Name: Why They Keep Calling Al-Aqsa the Temple Mount | Dr. Omar Suleiman
Uploaded: 2026-10-11T17:00:41.000Z
Channel: Dr. Omar Suleiman
Description: “Al-Aqsa should be a multi-faith site.” Sounds reasonable, right? That’s the core issue. The phrase was built to sound reasonable. In this deep dive, Dr. Omar Suleiman shows you what’s really being asked for when someone says it. You’ll come away understanding what’s actually being proposed, what’s...

&#x201C;Al-Aqsa should be a multi-faith site.&#x201D; Sounds reasonable, right? That&#x2019;s the core issue. The phrase was built to sound reasonable. In this deep dive, Dr. Omar Suleiman shows you what&#x2019;s really being asked for when someone says it. You&#x2019;ll come away understanding what&#x2019;s actually being proposed, what&#x2019;s happening on the ground right now, and why Al-Aqsa&#x2019;s future deserves careful attention. The aim isn&#x2019;t to tell you what to think. It&#x2019;s to equip you to engage in these conversations and ask better questions.

Cookie Consent Banner

Books Readers Survey

The pursuit of fairness and equity within society based on Islamic principles of rights and responsibilities. It involves advocating for the oppressed and ensuring economic balance.

Social Justice

The Nakba Explained: Why Israel Won't Win

Srebrenica Massacre Explained: Europe’s Muslim Genocide

The Dirty Truth Behind Paris’ River Seine

Rohingya Genocide Explained: Myanmar's Muslim Massacres

Everything That Didn't Happen on October 7th

Find resources and guidance on raising children with strong Islamic values and character. This category offers practical advice on nurturing faith, discipline, and emotional development within the family unit.

Parenting

Should Muslims Celebrate Halloween?

Malcolm X Was Denied Entry to Mecca. What Happened Next Changed History.

Why Muslim Prisoners Are The Key to Ending Empires

The Truth About Muslims Hating America

You Could See The Blood From Space: Sudan Genocide Explained | Sh. Ammar AlShukry

Palestine’s 1936 Great Revolt: A lie that divided Muslims and Christians | Dr. Omar Suleiman

Bosnia's Genocide, Up Close and Personal | Dr. Omar Suleiman

Why They Keep Calling Al-Aqsa the Temple Mount | Dr. Omar Suleiman

All Members

Board of Directors

President

Founder &amp; President (CEO)

Dr. Omar Suleiman

Series

Video

Islamic history provides a rich resource of wisdom from the Prophet's life and the legacy of scholars to help us navigate present challenges. This heritage offers insights to address current issues and misunderstandings.

History

This section explores how Islamic maxims can address contemporary political questions and enrich our social landscapes. Content covers identity, ideologies, social justice, and more from an Islamic ethical perspective.

Politics & Practical Theology

The Truth About Muslim–Christian co-existence in Palestine

The Poem That Proved Palestinian Unity

What happened in Palestine in April 1936?

1936 Palestinian General Strike Explained

The British-Blocked Memorandum in Palestine

Fellahin Resistance and Palestinian Unity

British Leaflets Used to Divide Muslims and Christians

Michel Mitri: the Christian they shot and blamed on Muslims

1937 Peace Bands: Disguised Forces Used to Crush the Revolt

Martial Law in Palestine and the Arab Higher Committee Ban

How Britain Crushed the Revolt and Controlled the Narrative

The Myth That Still Shapes Palestine Today

This video challenges the widely accepted narrative that Muslim-Christian division caused the failure of Palestine's 1936 Great Revolt (Al-Thawrah Al-Kubra), the largest anti-colonial uprising of the 20th century. Presenting evidence such as a historical stamp depicting a church and mosque side by side, the video argues that Palestinian Muslims and Christians fought together against British colonial rule and Zionist settlement following the 1917 Balfour Declaration and 1920 British Mandate. It highlights unified resistance efforts, including a joint memorandum submitted to British authorities, a six-month general strike, and the leadership of figures like Abd al-Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad (Abu Kamal) and Abdel Qadir al-Husseini, who protected both Muslim and Christian communities. The video details how British and Zionist forces employed divide-and-rule tactics, including propaganda leaflets and armed 'peace bands,' to fabricate sectarian conflict, citing the unresolved assassination of Christian labor leader Mishal Mitri as an example of violence falsely blamed on internal Muslim-Christian strife rather than external sabotage. Despite unified petitions and resistance, the revolt was crushed by 1939 through overwhelming British military force, martial law, and the dissolution of the Arab Higher Committee. The video concludes by connecting this historical erasure to modern anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobic narratives that similarly reduce complex realities to caricatures of religious conflict, closing with the story of poet Nuh Ibrahim, who was killed by the British in 1938, as a symbol of the shared national solidarity that transcended religious lines in Palestine's fight for independence.

