The Temple Mount aka the Noble Sanctuary aka Al-Aqsa
Many Biblical sites, such as the tombs of the Hebrew Patriarchs and the Temple Mount, are claimed by Islam as Muslim sites. Under Islamic rule all Jews and Christians were banned from such sites until the Prince of Wales was allowed to visit them in 1862 due to threats of military action from the Pasha of Egypt to the Ottomans. The Prince, a notorious sybarite, on a voyage foisted upon him by Queen Victoria was undoubtedly as unhappy as the Muslims.
Jerusalem is a "holy site" to the Muslims because one night Muhammad was cut open and his heart removed and washed out with Zam-zam water in a golden tray. He then rode on his magic horsey with a humanoid head al-Buraq and shortly landed in Jerusalem and led prayers with a posse of dead prophets who had indubitably gathered to meet and greet Muhammad, the Greatest Prophet Of Them All. If you believe that bullshit, you'll believe anything. Al-Buraq then leapt up and took Muhammad through the 7 heavens where he chatted with John the Baptist and Jesus and went on to Sidrat al-Muntaha the Lote tree that marks the end of the seventh heaven. Of course you'd need a tree to mark the end of the seventh heaven. How else could you tell?.
Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. - Quran (17:1)
It's obvious why more sophisticated Muslims are touchy about criticism of Jerusalem as a Muslim Holy Site. Their claims to this "holy site" are based on this absurd myth with a winged donkey/man flying Muhammad bodily to an actual heaven. Compared to this fable, there was an actual Israelite Temple to God on the Temple Mount for almost a thousand years and the Temple Mount itself, was also constructed by Herod the Great when he had the Second Temple built. The Western or Wailing Wall is part of the foundations. To keep some perspective, I note that the Temple was actually a gigantic abattoir where all the sacrifices, required by Biblical Law, were killed and partially or completely burnt and most of the meat returned to those who provided the animal to be eaten in Jerusalem within a day. This sounds disgusting but they had strict cleanliness rules and an advanced waste management systems. After all, they were Jews.
In 691 CE the Dome of the Rock (Temple Mount) was barred to Jews until 1922. No Jew could go to the Dome of the Rock or the Western Wall from 1948 until 1967 when it was in Jordanian hands. The Temple Mount returned to Jewish hands in the 1967 conquest of Jerusalem. It was decided to allow the Muslim waqf to maintain control of the Temple Mount for political reasons. Only small numbers of Jews are allowed at the Temple Mount at any time and Jewish prayer is forbidden.
Non-Muslims are not allowed entry to the Al-Aqsa mosque. Since 2015 groups of Muslim women have been paid to harass non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount chanting "Allahu Akbar", shouting anti-Semitic slurs and chasing Jewish individuals supposedly to "protect the Al-Aqsa mosque" from the Jews.
A young Jewish mother shows the harridans what she thinks of them.
Muhammad's religious claims to Jerusalem is a Myth based on a story so ridiulous it should be in the 1001 Nights.
In another only-in-Islam-La-La-land act of nonsense Muslims deny there ever was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat insisted that the Jewish Temple existed in Nablus, not on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This campaign by Arafat to completely delegitimize the Israeli claim to the city began a "new Palestinian dogma". "Temple denial" is just more Muslim bullshit based on equal parts wishful thinking, ignorance and arrogance and is contravened by the Quran.
Just because the "Solomonic" temple and the gigantic temple built by Herod the Great are written about in the Bible (and get lots of mentions in Roman history) can be dismissed by Muslims because they believe the Torah (Old Testament) and the New Testament are forgeries written to hide the real Muslim messages of Jesus and the Jewish prophets. The booklet al-Haram al_Sharif pubished by the Supreme Moslem Council in 1925 says "The site is one of the oldest in the world. It's identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." The Arch of Titus in Rome shows Titus' victory procession carrying goods stolen from the Temple when it was destroyed in 70 AD. I've seen it myself. The Colliseum was even paid for by the booty from the sacking of Jerusalem.
The removal by the Waqf of thousands of tons of excavated material from the Temple Mount without archaeological supervision is an attempt to prevent proper archeological research and to destroy any Temple artifacts. In an astonishing result the material is being sifted for significant artifacts by volunteers at the Temple Mount Sifting Project.
