Youssef Zeidan returns to stir up the controversy over Jerusalem, and specialists refute his claims

Once again, the Egyptian writer Youssef Zidan returned to stir up controversy and anger on social networking sites, with his statements to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan – yesterday, Sunday – about Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Zidan said – in his interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan – that the Palestinian issue has not and will not be resolved by violence and mutual hatred between the two parties, but by claims of reason, according to him, stressing that he does not mind allocating a small part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard to build the Solomon Temple, given that Judaism A religion that Islam recognizes.

Zidan called for Jerusalem to remain a single unit for all religions that were in the region, not only for the Abrahamic religions, but also for the Roman pagan religions, claiming that the city’s Islamic history is not purely Islamic, and claiming that the saying that the Jews seek to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in search of the Temple is an illusion that is settled in Arab countries.

In strange statements, the Egyptian novelist considered that the city was occupied by the Jews from the point of view of Muslims, but from the point of view of Christians it was occupied by Muslims, and that the city was related to the Christian heritage just as it was related to the Roman pagan heritage, the ancient Hebrew heritage, and then to the Muslims, so each side sees it Occupied by the other side.