This is part of a larger pattern of appropriating the history and heritage of non-Muslim peoples, which is rooted in assertions such as “Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah’s (Which is Islam), and he joined not gods with Allah” (Qur’an 3:67).
From Israel National News, with thanks to S.:
The Palestinian Authority”s Office for Religious Affairs claims that the Western Wall, revered by Jews for generations as the last structural remnant of the Second Holy Temple, is Moslem property.
The PA office claims Moslem ownership of the Western Wall by referring to the wall on its website as the Al-Boraq Wall. According to Moslem legend, the wall is the place where Mohammed parked his horse, named Boraq, before ascending to heaven.
Moslem tradition holds that Mohammed rose to heaven from the Temple Mount, though that idea is not mentioned anywhere in the Koran, the central text of the Moslem faith.
The Palestinian Authority”s official website, echoing the claims of its religious affairs office, also attempts to negate Jewish ownership of the Western Wall.
Rabbi Chaim Richman, Director of the International Department of the of the Temple Institue in Jerusalem, said that the PA”s claims of Moslem ownership of the Western Wall has “far reaching implications” for Israel.
Richman said that the PA”s denial of the Jewish Temple’s existence “is part of a campaign to totally eradicate, erase, and destroy all Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and the land of Israel.”
“If we have no connection to the Temple Mount, then we have no connection to Jerusalem, and no right to anywhere in the land of Israel,” he added.