Denying Islamists Their Temple Denial

At the end of May I blogged on Qanta Ahmed's amazing talk.

I have now discovered she herself blogged about her visit and her touring and what she saw.

Among all that was a visit to the Temple Mount.  And I found there two pictures of hers that deserve wide exposure:

and

She describes:

Leaving the Dome, we walked South, on to Al Aqsa...We walked around the corner and, approaching a smaller vestibule, we confronted enormous columns. Their diameter deeper than the height of a tall man, they were disproportionate to the low roof. Each of the massive pillars were carefully supported by modern concrete abutments and steel girdles. These pillars looked much older. They didn’t belong to Al Aqsa. Nearby, Ibrahim pointed out the roof overhead. A distinct break in the brickwork was evident.

“This was the entrance to the Second Jewish Temple that was here before Al Aqsa. You can see it is absolutely distinct.” And without doubt, it was easy to see, this had been a place of worship for Jews centuries before. Perhaps we were standing at the gate. Somehow, these hardy arches, these massive pillars had escaped even the Romans’ determined destruction of the Second Temple. Before this place was made ours, it had clearly been theirs. We were on borrowed ground. Incredible at something so ancient, confronted with the profound reality preceding Islam, we fell into the shared silence of young believers.

She also was in the Cave beneath the Dome of the Rock: 

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P.S.  Not only the Temple is denied:

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) plans to convert a historical Islamic mosque in occupied Jerusalem to a synagogue, Haaretz newspaper said.  The newspaper said that the Israeli antiquities authority intends to remove all Islamic features of Nabi Dawoud (Prophet David) Mosque in Jerusalem after it was vandalized...the Israeli antiquities authority decided to Judaize the Mosque, which was built in the seventh century, and turn it into a synagogue.

That mosque?  It's at the Mount Zion Complex.

Just before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, Josephus described Mount Zion as a hill across the valley to the west. Thus, the western hill extending south of the Old City came to be known as Mount Zion, and this has been the case ever since....In 1874, an Englishman, Henry Maudsley, discovered a large segment of rock scarp and numerous ancient dressed stones on Mount Zion that were believed to be the base of Josephus's First Wall.

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