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Temple Mount: Arab Muslims
built 615 days ago
The 35-acre Temple Mount is the most hotly contested piece of property on earth. Holy to the world’s three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Islam and Christianity—it has for decades been the focal point of tensions between Jews and Arabs. The fight over the Temple Mount has sparked riots, such as those in 1996 after Israel opened an exit to a tunnel alongside the Mount (which allowed many more visitors to go through the tunnel) and the Second Intifada (Palestinian uprising), which began after future Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Mount in 2000.
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After that, the Temple Mount remained off-limits to all non-Muslims. But in early September Jerusalem police began allowing Jewish and Christian tourists back onto the site, according to a report by the Christian Broadcasting Network.
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King Abdullah of Jordan, who is trying with all his might to retain an influence over what happens on the Temple Mount, cannot appear to be lagging behind the inciters. Unfortunately, Israeli figures have added to the tumult, including archaeologists who have taken the opportunity to clash over matters of prestige, and political officials who are instigating confrontations between "right" and "left." All the hullabaloo is broadcast live throughout the Muslim world, and the voices that routinely talk about "timing" and "public relations failures" can already be heard.
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The Temple Mount is traditionally regarded by Muslims as the third most important Islamic holy site, after Mecca and Medina. [27][28] The primary reason for its importance is the Muslim belief that in 621, Muhammad arrived there after a miraculous nocturnal journey aboard the winged steed named Buraq, to take a brief tour of heaven with the Archangel Gabriel. This happened during Muhammad's time in Mecca, years before Muslims conquered Jerusalem (638).
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Known in the Arab world as Al-Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount was annexed by Israel in 1967. The Israelis declared that the Mount would remain a Muslim site, but Jews could visit. The de-facto policy... was that Jews would not turn it into a place of worship. That policy has held because the chief Israeli rabbis ruled that Jews should not set foot on the Mount due to its sanctity.
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The Temple Mount is the site of the first and second Jewish Temples, destroyed in 586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively–a historic fact accepted even by Muslim authorities. Nevertheless, that fact has not stopped some journalists from reporting on the Temple Mount’s significance in Jewish history cautiously, as if its status is a matter of Jewish faith, or “belief,” and not archeologic evidence.
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