JERUSALEM HAS NEVER BEEN A HOLY MUSLIM PLACE.
Statements about the city being "the third holy place of Islam" appeared in the thirties of the last century. First they were announced by notorious Jerusalem's Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini. He aspired to stir up religious fanaticism among apathetic local population. Al-Husseini worked vigorously to raise Jerusalem's status as an Islamic holy center. He renovated the mosques that had fallen into complete disrepair on the Temple Mount while conducting an unceasing campaign regarding the imminent Jewish "threat" to Muslim holy sites.
(It is a well-known fact that Hussein collaborated with Hitler in the "final solution of the Jewish question". Less known is that he was appointed to the post of Grant Mufti of Jerusalem by a Jew, Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner of Palestine. Samuel "was a weak administrator who was too ready to compromise and appease the extremist, nationalistic Arab minority led by Haj Amin al-Husseini."[2])
Earlier all Arabian historians and scientists referred to Jerusalem and, first of all, the Temple Mount, as the Jewish holy site only. In the 13th century an Arab geographer Yakut said: "Mecca is holy to Moslems and Jerusalem to the Jews".
On the Temple Mount "triumphant soldiers of Islam" behaved in the same way as they did everywhere where they appeared: destroyed local holy sites and replaced them with their own. When Caliph Omar entered the city of Jerusalem there was only one holy site on the Temple Mount at that time: the Byzantine Church of Saint Mary of Justinian. Caliph Abd El Malik built here the Dome of the Rock that is still incorrectly called "Omar Mosque". 20 years later his son, Abd El-Wahd, reconstructed the Church of Saint Mary and converted it into Al-Aqsa mosque.
A historian Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann wrote:[3]
"With this understood, it is no wonder that Mohammed issued a strict prohibition against facing Jerusalem in prayer, a practice that had been tolerated only for some months in order to lure Jews to convert to Islam. When that effort failed, Mohammed put an abrupt stop to it on February 12, 624. Jerusalem simply never held any sanctity for the Moslems themselves, but only for the Jews in their domain".
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran. The myth about Jerusalem being "the third holy place of Islam" began to spread quickly after 1967. Muhammad is believed by all Muslims to have ascended into heaven alive at the site of the Dome of the Rock. Earlier this legend was not considered to be basic in Muslim mythology. Rabbi Joseph Katz wrote that the present Arabian name of Jerusalem "el-KuDS" is abbreviation for another Arabic name used for Jerusalem until the last century, "bet el-maKDeS". Under the Arab rule, in the 10th century Jerusalem was always called "bet el maKDeS" The name "BeT el-MaKDeS" is a translation of the Aramaic and Hebrew "BeiT ha-MiKDaSH", which means Temple".
As I have said, Jerusalem became the holy city of Islam thanks to Haj Amin Al-Husseini. In 1947 the Saudis published a Fatwa (a religious ruling) calling for "rescuing the Temple Mount from the Jews". After 1967 Yassir Arafat used this slogan to transform the conflict with Israel to a religious war. Today Arabs do not recognize that there was the Temple here, or that Jerusalem has ever had any relation to the Jews. What's more, the existence of the Jews, as a religious and ethnic community is also denied. The PA Mufti, Ikrima Sabri, appointed by Yassir Arafat, said that there was no such thing as the Western (or "Wailing") Wall. He claimed that it was the "part of the walls of the Al Aqsa mosque" and called it "Al Burak Wall".
For decades the Jerusalem Waqf has been destroying unique Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount under different pretexts. Thousands of tons of dirt full of artefacts were carted away and dumped. If it goes like this, there will soon be no traces of the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount.
That was the Jerusalem story.
ME'ARAT HAMACHPELA AND RACHEL'S TOMB.
Genesis Chapter 23 tells us that Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs to bury his wife Sarah. Genesis 35, 19 describes that Rachel "died and was buried on the road to Efrata which is Bethlehem".
It had happened about two thousand years before Islam appeared. Now we learn that Me'arat HaMachpela and Rachel's Tomb have always belonged to Arabs. According to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas the Israeli cabinet's decision is a "serious provocation that may lead to religious war". USA, EU and UN have urged Israel to exercise restraint.
We also learn that both sites have no connection to the Jews. One of them is named the Sanctuary of Abraham (Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi), and the second Bilal Ibn Ribah mosque. By the way, Bilal Ibn Ribah mosque was built by the Muslims only a thousand years ago.
All of this without any doubt is a "continuing Israeli provocation". It can cease only in one case: with the disappearance of Israel and its citizens. In the same way as Zoroastrians and Manichees ceased to exist. As Hindu and Buddhist temples disappeared. As the Church of Saint Mary of Justinian is gone from the Temple Mount and the "Wailing Wall" got its "real" name: "Al Burak Wall".
During the centuries everything non-Muslim that became part of Dar
Al-Islam ("Land of Islam") has ceased from existence.
Footnotes
[1] http://www.bharatvani.org/books/negaind/cover.htm
[2]http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php
[3] Algemeiner Journal, August 19, 1994.
Alex Maistrovoy is a journalist. Contact him by email at alfeldm55@yahoo.com This article was submitted March 8, 2010.
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