Israeli guard tears inmate’s Quran

Tearing of Islam’s holy book of Quran by Israeli prison guards has sparked new outrage across Palestine against Tel Aviv regime’s religious bigotry.

A detainees’ society reported the sacrilegious measure, asserting that an Israeli prison guard in Ashkelon jail seized a prisoner’s Quran during a cell search and tore it into pieces.

Palestinian Authority Chief Justice Sheikh Tayseer al-Tamimi issued a statement on the incident on Monday and strongly condemned recurring insults on Islamic sanctities by Israeli forces. The move reveals the extent of “extremism, religious hatred and racism in Israel,” he said.

The sheikh said it was not the first occasion during which “Israeli forces have disrespected the Noble Quran, having done so in the al-Arroub refugee camp and in Megiddo prison.”

Tamimi stressed that religious books, including the Quran, should be respected by followers of all religions. “But Israeli guards do not do so,” he regretted, saying he held the Israeli regime and Israeli Prison Service responsible for the insult.

Last month, assailants who looked like Israeli settlers broke into the Bilal Ben-Rabah Mosque in the village of Hawara, near Nablus. They sprayed graffiti, including a Jewish Star of David, on the walls of the mosque alongside the name of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in Hebrew and set fire to two cars outside the building.

Extremist settlers also vandalized a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf in December. The vandals attacked the holy site overnight and burned prayer mats and a book stand with sacrosanct, Islamic texts. They also sprayed threatening messages on the mosque walls reading, “Get ready to pay the price” and “We will burn all of you.”