The Israel Antiquities Authority denied on Tuesday accusations that archeological excavations were currently underway below the Temple Mount and that a synagogue had opened at the site.

Israel Antiquities Authority Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yuval Baruch said that all of the gates to the Temple Mount compound had been blocked by massive construction in historical times.

"The only gates open today are the official ones - they are open to Muslim worshippers and visitors - and they are under the control of security officials and Waqf representatives," Baruch stated.

Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement's northern faction, had said at a press conference earlier Tuesday that al-Aksa Mosque was in danger, and declared that if archeological excavations in the vicinity of the Western Wall tunnels were to continue, Israel "would find itself at war with the entire Muslim world."

He said that Israel was building a synagogue and a large model of the Second Temple at the excavation site, which is 97 meters away from the Dome of the Rock.

At the press conference, Salah screened a video that supposedly showed Jews praying at the illicit synagogue.

The construction of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, the rituals instituted by the Umayyads on the Temple Mount and the dissemination of Islamic-oriented Traditions regarding the sanctity of the site, all point to the political motives which underlay the glorification of Jerusalem among the Muslims.

The simple fact soon emerged that al-Quds was not essential to the security of an empire based in Egypt or Syria. Accordingly, in times of political or military crisis, the city proved to be expendable. In particular, in 1219, when the Europeans attacked Egypt in the Fifth Crusade, a grandson of Saladin named al-Mu‘azzam decided to raze the walls around Jerusalem, fearing that were the Franks to take the city with walls, they will kill all whom they find there and will have the fate of Damascus and lands of Islam in their hands. Pulling down Jerusalem's fortifications had the effect of prompting a mass exodus from the city and its steep decline.

Also at this time, the Muslim ruler of Egypt and Syria (ovdje se nalazi Jeruzalem), al-Kamil (another of Saladin's grandsons and the brother of al-Mu‘azzam), offered to trade Jerusalem to the Europeans if only the latter would leave Egypt, but he had no takers. Ten years later, in 1229, just such a deal was reached when al-Kamil did cede Jerusalem to Emperor Friedrich II; in return, the German leader promised military aid to al-Kamil against al-Mu‘azzam, now a rival king. Al-Kamil insisted that the Temple Mount remain in Muslim hands and "all the practices of Islam" continued to be exercised there, a condition Friedrich complied with. Referring to his deal with Frederick, al-Kamil wrote in a remarkably revealing description of Jerusalem, "I conceded to the Franks only ruined churches and houses." In other words, the city that had been heroically regained by Saladin in 1187 was voluntarily traded away by his grandson just forty-two years later.

If the Crusaders threaten you in Cairo, and they demand from you the coast of Syria and Jerusalem, give these places to them without delay on condition they have no foothold in Egypt.

...that Christian knights traveled from distant lands to make Jerusalem their capital made the city more valuable in Muslim eyes too. It was a city strongly coveted by the enemies of the faith, and thus became, in a sort of mirror-image syndrome, dear to Muslim hearts. And so fractured opinions coalesced into a powerful sensibility; political exigency caused Muslims ever after to see Jerusalem as the third most holy city of Islam (thalith al-masajid).

The Fools among the people will say: "What has turned them [the Muslims] from the qibla to which they were always used?" We appointed the qibla that to which you was used, only to test those who followed the Messenger [Muhammad] from those who would turn on their heels [on Islam]. Now shall we turn you to a qibla that shall please you. Then turn your face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque [in Mecca].Wherever you are, turn your faces in that direction. Even if you were to bring all the signs to the people of the Book [i.e., Jews], they would not follow your qibla.

He chose the Holy House in Jerusalem in order that the People of the Book [i.e., Jews] would be conciliated, and the Jews were glad.

The attitude of the Moslems toward the Christians and Jews, to whom as stated above, they are in a majority of ten to one, is that of a master towards slaves whom he treats with a certain lordly tolerance so long as they keep their place. Any sign of pretension to equality is promptly repressed. It is often noticed in the streets that almost any Christian submissively makes way even for a Moslem child. Only a few days ago the writer saw two respectable looking, middle-aged Jews walking in a garden. A small Moslem boy, who could not have been more than 8 years old, passed by and, as he did so, picked up a large stone and threw it at them -- and then another -- with the utmost nonchalance, just as a small boy elsewhere might aim at a dog or bird. The Jews stopped and avoided the aim, which was a good one, but made no further protest.

A teacher was sent from Beirut in 1910 to assess the constant reports of travail for the Yemenite Jews. He noted that, after more than a week, I have made myself acquainted with the life of the Jews in all its phases.... They are exceedingly unfortunate.... If they are abused, they listen in silence as though they had not understood; if they are attacked by an Arab boy with stones, they flee...

Dr. Abdul Halim Mahmoud, rector of Cairo’s al-Ashar University, theologically and politically the most influential university in Islamdom: “Allah commands Moslems to fight the friends of Satan wherever they are to be found. Among the friends of Satan—indeed, among the foremost friends of Satan in the present age—are the Jews."

When the Jews’ hatred for the Messenger (peace be upon him) burned so fiercely that they decided to kill him, the best way they could find to do this was to hurl a boulder upon him from the top of a building. Allah saved him, and they returned from their attempt having earned for themselves only the sin of their treachery and deception. And now the Muslims are avenging their Prophet with the same weapon, but in broad daylight and without any treachery, scheming, or deception.

What is most interesting is that the most famous stoning that ever occurred in Islamic history was the stoning of two adulterous Jews in accordance to what was found in their own scriptures. The Prophet carried out upon them Allah’s Law that they had allowed to die. Thereafter, the direct relationship between the Jews and stones came to an end, only so it may resurface in the last of all wars when the stones and trees themselves will call out: “O Muslim, here is a Jew, so come and slay him.” Here the stones will show their allegiance to the Muslims against the hard hearted Jews to remind the people of that true and certain prophecy.