Denis Michael Rohan

Denis Michael Rohan (born July 1, 1941) is an Australian citizen who gained worldwide infamy on August 21, 1969, when he attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on August 23, 1969. He was tried, found to be insane, hospitalized in a mental institution and later deported from Israel.
==Rohan's motives==
Rohan, a Christian and considering himself "the Lord's emissary", stated that he tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque acting upon divine instructions to enable the Jews of Israel to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount in accordance with the Book of Zechariah, thereby hasten the second coming of Jesus as the Messiah to rule the world for one thousand years.
==Herbert W. Armstrong controversy==
Rohan stated that he had attempted to burn down the mosque after reading an editorial by the Worldwide Church of God's founder Herbert W. Armstrong in the June 1967 edition of his The Plain Truth magazine, of which Rohan was a subscriber. The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London pictured Rohan on its front page with a copy of The Plain Truth magazine sticking out from his outside jacket pocket.
On September 26, 1969, Armstrong, in a letter to financial contributors to his The World Tomorrow program, distanced himself from Rohan:
In the wake of this incident Herbert W. Armstrong decided to drop the building of a physical temple from his eschatological outlines. At the time he was trying to establish a relationship with the Israeli government, which after the Six Day War had voided Armstrong's earlier contract with Jordanian government about broadcasting his The World Tomorrow radio program on Jordanian transmitters. In 1968, prior to the Rohan incident Armstrong had become involved with the Israeli government in archaeological digs in the area of the Temple Mount.Education: Digging for Credit. Time. September 3, 1973.
==International reactions==
===Soviet reaction===
The Soviet Union exploited the event in its propaganda campaign in the course of the Cold War. In a secret KGB documenthttp://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/pdfs/terr-wd/isr69-1.pdf (in Russian) signed by the head of the KGB Yuri Andropov, Israel was blamed for the arson. The document (dated August 28, 1969) describes a plan to organize and finance 20,000 strong Muslim protest demonstration in India.Soviet Archives collected by Vladimir Bukovsky.
=== Response by United Nations ===
After several meetings by the Security Council to discuss the complaint, it adopted on September 15, 1969, Resolution 271 (1969):
Adopted at the 1512th meeting by 11 votes to none, with 4 abstentions (Colombia, Finland, Paraguay, and the United States of America.)Resolution 271. United Nations Security Council. September 15, 1969.
==Arab reactions==
The Arab press accused the government of Israel and claimed that Rohan was "Jewish". Yasser Arafat later developed a regular television interview speech in which he would refer back to this act of attempted arson, while avoiding mention of Rohan by name, as being the reason for his own motivation for attacks on Israel.
=== Response by Arab leaders ===
On August 28, 1969 a complaint was submitted to the United Nations Security Council by twenty-four Muslim countries in response to the Al Aqsa arson attempt. Mohammad El Farra of Jordan stated:
The Arab Press further reported that:
=== Response by and on behalf of Yasser Arafat ===
The Palestinian newspaper, La Presse Palestinienne, reported the following:
=== Response by Aljazeera Television ===
On the web site of Aljazeera Television the following information has been posted about Michael Dennis Rohan:
=== 2003 Hamas attacks in response to Rohan ===
On August 21, 2003, The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia reported "Ceasefire illusion just blown away":
=== 2004 Comments by Mufti of Jerusalem ===
On by September 6, 2004, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem is reported to have commented that:
== Israeli Chief Rabbinate response ==
According to the Jewish Political Studies Review, author Yoel Cohen recorded that the official Israeli Chief Rabbinate adopted a mostly conservative stance toward the capture by Israel of the Temple Mount in 1967, in response to questions of whether to rebuild the Temple and reinstitute the sacrificial service to whether to allow Jews to ascend the Temple Mount to pray:
Cohen further footnoted these remarks with comments from an interview:
==See also==
* Jerusalem syndrome
==References==
==External links==
*Palestine Facts: Who was responsible for the al-Aqsa Mosque fire in 1969?
*From Daniel Pipes' Weblog (August 21, 2004): Jordan's Al-Aqsa Conspiracy Theory
*Ambassador Report article (page 16) on Armstrong's response
*Rohan and the road to the apocalypse - Audio and transcript of a Background Briefing program broadcast on ABC Radio National about Rohan (23rd August 2009)
*Official Israeli Policy toward the Temple Mount
Other pages related to Michael Dennis Rohan and Al Asqa arson
Herbert W. Armstrong profile | Radio Church of God history prior to reform Worldwide Church of God current history of the church | Lost Ten Tribes links to related theories | 1975 in Prophecy! theory of two time cycles | The World Tomorrow radio and television broadcasts | The Plain Truth magazine history | Ambassador College and Ambassador University | Big Sandy history of Texas campus location | Bricket Wood history of UK campus location | Ambassador Auditorium history | Garner Ted Armstrong profile | Stanley Rader profile | Basil Wolverton profile | Art Gilmore profile | Bobby Fischer religious affiliation
Category:Australian criminals
Category:Christian and Jewish interfaith topics
Category:History of Jerusalem
Category:Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Category:Australian people imprisoned abroad
Category:Prisoners and detainees of Israel
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