Channelling the power of prayer

Palestinians head to mosques as a new way of protest

Before sunrise, thousands of Palestinians streamed towards the mosque in Nablus’ Victory Square, swelling the usual crowds of morning worshippers to launch a new front in their protests against Israel and the United States.

The scene has been repeated elsewhere in the West Bank, where people have begun turning out for early prayers in unprecedented numbers, forsaking the usual protest sites where they risk arrest and channelling their anger into a mass expressions of faith.

“This is the most peaceful way to get the message out,” said restaurant owner Saif Abu Baker, as the Nablus crowds spilt out of the mosque into surrounding alleyways and courtyards.

Political slogans including “For the sake of God, we have risen up” echoed through Nablus’s Old City after the calls from the muezzin and the murmured recitations of the faithful.

“I would hope that it is a new form of channelling the way the message is being sent out there,” said Abu Baker. “Because we have tried protesting and it did not work because we don’t have enough power. It’s the safer way for everyone.”

Much of the crowd’s message at Friday’s fajr (dawn) prayers — the day when most people turn out — was a rejection of the perceived pro-Israel bias of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan.

There have only been small regular street rallies since that plan was launched last week. Few have responded to calls by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority for ‘Days of Rage’.

–Reuters

Much of the crowd’s message at Friday’s fajr (dawn) prayers was a rejection of the perceived pro-Israel bias of Trump’s Middle East peace plan.