Iran – A group of Islamists demonstrated on Sunday at the tomb of biblical Jewish queen Esther in western Iran and threatened to destroy it if Israel damages Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Mehr news agency reported.
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The agency identified the demonstrators at one of the most revered sites for Iranian Jews as members of the student basij, or hardline Islamist militia, at Bu-Ali-Sina university of Hamedan.
“Muslims beware that they have started the destruction of Al-Aqsa mosque while their second sacred site in Iran, the Esther and Mordecai tomb is at peace and no Muslims make a sound,” the protesters said in a statement.
“We, the student basijis… warn Zionist regime leaders if they assault the Al-Aqsa mosque in any way we will destroy the tomb of these lowly murderers,” they said.
The shrine in Hamedan commemorates Esther, a young Jewish woman who married Achaemenid King Xerxes five centuries before Christ, and convinced him to allow Jews to settle freely in the Persian empire.
Iran has the largest Jewish community in the Middle East — 20,000 to 25,000 by different estimates — after Israel, and the shrine is visited by many pilgrims every year.
Iran also houses in the western town of Shush the tomb of Jewish prophet Daniel, who according to biblical tradition, survived the lions’ den.
The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel and hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation by his vitriolic attacks against the Jewish state and his dismissal of the Holocaust as a “myth.”
Several construction and archaeological projects around Al-Aqsa mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, have raised charges from the Muslim world that Israel is endangering the sacred site.
Construction or renovation projects in and around the Old City are deeply controversial and have often sparked violence in the past.
Al-Aqsa mosque compound is Islam’s third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina, and is the place where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed made a night journey to heaven on horseback.
It is the holiest site in the world for Jews, who believe it was the location of the Second Temple, torched by the Romans in 70 AD.
and they will get the same fate as Homan got!!!
It is unbelievable how the news sources bend backwards to appease the muslims. There is no doubt by any historians that the temple stood on the current temple mount. It is an historical fact from Jewish & Roman sources of that time. Even Islam considers Al Aksa as replacing the original 2 temples.
But since they had to write that Muslims “believe” that Muhamed rode up on his horse from the temple mount, as it’s not a fact just belief, they also wrote that Jews “believe” that the Temple stood there, though it’s fact.
And you thought journalists just write facts…
“It is the holiest site in the world for Jews, who believe it was the location of the Second Temple, torched by the Romans in 70 AD.”
WRONG!! We KNOW thats where it was!! The muslims yemach sh’mom are only dreaming about the horse as well as who was on top or who was on the bottom!
As for the xstans, WAKE UP!! When the muslims say these things about OUR holy places, they are bashing YOUR religion since you claim the late JC did his community agitating at the Bais HaMikdosh.
WAIT A SECOND! They claim reverence to Mordechai and Esther. Why would they want to damage grave sites of “their prophets? “
What happened to that “we don’t hate jews, just the Zionists” that they claim? Were Mordechai and Ester Zionists too?
Hamedan is not Shushan. It was believed to be until archeologists unearthed the real Shushan in the ruins of Susa. For those of you yelling “kfira,” you can find this in Yehuda Landi’s excellent book, Purim And The Persian Empire, a Feldheim book.
Why is everyone so upset? When it’s time to build the Beis HaMikdash, they will beg us to build it!
Chazal teach us that the Beis HaMikdash was built without the use of iron tools since it is a metal used to make weapons.
Our way is the way of peace.
When the Jews will start acting accordingly, then we will build the Beis HaMikdash as a place for all three Abrahamic religions, as it says in Yishayah (19:24) “ביום ההוא יהיה ישראל שלישיה למצרים ולאשור ברכה בקרב הארץ”, “on that day, Israel…Egypt and Assyria will be a blessing at the heart of the earth”
One day these dogs will pay.
There’s a tradition dating back hundreds of years that Esther is buried in the Galil in Baram near Tsfat.
They’re trying to threaten israely leaders with something they couldn’t care less about in israel they have no problem destroying ancient gaves of their ancestors so why should they buge when being threatened that graves in iran will b destroyed?.
Why didn’t they do it till now? Like yosef hatzadiks kever?
What about all the mosques that are blown up almost daily by muslins against other muslins in Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan, Indonisia, India etc. This is pure anti-semitism! In 1948, the Jordainins tried to bulldoze the grave of the holy “Or HaChaim” Hakodosh. It took several bulldozer drivers to drop dead on the spot before the Jordanians realized they better stop.This was an open miracle. I wonder how many Iranians will die if they dare try to keep their threat? May G-d avenge all the enimies of His people!
this is all talk. Iran will do nothing of the sort. The masses venerate these sites and Iran always boasts about how well Iranian Jews are treated. You can’t react to every provocation.
the article states “it was the location of the Second Temple, torched by the Romans in 70 AD” whatever happened w the 1st Bais Hamikdosh which was on that same location??? The history of this Holy place goes way back to Avrohom Aveenu who Davened there & also prepared his son Yitzchok for sacrafice. Also Yaakov Aveenu had his famous dream there when Hashem promosed the Holy land to his children… These are all facts the world knows about but prefers to ignore… how sad ;-((