There was a time when every Muslim student instinctively knew about the significance of Masjid al-Aqsa (al-Quds), the first Qiblah of Muslims.The Zionists have sunk their claws deep into Masjid al-Aqsa undermining its foundations while the Arabian rulers continue to conspire with them against any Islamic assertion to liberate the first Qiblah of Muslims. The regimes surrounding Palestine are all working in tandem with the Zionists to undermine the Islamic resistance in Palestine. The Saudis have secularized the Harams in Makkah and Madinah; it is forbidden to mention Masjid al-Aqsa or the oppression to which the people of Palestine are subjected. Muslims are told to indulge in empty rituals without raising their voices much less a finger against zulm, oppression and tyranny.
Yet not all Muslims swallow the Saudi line to remain docile. Every year, millions of Muslims participate in Quds rallies, during the last Friday of the Holy Month of Ramadhan, as called for by Imam Khomeini SA over three decades ago to raise awareness about the continued Zionist occupation of Masjid al-Aqsa as well as Palestine. While such rallies scare the illegitimate Arabian rulers and their western-Zionist masters, they give hope to oppressed people everywhere. Clearly, not every Muslim is as detached from the affairs of Muslims as the Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian and other Arabian rulers want them to be. Even as Islamic resistance fighters in Palestine and Lebanon continue to struggle against Zionist vandalism and oppression, Muslims and other freedom-loving people elsewhere must continue to raise voices in their support.
Keeping the issue of Masjid al-Aqsa alive is a sacred duty in which every Muslim must participate to the utmost of his ability.