JERUSALEM – A number of Arab states quietly have sent intelligence agents to infiltrate the Temple Mount to determine how they can obtain more influence over Judaism's holiest site ...
... Saudi Arabia sent the most agents to the Mount, but other countries, including Egypt, also sent agents, security sources said.
'Don't be surprised if in the near future even Somalia sends some people over to study how to have influence on the Mount,' said a security source. ...
... According to research by Israeli Author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam historically disregarded Jerusalem. Berkovits points out in his new book, 'How dreadful is this place!' that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. He wrote Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God.
As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that 'in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron.'
It wasn't until the late 19th century – when Jews started immigrating to Palestine – that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.
