Occupation and the Holy Sites David A Levy One of the most consistent flash-points in the Israeli Palestinian conflict over the last 40 years has been about the control of sites that are considered to be sacred by both Jews and Muslims. The Key to this particular issue is that many Muslims believe that 1. These sites are not sacred to Jews and never have been 2. That even if the sites where once Jewish, Islam is the supreme religion and therefore the Jewish claim is irrelevant During the 2000 Camp David Summit, Yasser Arafat said that no Jewish Temple ever existed on the Temple Mount. 1 Some Islamic Leaders like the Palestinian Authority-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrima Sabri, believe that Jerusalem was never a Jewish city and that there wasn’t ever any synagogues in the entire city, he is on record as saying that “There is not [even] the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish history. 2 Decades, even centuries, of this sort of hateful arrogance and incitement by the most respected members of Palestinian society have brainwashed the Palestinian People into believing that they, perhaps with a few Christians, are the lone inheritors of the Holy Lands sacred Places. The issue of Holy Places, and how Muslims appropriated them from the Jews, is central to the history of the Holy land and fully illustrates how callously the Islamic rulers treated the Jews in the Holy land. It is this history of subjugation and institutionalised mistreatment of Jews that has directly shaped the arrogant attitudes of the Palestinians, and their brother Arabs, today when it comes to dealing with the Israelis and Jews in general The Temple Mount When the Armies or rather Occupying Islamic Hordes (OIH)of Caliph Omar invaded and occupied Palestine, or Judea as it was still called by Jews of the time, Caliph Omar was shocked at how the Christians, who had ruled the city for some years previously and banished all Jews from Jerusalem, had intentionally desecrated the site by using it as a rubbish dump, so shocked was he that he made the Christian Patriarch Sophronius grovel in the muck. Ironically Omar was angry at the Christians for desecrating a Holy Site, one that was deeply rooted in Judaism and Jewish History and yet that didn’t stop him from further desecrating that site by Building a Mosque on this Holy Jewish Site- true there was no Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, however Omar Knew full and well that this site was still sacred to Judaism. Omar could have taken the High road and handed back this Key piece of Jewish History and culture to the Jews, but instead he chose to make it a Islamic site.By 691 Abd Al Malik had built the Dome of the Rock and completed the adjacent Al Aqsa mosque in 712AD. Although their where periods of enlightenment where Jews were allowed to enter the Temple Mount on Holy days by the 13th Centry Jews were fully banned from the Temple Mount, the punishment for any trespassing Jew was the same punishment meted out to blasphemers. This racist implemented and actioned by the OIH law stayed in full effect right up until the British took over from the Turks and even then any Jew found on the Temple Mount would be ripped apart by the closest 50 muslims for daring to tread on “Islamic” ground Ironically the issue that precipitated the building of Al Aqsa and the subsequent banning of Jews, Mohammeds Night Journey, never happened as explained by Dr. Shabbir The Quran as it Explains Itself. In the preface to Sura 17, Ahmed makes the comment: ASRA (Night Journey) is often mixed up with MIRAJ (ascension). Since Allah is Omnipresent, the notion of going to meet with Him over the skies does not stand up to reason. ASRA signifies the night journey and it refers to the beginning of the exalted Messengers emigration from Makkah to Madinah by night. Verses 20:77 and 26:52 use the same term for migration of Prophet Moses along with his followers across the sea. Also consider 17:2. Masjid Al Aqsa means, the Remote Mosque and refers to the Remote Mosque in Madinah, the place where Muslims used to establish congregational prayers before the Prophets arrival at the city. The famous Masjid Al Aqsa, (the so-called Qiblah Awwal, or the supposed First Holy Sanctuary, also known as Haram Sharif) in Jerusalem was, in fact, built in 72AH (691 C.E.) by the Umayyad Ruler, Abdul Malik bin Marwan, about 60 years after the exalted Messenger passed on. Jerusalem, until the Muslim conquest under the second Caliph of Islam in 637 C.E., had been under the control of the Byzantine Christians for centuries, and there was no person worshipping in a Masjid anywhere in the world except Madinah. Hence, the question of a presence of a Masjid in Jerusalem during the life times [sic] of the exalted Prophet should not arise. Simply put it would have been impossible for Muslims to have conducted prayers, and for Muhammad to have led a communal prayer in Jerusalem when the mosque did not exist, nor were there even any Muslims in Jerusalem at that time? Indeed . Islamic claims of religious significance to the Temple Mount are invalid and illegitimate as they are based on an event that could never have happened Other Jewish Sites This appropriation, or theft, of Jewish sacred sites wasn’t an isolated event but rather part of a systematic program of Islamification of Jewish religious sites by the OIH The Cave of the Patriarchs For over 1400 years a temple was present at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Herod built a Large rectangular structure over the Caves. By 637AD the Muslsim had also fully converted this Jewish Holy Site