The tools of choice for archeologists is a soft brush, but for Muslim archeologist's, their tool of choice is a bulldozer!

1. After burning down the largest library in the world at Alexandria in the 7th century, Muslims defaced the Madaba Map.
2. Many of the sections missing above were defaced by Muslims because the idea of Jesus being God's son who died on the cross for our sins offended them.

The temple mount is probably the most important archeological site in the world. The photos below are from the Muslim destruction on the Temple Mount in 2001. Non-Muslim archeologists are not even permitted to view the stones before they are recut, ground into gravel or dumped.

If a Muslim archeologist complains this is untrue, just ask them to write a letter to the Jerusalem Post, with their name, address and archeological credentials, and tell them to criticize those who used bulldozers to remove 3000 square feet of artifacts on the Temple mount. Muslims like to have it both ways. On one hand they expect to be respected as archeologists, yet on the other hand, turn a willing silent blind eye to the well documented practice of destroying any archeology that proves the Koran a book of myths. Muslim archeologist's also willingly participate in the destruction of any artifact that supports the fact that Israel possessed their land from 1406 BC to 70 AD.

1. "Good News magazine": "So the motivation in this case was at least in part to destroy evidence of a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount?" Leen Ritmeyer: "Yes. For example, from earlier surveys in Solomon's stables we know there's an ancient arch in there and a lot of Herodian stones. In the interior southeastern corner you can see the remains of Herodian windows that were part of a tower. And built into the southern wall is a beautifully decorated Herodian stone with grapevines and geometrical patterns. What happened to those, we don't know anymore. Over the last few years the area of Solomon's stables has been in the news somewhat. This is a large underground hall that contains structures from the Crusader, Muslim and Herodian periods, some of them 2,000 years old. The Muslims, to make their claim to the Temple Mount stronger, are now using the underground structures as places for worship especially Solomon's stables. This has been an underground area open for a long, long period, and they recently determined to change it into a mosque. The problem is that this vast underground area, which could contain 10,000 worshippers, had access only through a narrow staircase. If anything happened, it would be impossible for people to escape. Therefore they needed a much larger entrance to this underground chamber. They knew they wouldn't get permission to build a new entrance, so in secret, in the middle of the night, they dug out an area about 100 feet square and 30 feet deep. They sent in bulldozers and took out hundreds of truckloads of material so they could build a big staircase down to the chamber. In the process they have destroyed not only many archaeological artifacts, but judging by the stones that were taken out of that pit, a huge wall also was destroyed. In my estimation that was a wall built by King Hezekiah around 700 B.C. So major destruction has been done by these excavations. Archaeologists usually don't protest against excavations if you excavate and record what you have been finding. But to bring in bulldozers and destroy everything is totally different. In the debris that was dumped in a nearby valley, beautiful fragments of gateways of the Herodian temple complex have been found. And although you can photograph and record them, you don't know where they came from. A huge number of very large limestone building blocks have been found that must have belonged to important Jewish buildings. But they've disappeared. As soon as the pit was dug out they started covering up all the ancient remains, so there's no way of knowing what they destroyed. Some blocks were also carved up and used as paving stones. It's a sad and illegal situation, but in spite of all the protests of many archaeologists and petitions to the government, nothing has been done to stop it."

1. A service trench to run wiring and pipes was dug by bulldozers on the temple mount by Muslims.
2. The trench is currently 1.5 m./5 ft. deep and about 350 m./1120 ft. long!

By Brian Smithers (with help from Brother Andrew): Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.

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