Jewish Youths Arrested for Praying on Temple Mount. But Was It Illegal? - Israel Today

Jewish Youths Arrested for Praying on Temple Mount. But Was It Illegal?

Thursday, December 21, 2017 |  Israel Today Staff

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Topics:

Jerusalem

It's not entirely uncommon for Jewish activists to ascend Jerusalem's Temple Mount, pray there and then be arrested for their troubles.

But it's also not legal. The arrests, that is.

Israel Police officers get around the fact that there's no law forbidding Jews from praying anywhere they please by claiming those doing so atop the Temple Mount are "disturbing public order" by potentially provoking a violent Muslim response.

For most people, the debate should end right there. "Public order" is supposed to include freedom of worship. Those responding to that freedom with outbursts of violence should be the ones held accountable for disturbing public order.

But we digress.

On Wednesday, three Israeli Jewish youths went up to the Temple Mount and recited the "Shema Israel" prayer taken from Deuteronomy 6:4.

They were immediately arrested and taken in for hours of questioning. The youths were later released, but ordered to attend an administrative hearing where they are expected to be forbidden from future visits to Judaism's holiest site.

The boys' lawyer, Nati Rom of the Honenu legal aid group, firmly decried this state of affairs in remarks to Israel National News:

"Unfortunately, Israel Police arrests young boys, when their only crime was that they expressed their faith and prayed in a holy place. This type of arrest must never happen, especially since there is no law forbidding Jews from praying on the Temple Mount."

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Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog: ISIS loyalist arrested in South Carolina for plotting terror attacks inside homeland.

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog BREAKING: ISIS loyalist arrested in South Carolina for plotting terror attacks inside homeland. In past three years, 220 arrested in U.S. for ISIS plots. Here’s the latest. by joelcrosenberg (Washington, D.C.) -- The FBI has arrested a South Carolina man who joined the Islamic State, was conspiring to commit acts of unspeakable terror against Americans, and had just purchased a ticket to fly to the Middle East to get training and experience. He was arrested in the Charleston, S.C., airport, just before boarding. (see details below) Now consider this: in the past three years, 220 people have been arrested in the United States for allegedly being part of ISIS plots. Last year alone, the number was 37, or an average of three per month. Imagine the horrors that could have been inflicted inside the homeland if these 220 terrorists hadn't been identified and captured in time. The news comes amidst heart-wrenching images of Syrian children who this week suffocated to death, foaming at the mouth, because chemical weapons -- sarin gas -- were used to kill them and their families. Didn't the Obama administration, the Russians and the U.N. promise all the chemical weapons had been removed from Syria? I wish this were only fiction. Tragically, the carnage in Syria and threat to the homeland are all too real. Please be praying for the President and his advisors to know how best to deal with the crisis in Syria, and how best to improve homeland security. Please pray for victims in Syria and their families. And please join me in thanking the Lord for the brave and tireless men and women of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement -- we owe them a great deal. Excerpts from the Charlotte Observer: An 18-year-old South Carolina man arrested last week on an ISIS-related charge dreamed of replicating the Orlando, Fla., massacre but decided he could better serve by joining the terrorist group in the Middle East where he could kill Americans, the FBI says. Zakaryia Abdin....who formerly lived near Charlotte, was arrested Thursday at the Charleston airport, where he was scheduled to depart for Jordan. Two years ago...Abdin and another unnamed suspect were charged with plotting to rob a gun store in North Carolina, then attack troops at military bases near Raleigh.... Prosecutors say Abdin had been conspiring online for weeks with an undercover FBI agent posing as a operative for the Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL, about his plans to travel to the Middle East to fight. Otherwise, he would commit a terrorist act at home in support of ISIS, the FBI says. Either way, his preferred targets were fellow Americans, a newly unsealed FBI affidavit says.... “I want you to place me on the frontlines just to fight Al Amrikan (the Americans),” Abdin wrote on March 14. “I will fight them until death, I swear, I swear, I swear.” The next day, Abdin asked the agent if ISIS had any Americans the group planned to torture and kill on video, as it had with other captives. He volunteered to be the executioner, the affidavit says. “I want to be the one to send the message because they will know who I am and I want them to see ... Save him for me, ahki (friend) ... It will be a strong message.” According to the affidavit, Abdin, a resident of Ladson, S.C., at the time of his arrest, believed he was being watched and occasionally followed. If thwarted from traveling to the Middle East, he volunteered to kill at home.... He is the latest of almost 220 people arrested on ISIS charges in the past three years. Almost half of those charged were planning to leave the States to join ISIS operations or had already done so, according to the George Washington University Program on Extremism.... Abdin appeared torn about leaving his mother. He wrote the undercover agent and asked if he could send a picture of himself to her after he arrived in Egypt to fight. “I told her I am just going on a simple vacation ... When I arrive it will break her heart if I do not return and she does not know where I am,” the affidavit says. “She has every right to know that I have chosen this path and she will at least know where I am and I will not return.” —————— Without Warning -- my new thriller about ISIS operatives launching catastrophic terrorist attacks inside the U.S. using chemical weapons captured in Syria -- is now available in hardcover, e-book and audio formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, Lifeway, and your favorite general market and Christian bookstores. To order online, please click here. ——————— Would you like to make a secure, tax deductible investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net)? This is the non-profit organization that my wife, Lynn, and I founded in 2006 to educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, to care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, care for Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. The Joshua Fund is a member in good standing of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Please click here to learn more. Thanks so much! Pastors and ministry leaders:  to begin planning your own tour of Israel in July 2018 that allows you to bring your people to the Summit, please click here. Lay people: to learn more about The Joshua Fund’s next tour of Israel — and to register while there is still space — please click here. Click here to read the 2016 Joshua Fund Donor Report — and watch the short videos, as well Subscribe (free) to the RSS feed (click here) and receive every new posting on this blog directly via email. joelcrosenberg | April 5, 2017 at 10:18 pm | Categories: Epicenter | URL: http://wp.me/piWZ7-7pQ

