A City of Three Religions: The Myth of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capitol of the nation of Israel - and what a splendid controversy this has led to.

Every school child knows, since it is taught to them as early as the first grade, that Jerusalem is the major center of "three great religions", and that the conflicts that come about due so because those three religions all believe that the basis of their religions are formed in this city. They cite that the Jews controlled the city when the Canaanite tribe of Jebusites were defeated by King David, it is maintained that Jesus Christ died to the Romans here, and finally that it has importance to Islam (it's hard to get your teachers to actually explain why, you just have to take their words for it).

In Old Jerusalem are a plethora of ancient sites, ranging from the Pool of Bethesda, to the sacred Wailing Wall, on to the Temple Mount - literally to walk through the streets of this city is to step through history itself. This history is well documented, and is very rarely contested - the Israelites entered Canaan, the city of Jebus fell to King David, it was renamed Jerusalem, Solomon built the Temple here, the Ark of the Covenant was used as the divine walkie-talkie between the Levites and God, the Temple was later destroyed by two world dominating empires, and the Jews were driven out in what is referred to as the Diaspora - and is believed by some to have been the wrath of God driving the Jews from Jerusalem.

For Christians, the city is the site of their salvation. Here Jesus entered into and gave his famous speeches, and was later arrested by the Pharisees and given a mock trial, before being paraded in front of Pontius Pilate whom was pressured into executing the man he believed to be innocent under threat of rebellion, and he was carried out to be executed above an old quarry on the Calvary Hill. Three days later, according to Christianity, he was resurrected, and in turn brought salvation of sins onto the world and acted as the pathway into Heaven.

Enter Islam, whose claim to Jerusalem is clumsy at best. In a way, the claim came about over the Caliph's zeal for a stone known as the Creation Stone - which was dug out of the Temple Mount by Caliph Umar - and thus was born the need to build the Dome of the Rock. A grand story was told to me once by an Imam Abdul, explaining Umar's acquisition of Jerusalem.

As the leaders of Jerusalem surrendered the city to the Muslims, the patriarch of the city waited at the gates of the city, holding the city's keys, as it was customary to surrender them to the leader of the opposition. Umar and his apprentice had but one horse to get to Jerusalem with, and therefore they traded time walking and riding. As they reached the city gates, Umar was walking, and his servant was riding the horse, and so the patriarch mistakenly handed the keys to the servant. After the confusion was mended, Umar was taken to the Temple Mount and urged to pray.

Here Umar did pray - although he said to the Patriarch that he would not pray on the site he was asked to, in fear that his zealous followers should strive to build a mosque on that site and desecrate the temple that was already there. The Patriarch agreed, and thus he prayed a short area south, in the direction of Mecca. Here, the al-Aqsa Mosque was built.

And so began the vigorous rewriting of history to include Jerusalem into Islam's holy texts.

Perhaps the easiest way to refute the claim that Islam holds any religious claim to the city is a cursory glance at the religion's holiest text: the Quran, said to be the inspired truth of Allah, composed by the illiterate Mohammed. One could scour the duration of the book, and find not a single reference to the city of Jerusalem in it.

This is because Mohammed had not considered Jerusalem of any particular significance. In truth, none of those who were a part of the rise of the Islamic Empire were particularly interested in that specific site. None of Mohammed's corresponding Hadiths carried with them any mention of the city, and it was not until Umar's prayer and the erection of the Dome of the Rock that the Muslims finally started taking a notice to the city.

The mosque currently built on the Temple Mount over the Jewish Temple of God is craftily named, a reference to a specific verse in the Quran. Take a moment to read over the exact quotes in the Quran that apply to Jerusalem, apparently:

"Glory to Allah Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to al-Aqsa Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things)." -Quran 17:1

Al-Aqsa, of course, means nothing more than "the furthest". In this section of the Quran, we are told a mystical story whereupon Mohammed was taken from bed by his faithful flying horse, who flew him to "the furthest mosque", and was ascended to heaven by the angel Gabriel, and was given a pleasant tour of Heaven. What's often neglected in this tale, is that the Quran explicitly states that this is a dream sequence, it is a "nocturnal journey", where Mohammed dreams of his ascension into Heaven - which, in stark contrast to Biblical figures, he returns from and later dies.

Imams will often later attempt to patch the Jerusalem connection by pointing out the Quran's frequent references to the Israelites, and the People of the Book, in the Jews and Christians. Or they will refer to a cryptic quote by hadith interpretor Imam Muslim (Abul Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Qushayri al-Nisaburi or أبو الحسين مسلم بن الحجاج القشيري النيسابوري ) where he speaks of a dialogue by Anas Ibn Malik, one of the companions of Mohammed.

"I came to the Buraq, I rode it until we arrived at Bayt al-Maqdis. I tied it to where the Prophets tie, then I entered the mosque I prayed two Rakaah, and then ascended to the heavens," the companion says, confidently proclaiming that Mohammed told him of the journey himself, claiming he visited "Bayt al-Maqdis", which was later decided to be Jerusalem.

As a result of the name attributed to the mosque after its building by the Umayyad Dynasty, a correlation was drawn between Mohammed's dream and the mosque - and thus was born the notion of Jerusalem being a "holy site of Islam".

This, unfortunately for its current residents who endure constant bloodshed as a result of this claim, is utterly untrue.