NationStates Jolt Archive

Largerthanlife...

msNBC.com
CBSnews.com
ABCnews.com
FOXnews.com
CNN.com
news.BBC.co.uk
http://lemonde.fr
http://spiegel.de
http://elmundo.es
china.com
http://repubblica.it
http://uol.com.br
http://aftonbladet.se

Arafat's body en route to funeral in Egypt
Thursday, November 11, 2004 Posted: 1:49 PM EST (1849 GMT)

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Following a French military ceremony on Thursday, the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat departed for Egypt hours after he succumbed to a lengthy and unknown illness at a Paris hospital.

News of the Cairo memorial service prompted national leaders and representatives from around the world to travel to Egypt for Friday's funeral.

The 75-year-old Arafat had spent his life seeking a homeland for his people while seen by Israelis as a terrorist and roadblock to peace.

damn the Poll is not taking off... :confused:

Arafat should be shipped back to his homeland and buried where he grew up... that's CAIRO, EGYPT.

I know the reasons why the debate over where he should be buried, but I really can't understand the hype behind it.

...but I really can't understand the hype behind it.hopefully this thread will help us understand...

tell us what you know

I know the reasons why the debate over where he should be buried, but I really can't understand the hype behind it.

It goes to the core of the conflict (I'll try to put this without riling Stephistan, who must be tired of locking these threads). Arafat wanted to be buried on the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth for Jews. Muslim theology has adapted to appropriate this area as a holy place for Muslims, as the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven, although Jerusalem is mentioned thousands of times in Jewish scripture and not once in the Koran. Arafat will not be buried in Jerusalem for the same reason that a) the dome of the rock (the big gold mosque built on top of the temple mount) will not be demolished by Israel b) that Israel will not abandon its right to the most holy place for Jews - that is, this small area of land is the world's most controversial, most inflammatory spot. The Palestinians claim the second 'intifada' was triggered when Ariel Sharon, the democratically elected leader of the Israeli people, Jew and Arab, went for a short walk around Judaism's most holy spot. Imagine the significance of Arafat being buried there.

More info here: http://www.templemount.org/allah.html

...I'll try to put this without riling Stephistan....good stuff...your civility is apreciated

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Haram%20al-Sharif

The Temple Mount or Noble Sanctuary or Al-Haram As-Sharif, is a hotly contested religious site in the old city of Jerusalem
...
Acknowledgements of the bases for its holiness to other religions:

Jewish
Jews do not believe in the Quran, and as such do not accept the claim that Muhammed is a prophet or that he experienced a night trip to Jerusalem. Many Jews who are conversant with the topic believe that, in any case, the Quran's discussion of the night trip never involved Jerusalem or the Temple Mount, but rather that this was a later Muslim reinterpreation of the verse, made for political reasons. See the discussion of this topic at Al-Aqsa Mosque).
However, the Government of Israel and most Jews, recognize that Muslims regard the site as holy based upon their beliefs, and respect the rights of Muslims to hold such beliefs and to pray their in their fashion. The State of Israel has guaranteed Muslim access to the site since capturing it in the Six-Day War.

Muslim
The main reason that the Temple Mount is holy in Judaism is that it was the site of the Temple. This fact provides a major reason for its holiness in Islam; it is still considered to be the orthodox Islamic position. A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a booklet published in 1930 by the "Supreme Moslem Council", a body established by the British government to administer waqfs during the British Mandate period, states:
"The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings." A footnote refers the reader to 2 Samuel 26:25. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/index.html?ts=1082648823
More recent examples include a fatwa issued by the Saudi Sheikh M. S. al-Munajjid, quoted on IslamOnline, 18 March 2001, stating that:
Al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) was the first of the two qiblahs (prayer direction), and is one of the three mosques to which people may travel for the purpose of worship. And it was said that it was built by Sulayman (Solomon, peace be upon him), as stated in Sunan an-Nasa’i and classed as authentic by al-Albani.http://www.islamonline.net/completesearch/english/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=29718

I know the reasons why the debate over where he should be buried...What are the reasons?

Anywhere in Jerusalem that the prophet Mohammed set foot, according to the Qu'ran, Arafat should be allowed to be buried.

Gonna be a long time in Ramallah, Yasser.