into Mosque. Interestingly enough when Saladin conquered the area In 1188, he reconverting the enclosure to a mosque as the Crusaders had destroyed the previous mosque. He Allowed Christians to continue worshipping and allowed Jews to worship there on specific days. In 1318-1320 the Mamluks took control of the area and the Amir Jawli Mosque and immediately forbade Jews from entering the site, allowing them only as close as the fifth step on a staircase at the southeast, but after some time this was increased to the seventh step and eventually that where banned outright from the mosque complex although this restriction was lifted for periods3 After Israeli statehood was achieved in 1948 and the Jordanian Occupation Forces Coloniesed of the West Bank, no Jews were allowed anywhere in the Judaean Mountains. For some Islamic Leaders, like Caliph Harun al Rashid (786- 809AD) converting the major Holy Places into Mosques was not enough so he ordered the Destruction of all Synagogues and churches built or repaired after the Islamic conquest The Fatimid caliph, Al Hakim, took this one step further (996 -1021) every single Synagogue and church was destroyed. Subsequently in later years Al Hakim allowed certain churches and Synagogues to be rebuilt, but only after paying massive bribes 4 Other religions However Judaism was not alone in this treatment of its holy Places. Many religions and holy sites have been usurped and turned into moaques- here are some of the major ones Cordoba Was a Visigoth church before being converted to a mosque in 784. Became a Church again in 1236. Damascus immediately after the Muslim conquest in 636 the Church of St John was shared between Christians and muslims, as ifr the Christians had a choice.. however by 705AD it was claimed as a mosque (Umayyad Mosque) and Christians banned from it Istanbul Hagia Sophia became Ayasofya Mosque from 1453 -1935 (Now a museum); Saint John the Forerunner by-the-Dome (12th C) became the Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque in late 16th century Ohrid Region During the time of Ottoman rule St. Clements Monastery church at Plaonik was transformed into the Imater Mosque. The mosque did not survive the end of the Ottoman Empire. Paphos The Great Mosque of Paphos was originally a church, it was converted to a mosque in 1570 by the Ottoman Governor Mehmet Bey Ebubekir and by the order of Selim Khan, (Selim II). Thessalonika Galerius Masoleum which was turned into a church (St Gregorios and not Demitrius) and then into a mosque. In his book Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them, Sita Ram Goel produced a list of 2000 mosques that were built on Hindu temples. Many of Hinduisms most holy sites where usurped by Muslims including Ram Janmabhoomi, Somnath Temple, the Kuragala Cave Temple complex. Quite rightly there is a large movement in India that seeks to reclaim this lost heritage from the IOH who perpetrated these monstrous crimes in the first place In Turkey most of the Greek Orthodox churches were left behind by expelled Greeks (after their expulsion and Genocide from 1915 to 1923) were converted into mosques. A significant surge in church-mosque conversion followed the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches in Northern Cyprus have been converted, and many are still in the process of becoming mosques. But the question still remains; Why would Muslims go to all this effort to claim sites that are sacred to other religions? Why go out of your way to create strife? Very simply put it was a policy enacted by Caliph Omar intended to proclaim the dominance and supremacy of Islam. The Pact of Omar 5 was written as a document to govern the conquered people of Egypt, this document however became the law by which all subsequent areas conquered by Muslim where to be ruled. Its intention and purpose was clearly a continuation of Quranic doctrine in that it elevated Islam and Muslims above non -Muslim, its gave Muslims power of non-Muslim and reduced non-muslims to second class citizens in their own lands it was an Apartheid system of the worst kind Christians and Jews had to get permission from the local governor to build or even repair anything, Muslims did not. The local Governor was never local as the Holy Land was only ever a Muslim colony and was never ruled from Jerusalem but rather from the Muslims seat of power in Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo or Istanbul In each case, these laws allowed the local conquered people less freedom than was allowed the conquering colonialist rulers. In this manner Judaism (and other religions) where in a constant state of decline, forced to bow to Islam’s supposed and oh so temporary supremacy Unfortunately the arrogance of 1400 years of Islamic supremacy in the holy land still remains deeply rooted in the Palestinian Culture, and it’s this systematic and institutionalised disdain and hatred of Judaism that is the sole cause of the conflict today. The only way peace will ever be possible in the middle east is if Muslims take a Giant step forward for humanity and acknowledge that Jews, and other religions, are the equal of Islam and that they have a right to exist and are not subservient to Islam in any way of form 1. Interview with Dennis Ross, Fox News Sunday, (April 21, 2002). 2. memri.org/report/en/print6400.htm 3. History of Hebron Wala Dandis 4. Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide(pg 84-85) By Bat Yeʼor 5. fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.asp
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 09:43:13 +0000
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