Babil’s Jewish shrine, mosque share space
The tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, located next to a mosque in Kifl, Babil, is a site of both controversy and religious coexistence.
There is a spot in the city of Babil that highlights the simultaneous overlap and struggle of religions. The Kifl area includes the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel (Zul-Kifl), one of the prophets of Israel, as well as al-Nukhailah mosque, visited by Muslims. It is also the place where the fourth successor of the Rashidi Islamic era, Ali ibn Abi Talib (599-661), settled for a period.
Today, the Islamic Shiite Waqf is the official body overseeing both the Jewish shrine and the mosque. Israel Today reported in December that the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel had been converted into a mosque.
Al-Monitor checked the official website of the Shiite Waqf Council, which categorized “the Ezekiel shrine” as a Shiite Islamic shrine and published a report that read, “Before their migration from Iraq in 1941, Iraqi Jews tried to obliterate Islamic writings from the mosque located in the same place to replace them with Hebrew phrases.”
However, the Jewish organization Nahum, which strives to return the properties and funds of the Jews who emigrated from Iraq, contradicts the viewpoint of the Shiite Waqf. In 2012, the organization called to halt the demolition of the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel. The organization also called for the prevention or removal of Hebrew graffiti and inscriptions from the shrine.
