Story highlights Erdogan said more Muslims should visit Jerusalem

Israel calls itself the "only true democracy in the region"

(CNN) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday lashed out at Israel and urged more Muslims to visit the Temple Mount, or Noble Sanctuary, site in Jerusalem.

Speaking in Istanbul to the International Forum on Al-Quds Waqfs , a conference aimed at promoting Palestinian economic development, according to the forum website, Erdogan said that about 26,000 Turks visited Jerusalem last year -- the highest number among Muslim countries, reported Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency.

But, Erdogan suggested, "hundreds of thousands" of Muslims should be making the trip.

He said about 600,000 Americans, 400,000 Russians and 300,000 French citizens visited Jerusalem in 2015.

In June 1967, Israeli statesman David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin lead a group of soldiers past the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, on a victory tour following the Six Day War.

"We, as Muslims, should be visiting Al-Quds more often," he said, referring to Jerusalem by its Arabic name, calling those visits "the greatest support to our brothers there."

Read More