Contributors

Guest Contributor

Sh. Ammar Alshukry

Yaqeen Institute

Sheikh Ammar AlShukry recounts his visit to Sudan in January, three years into a devastating war, describing it as marked by both immense suffering and remarkable resilience. He introduces heroes like Dr. Yasir Jabra, who left a lucrative American salary to serve Sudanese patients for a fraction of the pay, and Dr. Safat Yousif, who runs a massive maternity hospital and refused to abandon her patients during occupation. The World Health Organization calls Sudan's crisis the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with a child dying every three hours from starvation, 34 million needing aid, over 150,000 dead, and 13.6 million displaced. The speaker traces the conflict's roots: the 2019 revolution that overthrew dictator Umar al-Bashir, the RSF's massacre of protesters that same year, a military coup in 2021, and the eventual collapse into full-scale war in April 2023 between the army and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. He argues this is not merely a civil war but a genocide fueled by regional actors seeking to exploit Sudan's resources, including gold mines. Despite shelled hospitals and atrocities, including sexual violence against girls, there are signs of hope, such as the reopening of Bahri hospital through Muslim-led reconstruction efforts, which has allowed displaced families to consider returning home. The speaker emphasizes that Sudanese people are not passive victims but exemplify sabr (patience), sacrifice, and zuhd (detachment from worldly life). He closes with a call to action: amplify Sudanese voices and journalists, support humanitarian organizations, demand political accountability and sanctions on RSF backers, use economic influence through boycotts, and make du'a, while also taking concrete action to help Sudan.

The Question No One Asks

Americans’ Experience with Muslims

Do Muslims Hate Americans?

Islamophobia in the Media

Wars in Muslim Countries

Gaza & Current Reality

Israel’s Distractions

Who Benefits?

The Truth About Muslims

**"Do Muslims Hate Americans?" Examining a Manufactured Narrative**

This lecture draws powerful parallels between historical and contemporary suppression of Muslim voices, arguing that Muslim solidarity has always been perceived as a threat by oppressive regimes — and has always outlasted them. The video profiles three Muslim figures across different eras whose imprisonment or exile exemplifies a recurring state playbook: silence the most visible representatives of resistance to demoralize a movement. The first is Sa'id ibn Jubayr, a 7th-century scholar who refused to grant religious legitimacy to the brutal Umayyad governor al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. Despite years of hiding, continued teaching, and community protection, Sa'id was eventually captured and executed — yet his scholarly legacy endures in hadith collections and tafsir studied to this day, while al-Hajjaj's political order collapsed. The second is Amir Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi, a 19th-century Algerian scholar-soldier who built a mobile Islamic state to resist French colonial invasion. When France exiled him to Damascus in 1847, believing the resistance was over, his supporters continued carrying his teachings and legal judgments across borders. Algeria ultimately gained independence in 1962 after 132 years of French occupation. The third is Imam Jamil al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown), a 20th-century American Muslim leader who linked racial oppression in America to global patterns of injustice. Convicted under deeply contested circumstances, he died imprisoned in 2025 after decades in solitary confinement, yet his abolitionist writings and principles continue to inspire Muslim communities. The lecture concludes by connecting these historical cases to present-day detentions of figures like Mahmoud Khalil and others, urging Muslims to organize, pool resources for legal defense, build surveillance-resistant communication networks, archive information, and support families — because communities rooted in truth have consistently outlasted the regimes that sought to silence them.

**Malcolm X Was Denied Entry to Mecca. What Happened Next Changed History**

Directors

Research Director of Islam and Society

Tom Facchine

This section includes theoretical and empirical research on parenting, education, culture, marriage, and other content related to social interactions.

Family & Community

The moral principles and values derived from the Quran and Sunnah that guide human behavior. It emphasizes virtues such as justice, compassion, and integrity in both personal and social contexts.

Islamic Ethics

**Everything That Didn’t Happen on October 7th**

This video recounts the 2017 genocide of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar's Rakhine State, when the military launched a brutal campaign that killed over 25,000 people, forced more than 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh, and involved mass rape, burning of villages, and executions. It traces the roots of this persecution to decades of propaganda and discriminatory laws dating back to the 1960s, as well as historical British betrayal after World War II, when promises of land and autonomy made to the loyal Rohingya were broken once the war ended. The video draws parallels between the Rohingya crisis and the Palestinian struggle, noting shared experiences of displacement, identity erasure, environmental destruction, and betrayal by the same colonial power, as well as a global pattern of condemnation without meaningful consequence. It highlights the dire conditions faced by over a million Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, who endure inadequate shelter, climate vulnerability (cyclones, wildfires, landslides), and dependency on humanitarian aid, while also noting the environmental toll of deforestation caused by the refugee crisis. Despite this bleak picture, the video points to sparks of hope, such as the Gambia's 2019 case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice and South Africa's 2023 case against Israel, as symbols that justice efforts continue. It closes with a call to action for Muslims worldwide to educate themselves, raise awareness, donate, and make sincere du'a, invoking the Prophet Muhammad's (ﷺ) teaching that believers are like one body who feel each other's pain, and ending with a prayer for relief for the Rohingya, Palestinians, Sudanese, Yemenis, and oppressed people everywhere.

