Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque and the 1969 Gujarat Riots

What is the connection between the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which remains in the news, and the 1969 Gujarat riots? It was August 21, 1969, when a Christian missionary from Australia named Denis Michael Rohan set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Rohan believed that burning the Al-Aqsa Mosque would hasten the Second Coming of Christ and pave the way for the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. In response to this incident, the then King of Saudi Arabia, Shah Faisal, hastily convened a conference of Islamic nations from around the world in Morocco within a month, which was attended by the heads of 25 Muslim countries, and this very conference became the OIC Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. It is astonishing that Hindus do not have an official nation yet they are sectarian, while those who form an ummah of non-democratic, dictatorial Islamic countries are messengers of peace! The Muslim ummah registered its strongest protest against this Al-Aqsa fire since the Khilafat movement, and violent demonstrations were held across the world against the Al-Aqsa incident.India too was not untouched by these violent protests, and Muslims held demonstrations across the country in which venom was spewed against other communities, declaring, "Whoever clashes with us will be ground into the dust." The community that rioted in India for the Caliph of Turkey was now bent on burning India over an incident in Israel. On August 29, 1969, five lakh peace-messengers took out a disruptive rally in Calcutta. On August 31, the tenth day of the incident, a massive and aggressive procession was taken out in Ahmedabad as well in the name of the Al-Aqsa incident.

In the background of this incident, it is worth noting that 'Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind' had already been spewing the venom of fanaticism in Ahmedabad for several months, and this procession served to add fuel to the fire. Mind you, back then there were no means of communication like today, yet this religion-like political party was organizing massive rallies, demonstrations, and clashes worldwide at short notice. Letters were written to the United Nations by jamaats from Kanpur to Calcutta.

Peaceful Gujarat was thrown into the fire, and then a chain began; on September 4, a peace-messenger policeman knocked the Ramayana to the ground and kicked it. The most revered Shri Guruji himself was keeping a close watch on the entire situation arising from the Al-Aqsa incident and guiding the Hindu society. At that time, the Sangh's Dharma Raksha Samiti and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh vehemently protested the insult to the Ramayana and forced an apology.

However, on September 18, at Ahmedabad's 400-year-old Shri Jagannath Temple—a symbol of Hindu reverence—peace-messengers assaulted sadhus and vandalized the temple, launching another attack the following day. When the peace-messengers orchestrated a planned riot in Ahmedabad, the patience of the Hindus finally broke too. Thousands were killed in the riots, and Hindus suffered immense loss of life and property, yet the rioters were taught a good lesson. But the Congress government continuously pursued its disgusting politics of appeasement and treated Hindus like stepchildren, hatching a conspiracy to arrest Sangh functionaries and Hindus on false charges and ban the Sangh under the pretext of the riots—a conspiracy foiled by Vakil Saheb. A reflection of that very pseudo-secularism of Congress is Wikipedia's page, which cunningly holds Hindu society entirely responsible for the riots and portrays the peace-messengers as innocent as rabbits.

Even today, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has burned in Israel, but the background is set to repeat the Khilafat once more. The community that desecrated martyr memorials for Myanmar's Rohingyas, the community that wished death by Covid for 'bhaktas' in India, the community that maintained silence on the murder of five dozen children by the Taliban, the community that has trampled upon religious sites, cultures, and nations worldwide is today shedding tears for a foreign structure and Palestinian terrorists.