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The Myth of al-Aqsa: The Holiness of Jerusalem to Islam Has Always Been Politically Motivated

[Ynet News] Mordechai Kedar - Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran. After Palestine was occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramle, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant nothing to them. In 682 C.E., 50 years after Mohammad's death, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr rebelled against the Islamic rulers in Damascus, conquered Mecca and prevented pilgrims from reaching Mecca for the Hajj. Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad ruler, needed an alternative site for the pilgrimage and settled on Jerusalem which was then under his control. In order to justify this choice, a verse from the Koran was chosen which states: "Glory to Him who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque." The meaning ascribed to this verse is that "the farthest mosque" is in Jerusalem and that Mohammad was conveyed there one night (although the journey took three days by camel) on the back of al-Buraq, a magical horse with the head of a woman and wings of an eagle. He tethered the horse to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and from there ascended to heaven. Orthodox Muslim thinkers have concluded that the nocturnal journey was a dream of Mohammad's. The people of Mecca, who knew Muhammad well, did not believe this story. Another difficulty with this belief is that Islamic tradition tells us that al-Aqsa mosque is near Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula. This was unequivocally stated in Kitab al-Maghazi, a book by the Muslim historian and geographer al-Waqidi. One aim of the Islamization of Jerusalem is to undermine the legitimacy of the older religions, Judaism and Christianity, which consider Jerusalem to be a holy city. Though Judaism and Christianity can exist side by side in Jerusalem, Islam regards both of them as betrayals of Allah and will continue to do all in its power to expel both of them from this city. Notably, this expulsion is retroactive: The Islamic broadcasters of the Palestinian radio stations consistently make it a point to claim that the Jews never had a temple on the Temple Mount. Must Judaism and Christianity defer to myths related in Islamic texts or envisioned in Mohammad's dreams, long after Jerusalem was established as the ancient center of these two religions, which preceded Islam? Should Israel give up on its capital just because some Muslims decided to recycle the political problems of the Umayyads? The writer, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, is a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
2008-09-15 01:00:00
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