Hawzah News Agency (Istanbul, Turkey) - Held under the banner “Quds: A city blessed by revelation”, the two-day event -- organized by Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) -- was attended by 70 Muslim scholars from 20 countries, including Pakistan, Britain, Indonesia and France.  

Quds remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the city -- occupied by Israel since 1967 -- might eventually serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.  

Early last month, US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Quds as Israel’s capital, prompting widespread condemnation and protest from across the Arab and Muslim world.   

Speaking at Tuesday’s conference, Mustafa Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Tawil, the head Palestine’s Sharia Court, described Trump’s Quds move as a “crime”.  

Enver Arpa of the Institute of Eastern and African Studies at the Social Sciences University of Ankara, for his part, highlighted the city’s central importance to Muslims, Christians, and Jews.   

Muhammad Luthfi Zuhdi, a Muslim scholar from Indonesia who also spoke at the conference, pointed out how Islam had laid the foundations for coexistence, saying Muslims needed to be reminded of this fact.  

Istanbul mufti Hasan Kamil Yilmaz, meanwhile, noted that people of different faiths had lived together in Quds for 1,500 years.  

“But today, Muslims -- even Christians -- face the threat of expulsion from Quds [by the Israeli authorities],” he said.  

“This is ethnic cleansing,” he added, “and we must tell the world about it.” 

End.