From Petra, the official Jordanian news agency (via IMRA):
Aug. 20 (Petra)--Saturday is the 35th anniversary of setting Al-Aqsa mosque on fire, which was carried out on 21 August 1969 by a radical Jew following dawn prayers when the mosque was free of worshippers.
The article goes on to characterize Denis Michael Rohan as an "immigrant," and reports what is apparently a brand new fabrication -- that this was Rohan's second attempt to destroy the mosque.
But Rohan was neither an immigrant nor a Jew, as Petra is well aware. He was an Australian tourist, a deeply disturbed member of the "Church of God" who was trying to bring about the Second Coming. The attempts of local firefighters to put out the fire were hampered by Arab bystanders who either suspected their motives or were more worried about allowing Jewish feet to desecrate the mosque than about controlling the blaze.
For more on the myth of Al Aqsa fire, see my post of two years ago, here.
