Israeli police question Islamic leader over criticism in sermon

1.00pm

JERUSALEM - Israeli police said they questioned the senior Islamic religious leader for Jerusalem on Sunday after he criticised them in a sermon at one of Islam's holiest sites, the al-Aqsa mosque.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri said he was questioned for two hours about saying in his Friday sermon that Israeli police were "meddling" in the mosque's affairs by restricting access to worshippers, and by preventing the mosque from bringing in building materials for maintenance work.

"I consider what I said in my sermon to be an embodiment of reality and not incitement," Sabri told Reuters.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said that police held Sabri, the Palestinian Authority-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, for less than an hour. He was warned "not to speak against these issues" again and then released, Ben-Ruby said.

Israel often restricts access to the mosque to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying it is to prevent violence near the mosque site, which Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews revere as the Temple Mount.

Sabri said it was the fourth time he has been held by Israeli police since 1991. In 2002 he was questioned about an Arab newspaper interview in which he allegedly spoke in defence of suicide bombers. Sabri denied the quotes attributed to him.

- REUTERS