Muslim leadership group, including former mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey, was heckled & abused by Palestinians hooligans after arriving on Temple Mount.
By Israel Today Staff
Mohammed Hameeduddin, former mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey
The fact that Jews were somehow involved in the group’s visit meant that in the eyes of Palestinian Muslims, Hameeduddin and his colleagues had become “collaborators” with the hated Zionists.
As the group ascended the Temple Mount, it was set upon by at least one antagonist who repeatedly harassed a female member of the Muslim Leadership Initiative, telling them that they had come “against the will of the Palestinian people” and in concert with an “Islamaphobic organization.”
Hameeduddin intervened.
“The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) activists were waiting to ambush me while I was going to prayers. I did not hit anyone; I was protecting the women in my group,” Hameeduddin wrote in an email to supporters, answering accusations that he had physically assaulted the man harassing the group.
The editor of a Jewish publication later wrote that Hameeduddin, whom she counts as a personal friend, “is now fearful because he crossed the ‘picket’ line by touring the area with a pro-Israel group.”
It wasn’t only in Israel that the group faced such opposition.
Back in America, some 43 Muslim organizations and 200 independent activists reportedly signed a letter condemning the Muslim Leadership Initiative’s cooperation with Jews, and vowing to never again invite the participants to speak at Muslim events in the United States.
View original Israel Today publication at: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25870/Default.aspx
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