THE GREAT MOSQUE OF GAZA

Since this is my first post, I thought I might try to keep it simple.

Whilst some might say it is crude in appearance, the Great Mosque of Gaza, for me, is a symbol of resistance. It’s somewhat a ‘forgotten’ mosque, and by that I mean, I haven’t seen it in books or magazines (please inform me otherwise!). Although I have never had the opportunity to visit Palestine and only have these photos (which surfaced from a somewhat frantic ‘google’ search) to recommend my opinion. But nonetheless, there is an old emotion that branches out through this screen and (quite honestly) touches my heart. Its very appearance speaks volumes about both its age and what it has had to endure. It might not be lavishly decorated and may have taken less than a decade to be built, but it’s still there and I’m quite certain it will be there for some time yet.

As the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza strip it has some history. The Byzantines had a church there in the 5th century and then upon the ‘Muslim Conquest of Syria’ ( part of what has been coined as the ‘Arab-Byzantine Wars’) it was transformed in to a mosque (c.7th century). It would be some 300 years before the foundations would be tested. The mosque experienced an earthquake in the 9th century and when the dawn of the 10th century arrived, so did the Crusaders who subsequently established a cathedral. It took until the 13th century for the famous Mamluks to rebuild it again and was then destroyed during the Mongol invasion (after which it was rebuilt and then towards the end of the century, wasn’t able to survive another earthquake). Hope was not all lost for this mosque though, as the Ottomans restored it during their glory years. But once again, the foundations of this mosque were tested again, during the British bombardment during World War I but was rescued and restored in 1925. See why I think this mosque embodies the very meaning of the word resistance!

Yes, there’s a lot of history behind this mosque (this isn’t even half of it) and although I am an enthusiast of Islamic antiquity, my intention is not to only give a ‘history lesson’. With what has happened recently in Gaza (or should I say has been happening in Gaza and the whole of Palestine since the involvement of western powers in Muslim lands and oh yes, the infamous ‘Balfour Declaration’) I feel that the history of this mosque is reflected in the morale of the inhabitants. They continue to fight against the illegal Israeli occupation of their land even when they are attacked and their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and alike are taken away and tortured. But should we wait another 300 years, like the Ottomans did to repair the Great Mosque, to make a change and repair the damage (and in saying this I directly attack the corrupt leaders in the Muslim world!) I know there has been a huge focus on Syria and Burma and the atrocities that are being committed to Muslim brothers and sisters and the political instability in the many other Muslim nations, but don’t let yet another air strike by the Israeli Defence Force, that just so happens to make it into the media, remind you (and I remind myself first!) about what is happening to the people of Gaza.

Don’t let them become a ‘forgotten mosque’.