The recent controversy over the permissibility or impermissibility (from the standpoint of the Islamic Sharia) of visits to occupied Jerusalem by non-Palestinian Muslims seemed to have given many ignoramuses and people of dubious credentials a certain pulpit or tribune to emit their ignorance, thoughtlessness and treachery.

Some Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, whose lack of knowledge of Islam is quite conspicuous, have been behaving and acting as if they were top scholars in the traditions of Abu Hanifa, Imam Malek, al-Shafie or Ahmed Ibn Hanbal when they can hardly recite a verse or two of Islam's holy book.

Some of these arrogant charlatans had the audacity to vilify Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi, who is unquestionably one of the most esteemed and knowledgeable ulema of our time.

The arguments that these pseudo-scholars, who are also failed politicians, are strikingly superficial to say the least. For example, they argue that those who forbid visits to Jerusalem by Muslims outside Palestine can't produce any hard evidence in support of their Fetwas or religious edicts.

They keep babbling about "evidence in the Quran" as if Sheikh Qaradawi didn't know that visiting Jerusalem and praying at the Aqsa Mosque under normal circumstances was not only permissible but commendable as well.

But these hypocrites don't want to understand. They only want to fish in troubled water. They also want to confuse people and create divisiveness within the ranks of the Muslim Umma, which eventually benefits Israel, the occupier of Jerusalem, tormentor of its people and desecrator of its holy places.

Indeed, why do these ignoramuses ignore the fact that Jerusalem is held captive by a nefarious foreign occupier called Israel? Do they want Muslims to come to Jerusalem to hear her faint moaning as she is being raped repeatedly by these evil invaders?

And what would a visit to Jerusalem by the Mufti of Bosnia or the Mufti of Mars do in terms of restoring the city back to its rightful proprietors?

More to the point, are there guarantees that these Muslims, from whatever countries, wouldn't be influenced and swayed by the toxic Zionist propaganda about the existence of "religious freedom for all in Jerusalem" when Palestinians, such as this writer, who live only a few kilometers away from the city can't access it for a brief prayer at the Aqsa Mosque?

Indeed what is the point of allowing a Muslim from Jakarta, which is probably six thousand miles away to visit Jerusalem when the city is off limit to Muslims (and Christians) living in Izariya or Abu Dis only six hundred meters away?

The truth of the matter is that Israel wants to win Muslims over to her side in order to weaken and possibly bury the cause of Jerusalem once and for all.

Frequent visits to Jerusalem, especially by unsuspecting Muslims, would consciously or subconsciously convince many of them that after all the situation in Jerusalem is not all that bad. The visits whose short durations don't allow the visitors to know the real extent of Zionist theft and assault on the holy places could actually have a desensitizing and demystifying effects on at least some of these visitors.

They wouldn't witness any home demolitions. They wouldn't witness the takeover (theft) by Jewish supremacists of Arab homes and property? They wouldn't see the elaborate network of tunnels which Israel built over the past 45 years in order to destabilize the foundations of the Aqsa Mosque, which would eventually lead to its collapse. They wouldn't see most of the things that Israel doesn't want them to see?

Yes, Muslim visitors in Jerusalem might bless us Palestinians by eating at an East Jerusalem restaurant or spending a night at one of its hotels. But apart from this, what can they do to deliver the city from the shackles of Zionism bondage?

Jerusalem doesn't need tourists or mourners who would weep and lament with us the loss of the city. We don't need to be reminded that Saladin and Omar Ibnul Khattab are moving in their graves because of what happened to Jerusalem. And certainly, we don't need the prayers, supplications and lamentations of these helpless tourists, we can do without them.

Jerusalem needs pro-active, tangible efforts to emancipate her from Zionist captivity. This paramount task can't be carried out by bringing in tourists to watch Zahratul Mada'en (the Rose of all Cities) being violated and raped by these violent animals from Eastern Europe who think that non-Jews are only human in figure but not in essence.

Many, probably most, Muslim nations have no diplomatic representation with Israel. And getting tourists from these states to visit Jerusalem would nearly certainly create de facto normalization between Israel and these states. Is this what the PA wants?