News - Middle East: Al-Azhar University, Egypt’s chief center of Islamic and Arabic learning in the world, has condemned Israeli settlers’ burning and tearing up of copies of the Holy Quran in the West Bank city of al-Khalil.

In a statement on Tuesday, Al-Azhar said the desecration of the Holy Quran is perpetrated under the unacceptable silence of the international community, which has failed to play a serious role regarding the inviolability of peoples and their sanctities.

    “Al-Azhar Al-Sharif expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of the misdeed of Zionist terrorists, in Hebron [al-Khalil], Palestine, who tore up and burned copies of the holy Quran, in a scene that demonstrates Zionism’s barbarism, terrorism and hateful racism,” it said.

It added that the Holy Quran “will remain a sublime scripture that guides humanity and steers it to the values of goodness, truth and beauty. So, its sanctity will not be compromised by the grudges of lowly people or the misconduct of those who fan intolerance, grudges, hatred and perversion. Those people have a dark history of murder and terrorism, and their hands are stained with the blood of innocent Palestinians.”

Al-Azhar warned that “these Zionist crimes fuel the sentiments of violence and hatred and contradict international covenants.” It underlined the importance of unity between Arabs and Muslims in the face of those who violate their sanctities.

On Monday, extremist Israeli settlers desecrated copies of the Holy Quran before throwing them in a garbage container in the Old City of al-Khalil.

Nidal Al Jabari, director of Waqf Department in al-Khalil said that burnt copies of the Quran were found near the Qaytoun mosque and Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil, suggesting that the copies were burnt during celebrations of a Jewish holiday in recent days, calling for an investigation into the incident.

He also said that such serious settler attacks on the Holy Quran happened following a series of recent violations committed by groups of settlers against the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Palestinian homes around it.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas also termed the act as “unprecedented” and a “provocation of sentiments of Muslims.”

Al-Khalil, known as Hebron in Hebrew, is the biggest city in the West Bank and home to more than 200,000 Palestinians. About 1,000 Zionist settlers, who engage in frequent attacks on Palestinians, also live there under heavy military protection.

Al-Khalil has seen regular unrest, and the Ibrahimi Mosque, believed to be the burial site of prophets including Abraham, is the focal point of tensions.

In 1994, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers inside the mosque with an assault rifle before being beaten to death by survivors.

Source: Press TV