Whose Jerusalem? (Moses, beliefs, mission, eternal, pagan)

[Jayhawker Soule]

From The Middle East Quarterly

The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem

Conclusion

Politics, not religious sensibility, has fueled the Muslim attachment to Jerusalem for nearly fourteen centuries; what the historian Bernard Wasserstein has written about the growth of Muslim feeling in the course of the Countercrusade applies through the centuries: "often in the history of Jerusalem, heightened religious fervour may be explained in large part by political necessity." This pattern has three main implications. First, Jerusalem will never be more than a secondary city for Muslims; "belief in the sanctity of Jerusalem," Sivan rightly concludes, "cannot be said to have been widely diffused nor deeply rooted in Islam." Second, the Muslim interest lies not so much in controlling Jerusalem as it does in denying control over the city to anyone else. Third, the Islamic connection to the city is weaker than the Jewish one because it arises as much from transitory and mundane considerations as from the immutable claims of faith.

Mecca, by contrast, is the eternal city of Islam, the place from which non-Muslims are strictly forbidden. Very roughly speaking, what Jerusalem is to Jews, Mecca is to Muslims – a point made in the Qur'an itself (2:145) in recognizing that Muslims have one qibla and "the people of the Book" another one. The parallel was noted by medieval Muslims; the geographer Yaqut (1179-1229) wrote, for example, that "Mecca is holy to Muslims and Jerusalem to the Jews." In modern times, some scholars have come to the same conclusion: "Jerusalem plays for the Jewish people the same role that Mecca has for Muslims," writes Abdul Hadi Palazzi, director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community.

The similarities are striking. Jews pray thrice to Jerusalem, Muslims five times daily to Mecca. Muslims see Mecca as the navel of the world, just as Jews see Jerusalem. Whereas Jews believe Abraham nearly sacrificed Ishmael's brother Isaac in Jerusalem, Muslims believe this episode took place in Mecca. The Ka‘ba in Mecca has similar functions for Muslims as the Temple in Jerusalem for Jews (such as serving as a destination for pilgrimage). The Temple and Ka‘ba are both said to be inimitable structures. The supplicant takes off his shoes and goes barefoot in both their precincts. Solomon's Temple was inaugurated on Yom Kippur, the tenth day of the year, and the Ka‘ba receives its new cover also on the tenth day of each year. If Jerusalem is for Jews a place so holy that not just its soil but even its air is deemed sacred, Mecca is the place whose "very mention reverberates awe in Muslims' hearts," according to Abad Ahmad of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey.

This parallelism of Mecca and Jerusalem offers the basis of a solution, as Sheikh Palazzi wisely writes:

separation in directions of prayer is a mean to decrease possible rivalries in management of Holy Places. For those who receive from Allah the gift of equilibrium and the attitude to reconciliation, it should not be difficult to conclude that, as no one is willing to deny Muslims a complete sovereignty over Mecca, from an Islamic point of view -notwithstanding opposite, groundless propagandistic claims - there is not any sound theological reason to deny an equal right of Jews over Jerusalem.

To back up this view, Palazzi notes several striking and oft-neglected passages in the Qur'an. One of them (5:22-23) quotes Moses instructing the Jews to "enter the Holy Land (al-ard al-muqaddisa) which God has assigned unto you." Another verse (17:104) has God Himself making the same point: "We said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Land.'" Qur'an 2:145 states that the Jews "would not follow your qibla; nor are you going to follow their qibla," indicating a recognition of the Temple Mount as the Jews' direction of prayer. "God himself is saying that Jerusalem is as important to Jews as Mecca is to Moslems," Palazzi concludes.

His analysis has a clear and sensible implication: just as Muslims rule an undivided Mecca, Jews should rule an undivided Jerusalem.

It is a long article but well worth reading.

[michel]

I am sorry to hear about this controversy; for me, Jerusalem belongs to the Jews - no argument. I realize part of that is an emotional response, but only part......

[jewscout]

You must spread more karma around before giving more to Deut 32.8...

yet another excellent article thanks Deut!

[Faminedynasty]

Ah, so Jeruselem belongs to the Jews, and the muslims have no claim, eh? Well I'm glad we finally got this settled. Now all of those Muslims can abandon their mistaken beliefs and bow to the true religious beliefs of the Jews and accept that what they thought was holy to them actually was not, and we can all be friends, seperate but equal.
It is also noteable that God is on the side of the Jews in this whole dispute. And I hate to go against God, I really do, it makes me nervous. But if you ask me, if people have decided that a city is holy to them, whether it is for religious, political, or practical reasons (and honestly, don't these all overlap?) it will be holy to them, regardless of what God, or biased articles say. If you ask me, Muslim, Christian and Jew all have legitamate claim, and things are not going to get any better until all of these can accept the other as their brothers under God.

[jewscout]

Faminedynasty, i think you're missing the point of the article. it is stating the importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish faith as the single most holiest site on the planet, and that, for the Muslims, it is not the #1 holiest site, that is Mecca. It is not saying the Jewish faith is any better than any other faith or that everyone should become a jew. It's showing the importance of Jerusalem in Judaism and even points to Islamic text to show that both faiths were supposed to have holy places independent of one another (at least that's what i got out of it)

[Melody]

Deut,

Thanks for the article. It was an interesting read. I've often been puzzled over the Muslim's attachment to Jerusalem since Mecca is their holy city.

[DreamQuickBook]

Well, we (the US and the British) gave Jerusalem to the Jews with the United Nations' permission. Of course, it isn't theirs by right. But, now that they have it, I say, if they can defend it, it's theirs.

[Feathers in Hair]

That booming sound is the sound of my head exploding.

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by Faminedynasty

Ah, so Jeruselem belongs to the Jews, and the muslims have no claim, eh? ... But if you ask me, ...

Which, of course, I didn't. But, if I did, I would ask you to consider arguing against the article rather than your strawman caricature. The point is not that God is on the side of the Jews. The point is that the religious centrality of Jerusalem to Islam is recent and self-serving revisionist history. You have every right to disagree with that position. You have no right to distort it.