiterates its unwavering support for the Palestinian people’s right to sovereignty over the lands they have been occupying since 1967, including East Jerusalem, which serves as the capital of the State of Palestine. The OIC also emphasises the significance of maintaining Al-Quds’ Arab identity and the legal and historical status of its Muslim and Christian holy sites.

The painful incident was remembered in the backdrop of the escalating frequency of violations by Israel, the occupying power, and its attempts to impose the temporal and spatial division of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and its policies aimed at changing the geographical and demographic character of the city of Al-Quds and isolating it from its Palestinian surroundings, in flagrant violation of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.

The OIC stressed that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is a place of worship purely for Muslims, calling on the international community to take serious action to put an end to all repeated Israeli aggressions and violations, and to engage in sponsoring a serious peace process that leads to ending the Israeli occupation, enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable national rights, including the right of return, self-determination, and establishing the Palestinian independent and sovereign state on the borders of 04 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of international law, relevant United Nations resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.