(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!
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Cairo (Earth Times) - Egypt's Ministry of Culture on Sunday canceled an opening ceremony for a restored synagogue in Cairo, citing "provocative" actions by Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Announcing the decision, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass cited "assaults" on "Muslim holy sites" in the West Bank and Jerusalem "by occupation forces and settlers."
Hawass was referring to recent clashes at the Jerusalem compound known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa mosque and to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Israel's decision to include two West Bank tombs sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims on its list of national-heritage sites.
Hawass also cited press reports that those who attended the temple's private dedication ceremony on March 7 had drunk alcohol and danced at the ceremony.
All these actions had "provoked the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims in Egypt and around the world," Hawass said in a statement.
Eleven rabbis from Israel and the United States, as well as Israeli and US diplomats, had attended a private ceremony marking the renovation of the 19th-century synagogue built on the site where 12th-Century Jewish religious and Aristotelian scholar Maimonides is thought to have taught and worked.
That ceremony was closed to the press.
Hawass and Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosny had been scheduled to attend the subsequent formal opening ceremony on Sunday. The restored temple is open to the public.
He said Egyptian work to restore all Muslim, Coptic Christian and Jewish shrines in the country, as "evidence of the atmosphere of religious tolerance in Egypt, at a time when Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem and Palestinian cities are at risk of destruction and seizure by Israel."
Egypt was once home to a thriving Jewish community, but today only a handful of Egyptian Jews remain, after tens of thousands left the country or converted following hostilities between Egypt and the newly created modern state of Israel in 1948.
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Cairo (Earth Times) - Egypt's Ministry of Culture on Sunday canceled an opening ceremony for a restored synagogue in Cairo, citing "provocative" actions by Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Announcing the decision, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass cited "assaults" on "Muslim holy sites" in the West Bank and Jerusalem "by occupation forces and settlers."
Hawass was referring to recent clashes at the Jerusalem compound known to Muslims as the al-Aqsa mosque and to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Israel's decision to include two West Bank tombs sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims on its list of national-heritage sites.
Hawass also cited press reports that those who attended the temple's private dedication ceremony on March 7 had drunk alcohol and danced at the ceremony.
All these actions had "provoked the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims in Egypt and around the world," Hawass said in a statement.
Eleven rabbis from Israel and the United States, as well as Israeli and US diplomats, had attended a private ceremony marking the renovation of the 19th-century synagogue built on the site where 12th-Century Jewish religious and Aristotelian scholar Maimonides is thought to have taught and worked.
That ceremony was closed to the press.
Hawass and Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosny had been scheduled to attend the subsequent formal opening ceremony on Sunday. The restored temple is open to the public.
He said Egyptian work to restore all Muslim, Coptic Christian and Jewish shrines in the country, as "evidence of the atmosphere of religious tolerance in Egypt, at a time when Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem and Palestinian cities are at risk of destruction and seizure by Israel."
Egypt was once home to a thriving Jewish community, but today only a handful of Egyptian Jews remain, after tens of thousands left the country or converted following hostilities between Egypt and the newly created modern state of Israel in 1948.
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