{"id":1791,"date":"2003-07-04T04:24:55","date_gmt":"2003-07-04T09:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2003-07-04T04:24:55","modified_gmt":"2003-07-04T09:24:55","slug":"nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/","title":{"rendered":": Nazareth Mosque Destruction: A Blessing In Disguise?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Usually an Israeli bulldozer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miftah.org%2FDisplay.cfm%3FDocId%3D81%26CategoryId%3D4\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">making short work<\/a> of a Palestinian building is something that causes tensions to increase over the long run, but the latest <a href=\"http:\/\/famulus.msnbc.com%2FFamulusIntl%2Freuters06-30-224057.asp%3Freg%3DMIDEAST\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">act of destruction<\/a> in predominantly Arab Nazareth may actually serve to decrease tensions, at least between Christian and Muslim citizens of Israel.  Christians in northern Israel have been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.helpnazareth.org%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">simmering for four years<\/a>, ever since Israel granted the national Islamic Trust permission to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.muslims.org%2Fwebnews%2Fmessages%2F100.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">build a mosque<\/a> in the shadow of the Roman Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation (where Christians believe the angel Gabriel <a href=\"http:\/\/asia.reuters.com%2FnewsArticle.jhtml%3Ftype%3DworldNews%26storyID%3D3016386\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">revealed<\/a> to Mary the imminent birth of Jesus).  Nazareth has long had a significant (albeit decreasing) Christian presence, and the mosque raised religious tensions that culminated in riots in 1999 and nearly derailed a planned visit by the Pope.  Backers of the <a href=\"http:\/\/66.241.197.163%2FNazareth_Mosque%2Findex.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">mosque<\/a>, which was meant to commemorate the nephew of Saladin, didn\u2019t have universal support from fellow Muslims \u2013 various religious and political leaders in the Muslim world <a href=\"http:\/\/www.palestinereport.org%2Fsect%2Ffaith%2Fmosque.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">opposed<\/a> the move, which they said would divide Palestinians.  In the wake of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cathnews.com%2Fnews%2F203%2F20.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">pressure<\/a> from the Vatican and several US churches, Israel reversed its 1999 decision, which they executed in much the same way they perform house demolitions \u2013 they pulled a red tape trick out of the occupation toolkit, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Farticle.cgi%3Ff%3D%2Fnews%2Farchive%2F2003%2F07%2F01%2Finternational1459EDT0653.DTL\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">failure<\/a> to get \u201cproper\u201d building permits.  (It took them four years to figure this out?)  Desipite the Christian objections to the project, the destruction of the mosque foundation united Nazareth Muslims and Christians in condemnation of the sudden move.  \u201cThe Israeli authorities want to spread discord between Muslims and Christians,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islam-online.net%2FEnglish%2FNews%2F2003-07%2F02%2Farticle01.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">stressed<\/a> Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jraissi, an Arab Christian. <\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reversing a decision made years ago, Israel demolishes an under-construction mosque in Nazareth that was a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: Nazareth Mosque Destruction: A Blessing In Disguise?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reversing a decision made years ago, Israel demolishes an under-construction mosque in Nazareth that was a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\": Nazareth Mosque Destruction: A Blessing In Disguise?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reversing a decision made years ago, Israel demolishes an under-construction mosque in Nazareth that was a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-07-04T09:24:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/\",\"name\":\": Nazareth Mosque Destruction: A Blessing In Disguise?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-07-04T09:24:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-07-04T09:24:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Reversing a decision made years ago, Israel demolishes an under-construction mosque in Nazareth that was a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2003\/07\/nazareth_mosque_destruction_a_blessing_in_disguise\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\": Nazareth Mosque Destruction: A Blessing In Disguise?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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