Christians, Jews praying on Temple Mount 'seek religious war'

Muslim authorities say even right to talk to God on holy site exclusively theirs

... In an interview with Israel Today, Azzam Khatib, director of the Islamic Trust (or Waqf) that safeguards the mosques that sit atop the Temple Mount, said that Jews and Christians who try to pray at the ancient holy site are effectively declaring war.

Any non-Muslim "who seeks such an approach is really seeking a religious war," said Khatib, who insisted that the Temple Mount is an exclusively Muslim site and that Jews and Christians should not even want to pray there.

Khatib even took issue with the use of the term "Temple Mount," angrily demanding the site be called al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Khatib refused to consider the possibility that the site was once home to the First and Second Jewish Temples, calling such claims unsubstantiated myths. When presented with a citation from a 1929 tourist guide published by the Supreme Muslim Council that acknowledged the Temple Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple, Khatib rejected the idea that such a book was ever published by a Muslim authority. ...