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Jewish World Review July 20, 2000 / 17 Tamuz, 5760
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WITH FINAL-STATUS TALKS between Israel and the Palestinians
underway, Jerusalem is finally in play. At base, the argument here consists
of an argument between Jews and Moslems over who has the older, better
documented, and deeper ties to the Holy City.
A cursory review of the facts shows that there is not much of a contest.
Jerusalem has a unique importance to Jews. It has a unique place in Jewish
law and a pervasive presence in the Jewish religion. Jews pray toward
Jerusalem, mourn the destruction of their Temple there, and wishfully repeat
the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem." It is the only capital of the Jewish
state, ancient or modern.
In contrast, Jerusalem has a distinctly secondary place for Moslems. It is
not once mentioned in the Koran or in the liturgy. The Prophet Mohammed never
went to the city, nor did he have ties to it. Jerusalem never has served as
the capital of any polity, and has never been an Islamic cultural center.
Rather, Mecca is the "Jerusalem" of Islam. That is where Moslems believe that
Abraham nearly sacrificed Ishmael; where Mohammed lived most of his life; and
where the key events of Islam took place. Moslems pray in its direction five
times each day and it is where non-Moslems are forbidden to set foot.
Jerusalem being of minor importance to Islam, why do Moslems nowadays insist
that the city is more important to them than to Jews? The answer has to do
with politics. Moslems take religious interest in Jerusalem when it serves
practical interests. When those concerns lapse, so does the standing of
Jerusalem. This pattern has recurred at least five times over 14 centuries.
The Prophet. When Mohammed sought to convert the Jews in the 620s C.E., he
adopted several Jewish-style practices - a Yom Kippur-like fast, a
synagogue-like place of worship, kosher-style food restrictions - and also
tachanun-like prayers while facing Jerusalem. But when most Jews rejected
Mohammed's overtures, the Koran changed the prayer direction to Mecca and
Jerusalem lost importance for Moslems.
The Umayyad Dynasty. Jerusalem regained stature a few decades later when
rulers of the Umayyad dynasty sought ways to enhance the importance of their
territories. One way was by building two monumental religious structures in
Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock in 691 and Al-Aqsa Mosque in 715.
Then the Umayyads did something tricky: The Koran states that God took
Mohammed "by night from the sacred mosque in Mecca to the furthest (al-aqsa)
place of worship." When this passage was revealed (about 621), "furthest
place of worship" was a turn of phrase, not a specific place. Decades later,
the Umayyads built a mosque in Jerusalem and called it Al-Aqsa. Moslems since
then understand the passage about the "furthest place of worship" as
referring to Jerusalem.
But when the Umayyads fell in 750, Jerusalem lapsed into near obscurity.
The Crusades. The Crusader conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 evinced little
Moslem reaction at first. Then, as a Moslem counter-crusade developed, so did
a whole literature extolling the virtues of Jerusalem. As a result, at about
this time Jerusalem came to be seen as Islam's third most holy city.
Then, safely back in Moslem hands in 1187, the city lapsed into its usual
obscurity. The population declined, even the defensive walls fell.
The British conquest. Only when British troops reached Jerusalem in 1917, did
Moslems reawaken to the city's importance. Palestinian leaders made Jerusalem
a centerpiece of their campaign against Zionism.
When the Jordanians won the old city in 1948, Moslems predictably lost
interest again in Jerusalem. It reverted to a provincial backwater,
deliberately degraded by the Jordanians in favor of Amman, their capital.
Taking out a bank loan, subscribing to telephone service, or registering a
postal package required a trip to Amman. Jordanian radio transmitted the
Friday sermon not from Al-Aqsa but from a minor mosque in Amman. Jerusalem
also fell off the Arab diplomatic map: the PLO covenant of 1964 did not
mention it. No Arab leader (other than King Hussein, and he rarely) visited
there.
The Israeli conquest. When Israel captured the city in June 1967, Moslem
interest in Jerusalem again surged. The 1968 PLO covenant mentioned Jerusalem
by name. Revolutionary Iran created a Jerusalem Day and placed the city on
bank notes. Money flooded into the city to build it up.
Thus have politics, more than religious sentiments, driven Moslem interest in
Jerusalem through
By Daniel Pipes
JWR contributor Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, most recently Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes from. Let him know what you think by clicking here.
