By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi: Amidst Muslim world’s protest over Israeli aggression and killing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza Strip, Maulana Jameel Ilyasi, leader of the All India Association of Imams, made a trip to Israel.
Maulana Ilyasi, who is imam of a mosque at New Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg, visited Israel on 21st February, rejecting all apprehensions and suggestions from the members of his organization that he might be ostracized for his visit. With this, it is said, he has become the first practicing Muslim cleric to visit Israel.
He was hosted in Israel by Project Interchange, a wing of the American Jewish Council (AJC), a New York-based interfaith dialogue organization. He met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, chief rabbis of Israel and some leading Palestinian and Israeli Muslims. He reportedly requested the Israeli president to open up the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for pilgrimage to all Muslims as a goodwill gesture. Reasoning Israel visit of a Muslim cleric from India, Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s International Director of Inter-religious Affairs, said the visit was of great strategic importance for Israel and the Jewish people. He hoped that the visit would promote Israel’s outreach to the wider Muslim world.