Jakarta, Jan 29 (NNN-ANTARA) -- The Indonesian government should encourage other Muslim countries to press Israel to stop constructing a tunnel under the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem because the activity is endangering the mosque, a lawmaker said on Monday.

"The Indonesian government must file a protest with the UN against the Israeli activity," said Suripto, a member of the House of Representatives` Commission on defense, information and foreign affairs.

The tunnel construction was deeply hurting the feelings of Muslims all over the world as the Al Aqsa Mosque is Islam`s second most holy shrine, he said.

As the world`s largest Muslim country, Indonesia must promote solidarity among members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to protest the tunnel`s construction, he said.

"Moreover, the foreign minister (Hassan Wirajuda) will soon visit Syria. I think it is the right moment for Indonesia to promote solidarity (among OIC member countries) to lodge a joint protest against the tunnel`s construction," he said.

It was high time for Muslims all over the world to protest against the Israeli action by boycotting Israeli products, he said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Nazri Adlani called for the government`s commitment to stopping the tunnel`s construction, saying it could threaten the mosque`s foundations.

"As president of the world`s largest Muslim country, (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) must be committed (to stopping the tunnel`s construction) not only by filing a protest but also by taking concrete steps," he said.

Earlier, IINA reported that Ibrahim Sarsour, a member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) and leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, had warned that Israel was still digging and carrying out excavations under the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in ways that were emdangering the mosque`s foundations.

Sarsour said the Israeli government paid a Palestinian vendor $60,000 for his store bordering the Temple Mount compound on which the mosque stands, according to a report carried by the Israeli online daily newspaper Haaretz.

The newspaper reported several leaders of the movement were planning to present information on upcoming digging that Israel intends to carry out under the mosque. "Excavations referred to by Sarsour were to be done some 100 meters from the Temple Mount but were stopped due to lack of funds," the Haaretz report said.

The excavations, carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority at the behest of a Jewish group, on a property owned by businessman Aaron Mosovitch, was first revealed by Haaretz about a year ago.

Israeli archeologists who had argued that the digging was aimed at clearing an old garbage-filled tunnel to determine whether it posed a safety hazard, said the excavations were done horizontally and vertically and had reached a point less than 60 meters from the mosque, according to Islamonline.net.

Sheikh Raed Salah, the Northern branch leader of the Islamic Movement, which released pictures of the excavations near the mosque, said the digging was part of efforts to realize Israel`s darkest dream of building a Jewish temple in place of the Al Aqsa mosque.

The Jewish state`s dangerous excavations near the holy Mosque aimed at destabilizing its foundations had been going since Israel occupied eastern Jerusalem after the 1967 war. -- NNN-ANTARA