In covering recent violence between Israeli Police and Palestinian-Arab rioters at the Al Aqsa Mosque, CBC News falsely reported that the Al Aqsa Mosque is holy to Jews.
A CBC.ca/Reuters report on April 6 carried the following erroneous headline: “Why Al-Aqsa mosque is so important to Muslims and Jews — and the site of renewed violence”.
Meanwhile, a blurb that was used to promote a recent report (see via the CBC’s website or via its Youtube channel) by CBC journalist Margaret Evans, erroneously stated that:
“Israeli raids on al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem — one of the holiest sites in both Islam and Judaism — sparked renewed clashes and calls for peace as Passover and Ramadan coincide.”
In actuality, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has no holy significance for Jews. Instead, the Temple Mount does and is considered Judaism’s holiest site. The Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site next to Mecca and Medina, is merely atop of what Jews regard as the Temple Mount. Muslims regard the area as the Noble Sanctuary (al-Haram al-Sharif).
It’s an important distinction to be made as Jews hold no reverence to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Accordingly, HonestReporting Canada liaised with senior editors at CBC News requesting that these reports be corrected. We are pleased to note that the CBC has corrected its headline, its reporting and has published a correction notice.
Here’s a before and after of the CBC’s headline:
Here’s the correction notice the CBC published on April 11:
We thank the CBC for its cooperation and for taking corrective action.
