Al-Aqsa Mosque

A Turkish ultra-nationalist group has attacked a synagogue in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district with stones during a protest against the new Israeli restrictions on Palestinians' entry to the al-Aqsa mosque.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone conversation with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over a recent escalation at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

In a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Erdoğan expressed sadness over casualties at the incident while urging that restrictions on Muslims should be removed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a recent escalation at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in a phone call on July 20. 

Erdoğan stressed that it was unacceptable that there were restrictions at the entrance of the mosque, also known as Haram al-Sharif, state-run Anadolu Agency quoted anonymous presidential sources as saying. 

Israel reopened an ultra-sensitive holy site on July 16 closed after an attack that killed two policemen, but Muslim worshippers were refusing to enter due to new security measures including metal detectors and cameras.

Crowds chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as a number of initial visitors entered Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Three gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalem's holiest site on July 14, wounding three Israelis, two of them critically, before the attackers were killed by security forces, Israeli police said.
   

Albanian athletes will be participating for the first time in this year's Islamic Solidarity Games, which take place Baku in Azerbaijan in May.

UNESCO has officially adopted the resolution on the preservation of Palestinian cultural heritage in East Jerusalem which caused angry protests on the part of Israel, reported BNR.

The project on the resolution approved last week caused a harsh reaction on the part of Israel which stated that it is freezing its cooperation with the cultural organisation.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has received "death threats' over her supposed reservations about a resolution that would only highlight holy sites in Jerusalem as Muslim and not Jewish.

"The director general has received death threats and her protection has had to be reinforced," Carmel Shama Cohen, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, has told Israeli public radio, according to AFP.

Israel has frozen its relations with UNESCO as a sign of protest against a resolution with which the international organisation declares that the Holy places on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem cannot be linked to Judaism.

Youth and Sports Minister Akif Çağatay Kılıç said on Oct. 6 that members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should work together to fight Islamophobia.

"As OIC members, it is our duty to fight such defamation. Our noble religion, Islam, can in no way be mentioned alongside terrorism," Kılıç said at the third OIC Youth and Sports Ministers Conference in Istanbul.