Joel C. Rosenberg - BREAKING NEWS: ISIS is here. Two Muslim refugees allegedly connected to the Islamic State arrested in California & Texas

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

BREAKING NEWS: ISIS is here. Two Muslim refugees allegedly connected to the Islamic State arrested in California & Texas by joelcrosenberg (New York, New York) -- The ISIS threat is getting closer and closer to home. "Two men born in Iraq who came to the United States as refugees were set to appear in court Friday on terror-related charges in California and Texas," reports Fox News. "A criminal complaint unsealed Thursday accused 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, of Sacramento, Calif., of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to government investigators about it. Almost simultaneously in Houston, federal authorities announced the arrest of Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, on charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully and making false statements to investigators." "Based on the facts, as we know them, today's action may have prevented a catastrophic terror related event in the making and saved countless lives," Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement, Fox News reported. "This is precisely why I called for a halt to refugees entering the U.S. from countries substantially controlled by terrorists," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott added. "I once again urge the President to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans." I agree -- since the U.S. has no capacity to vet the refugees coming out of Syria and Iraq to see if they are jihadists or not, we absolutely must not allow them to enter the country. The U.S. should provide humanitarian assistance to Jordan and other countries and organizations who are caring for refugees fleeing war and terror in the Mideast. But the President's job is to protect the American people from attack, and allowing thousands of refugees into the States without vetting them properly is suicide. The evidence of the last several years makes clear that ISIS is planning attacks inside the United States. In my last novel, The Third Target, ISIS-linked terrorists launch a mass murder attack in Washington, D.C., even assassinating a high-ranking government official. In the latest novel, The First Hostage, ISIS plots to capture and kill the President of the United States and other world leaders. I’m afraid attacks in against U.S. leaders and citizens around the world are a realistic scenario. But we need to be prepared for the activation of ISIS sleeper cells inside the homeland, leading to Paris-style attacks. We also need to anticipate more San Bernardino-style attacks by lone-wolves who have been inspired by – and see themselves loyal to – the Islamic State. And while the use of automatic weapons and explosive devices are likely, I would not be surprised if we also see beheadings, the hijacking of private planes, cyber-warfare and other forms of attack. The good news is that federal authorities are hard at work to keep Americans safe. The bad news is that the threats posed by ISIS and other jihadist groups are rapidly metastasizing. FBI officials say they are currently running more than 900 investigations into suspected ISIS terrorists operating inside the U.S. In fact, there are active cases in all fifty states at present. Over the past two years the FBI has arrested at least 66 people in the U.S. on suspicion of ISIS terror activities. If this weren’t troubling enough, at least 250 Americans are believed to have gone to fight with ISIS in Syria and Iraq. What will happen when those who aren’t killed on the battlefield return to the U.S. with their American passports? What if they aren’t detected and stopped by federal authorities in time? How many more will they recruit into violent jihad? What kind of terror operations will they be instructed to carry out on American soil? ————– Order The First Hostage today — it’s now available in hardcover, e-book and audio formats. Read the first chapter of The First Hostage right now The first reviews of #TheFirstHostage are in: “one of the final must-read novels of 2015,” “impeccably crafted,” “I simply could not stop reading” ——————- Subscribe (free) to the RSS feed (click here) and receive every new posting on this blog directly via email. Order THE THIRD TARGET today , the first in this new series — now out in paperback — the New York Times best-selling novel about ISIS capturing chemical weapons in Syria and plotting genocidal attacks. Make an investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net), our non-profit organization to help Christians care for Syrian refugees, educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. Read our latest Donor Report, and make a tax deductible, secure, on-line contribution before the end of the year. Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg joelcrosenberg | January 8, 2016 at 2:51 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/piWZ7-3N0