Leaving aside the bitter reality that the history of Islamic science needs only the shortest of short courses to cover more than adequately, Professor Ihsanoglu has demonstrated his total and absolute ineptitude in the study of history just the other day. At the same time he showed his complete and unquestioning dedication to the goals of the largest collection of chronic whiners, complainers, and malcontents in the world today--the OIC.
Specifically, the professor warned of an impending "religious war" prompted by Israel having restored and reconsecrated a synagogue in the well-recognized and long-extant Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The synagogue was originally started in the Seventeenth Century when Jerusalem was under the sway of the Ottoman Empire.
(Remember the Ottomans, Prof? You should given how long you lived and taught in the successor state, Turkey.)
The synagogue was not finished until the Nineteenth Century having existed over the years as a partially completed ruin. Hence its name, Hurva, meaning "ruins." When the Jordanian Army captured the Jewish Quarter along with the rest of the Old City, the synagogue was once again returned to a state of ruin--along with twenty-eight other Jewish houses of worship--at the behest or actions of the Jordanian army and government.
After ten years the Hurva synagogue has been restored. This act has taken place in the Jewish Quarter, which was both established and "protected" by the Ottoman Empire along with the Armenian, Christian, and Muslim quarters. These separated enclaves constituted the majority of the Old City during the many centuries of Muslim rule. It deserves mention that the apologists for Islam generally and Islamists in particular make constant reference to life in the Old City as having demonstrated that Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance.
Now the OIC SecGen and purported professor of history, Ihsanoglu, chucks the real past into the Great Muslim Memory Hole in order to press on with the OIC (and thus Muslim) agenda of demonizing Israel. The PhD from Ankara has been so unhinged by the reconstruction of the synagogue in the historic Jewish Quarter that he not only implies it is an act of new construction on a par with the Israeli "settlements" but that it is an insult to and a blemish upon the near-by al-Aqsa mosque.
Apparently Professor Ihsanoglu's knowledge of urban geography is as tenuous as his grasp of history. He makes a particular point of the close proximity between the synagogue and the mosque. Of course, considering the Old City is at most a half mile square it is a bit hard for anything to be very far from anything else--including the Temple Mount and its cargo, the al-Aqsa mosque.
In an expression of a conspiracy theory of history which is breath taking in its grandeur, the professor uses the rebuilding of a synagogue destroyed by a Muslim army and government after having existed for centuries in a section of Jerusalem established and ordained by a Muslim overlord as "making clear the grave implications of Israeli schemes that target the Noble Sanctuary (al-Aqsa mosque) and the future City of Al-Quds."
Duh! and, say what? And, even, oy veh!
But, that was nothing, bucko. The alleged historian of Islamic science and culture moved on to his peroration (sounds nicer than calling it a "rant.") Professor Ihsanoglu demanded in the name of the OIC (and, presumably, all Muslims everywhere) that "the international community shoulder its responsibilities in pre-empting Israel from dragging the region into a religious war by continuing its blatant assaults on sanctities of Muslims."
Oh, well, perhaps Prof. Ihsanoglu has been so preoccupied looking for some sign of either Muslim science or culture to have noticed that Muslims have been very busy shouting "Allahu akbar" as they fly aircraft into convenient buildings, pushing the clicker on suicide vests, and even, attacking mosques. Or, perhaps, Muslim "sanctities" do not include the lives of others. What do you say, prof?
It is in this context that he makes the final statement of his OIC release. He called upon all members of the OIC and "Islamic institutions" to support the "Palestinians" in "their defense of the Ummah's sacred shrines, sanctities, and interests."
That last tocsin is equivalent to issuing a broadcast invitation to a BYOB (bring your own bomb) party in and around Jerusalem. You're quite a guy, prof. Quite the propagandist, but a piss-poor excuse for a historian.
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