In Muslim communities across the world, worshippers gathered at mosques for their first Friday prayers since Hamas militants attacked Israel, igniting the latest Israel-Palestinian war.

Islamic leaders in Indonesia appealed to all mosques in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation to pray for peace and safety for the Palestinian people.

The chairperson of the Indonesian Mosque Council had urged all mosques to perform the Qunut Nazilahto prayer, one made for protection, to ask for God’s help so that “the conflict in the Gaza Strip would end quickly.”

The appeal from the nation's former Vice President Jusuf Kalla is in line with most Indonesian Muslims, who stand with Palestinians. The prayer was held along with the Salat Al-Ghaib, or prayer for the absent.

In a sermon at Abu Bakar Al Shidiq, one of the most conservative mosques in Jakarta, a cleric called for mobilizing “our power and efforts to help the Muslims in Palestine.”

“Prayer is a weapon for devout Muslims,” he added, “For those of us who have not been given the opportunity by God to take up arms to defend the honor and religion of our Muslims brothers, then we can take up our weapons by raising our hands asking God for His blessings."

— Niniek Karmini, Jakarta, Indonesia

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