This topic discusses the presence, history, and experiences of Muslim communities living in Western nations. It addresses contemporary challenges regarding identity and integration while highlighting the positive contributions of Muslims to Western societies.

Islam in the West

This video draws a connecting line between the modern-day image of Paris's River Seine—used as a photo-op by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to promote Olympic swimming events—and its hidden history of colonial violence against Algerians. The French occupation of Algeria began with the 1830 invasion, leading to 130 years of colonial repression, land confiscation, cultural suppression, and restrictions on Islamic practice. This culminated in the Algerian War of Independence, and on October 5th, 1961, a curfew was imposed specifically on Algerian Muslims in Paris. In response, 30,000-40,000 Algerians peacefully marched on October 17th, 1961, but French police responded with brutal violence, killing between 200 and 300 people and throwing many of their bodies into the Seine, while officially reporting only three deaths. The French government censored the news and destroyed archives, and it wasn't until 2012—51 years later—that a French president even acknowledged the massacre. No one has ever been prosecuted due to a general amnesty for crimes committed during the war, meaning the exact death toll will never be known. The video draws parallels between this history of colonization, repression, and unpunished massacre with the ongoing situation in Palestine and Gaza, questioning whether justice will ever be achieved for over 186,000 Palestinian victims. It concludes with a reminder that while true justice may not be found in this worldly life, Allah is Al-Adl (the Most Just), and Muslims are commanded to resist injustice with their hands, tongues, and hearts, emphasizing that the struggle for justice continues indefinitely as long as injustice exists.

This piece draws a direct parallel between the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which roughly 8,000 mostly Muslim Bosniak men and boys were massacred by Serbian nationalist forces, and the ongoing genocide unfolding in Gaza today. It highlights how the Bosnian genocide, part of a broader conflict that killed an estimated 100,000 people (80% Bosniaks) over three years, occurred despite Bosniaks being European and Caucasian, arguing that their Muslim identity marked them for dehumanization and slaughter even in a post-Holocaust Europe that claimed to have moved beyond such savagery. The narrative recounts survivor testimony, scenes of refugees fleeing in terror, and the discovery of mass graves at the Srebrenica Memorial Center, where victims were buried, exhumed, and reburied in attempts to hide evidence, eventually identified through DNA decades later. It emphasizes that genocide does not happen suddenly but is enabled by sustained neglect, systematic dehumanization, and degradation of a targeted people. The piece then turns to Gaza, noting that despite unprecedented real-time visibility of killings via smartphones and social media, the world faces a similar or worse failure of accountability, with a mounting death toll that risks becoming mere statistics rather than human tragedies. It stresses the danger of 'statistical numbness'—treating casualty numbers as abstract rather than as individual human beings with families, dreams, and souls. The powerful image of rows of shoes left behind by Srebrenica's victims serves as a symbol for the need to humanize victims rather than reduce them to numbers, drawing a direct line to Gaza victims like Hind Rajab, urging the audience to remember and honor the humanity of those killed, both in Bosnia's past and Gaza's present.

Explained

&#x201C;Al-Aqsa should be a multi-faith site.&#x201D; Sounds reasonable, right? That&#x2019;s the core issue. The phrase was built to sound reasonable. In this deep dive, Dr. Omar Suleiman shows you what&#x2019;s really being asked for when someone says it. You&#x2019;ll come away understanding what&#x2019;s actually being proposed, what&#x2019;s happening on the ground right now, and why Al-Aqsa&#x2019;s future deserves careful attention. The aim isn&#x2019;t to tell you what to think. It&#x2019;s to equip you to engage in these conversations and ask better questions.

Explained

Dr. Omar Suleiman

Other series

40 Hadiths on Social Justice

Confident Muslim

Sayedaty

The Faith Revival

Proofs of Prophethood

To Know Him is to Love Him: Finding Answers Through Allah's Attributes

Khutbahs

Virtues of Dhul Hijjah

Firm Roots

The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam

Connect with us

Yaqeen app

Ameen app