Whose Jerusalem?
By Daniel Pipes

(July 19) - With final-status talks between Israel and the
Palestinians underway, Jerusalem is finally in play. At
base, the argument here consists of an argument between
Jews and Moslems over who has the older, better
documented, and deeper ties to the Holy City. 

A cursory review of the facts shows that there is not
much of a contest. 

Jerusalem has a unique importance to Jews. It has a
unique place in Jewish law and a pervasive presence in
the Jewish religion. Jews pray toward Jerusalem, mourn
the destruction of their Temple there, and wishfully repeat
the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem." It is the only capital
of the Jewish state, ancient or modern. 

In contrast, Jerusalem has a distinctly secondary place for
Moslems. It is not once mentioned in the Koran or in the
liturgy. The Prophet Mohammed never went to the city,
nor did he have ties to it. Jerusalem never has served as
the capital of any polity, and has never been an Islamic
cultural center. 

Rather, Mecca is the "Jerusalem" of Islam. That is where
Moslems believe that Abraham nearly sacrificed Ishmael;
where Mohammed lived most of his life; and where the
key events of Islam took place. Moslems pray in its
direction five times each day and it is where
non-Moslems are forbidden to set foot. 

Jerusalem being of minor importance to Islam, why do
Moslems nowadays insist that the city is more important
to them than to Jews? The answer has to do with politics.
Moslems take religious interest in Jerusalem when it
serves practical interests. When those concerns lapse, so
does the standing of Jerusalem. This pattern has recurred
at least five times over 14 centuries. 

The Prophet. When Mohammed sought to convert the
Jews in the 620s C.E., he adopted several Jewish-style
practices - a Yom Kippur-like fast, a synagogue-like
place of worship, kosher-style food restrictions - and also
tachanun - like prayers while facing Jerusalem. But when
most Jews rejected Mohammed's overtures, the Koran
changed the prayer direction to Mecca and Jerusalem lost
importance for Moslems. 

The Umayyad Dynasty. Jerusalem regained stature a few
decades later when rulers of the Umayyad dynasty sought
ways to enhance the importance of their territories. One
way was by building two monumental religious structures
in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock in 691 and Al-Aqsa
Mosque in 715. 

Then the Umayyads did something tricky: The Koran
states that God took Mohammed "by night from the
sacred mosque in Mecca to the furthest (al-aqsa) place of
worship." When this passage was revealed (about 621),
"furthest place of worship" was a turn of phrase, not a
specific place. Decades later, the Umayyads built a
mosque in Jerusalem and called it Al-Aqsa. Moslems
since then understand the passage about the "furthest
place of worship" as referring to Jerusalem. 

But when the Umayyads fell in 750, Jerusalem lapsed into
near obscurity. 

The Crusades. The Crusader conquest of Jerusalem in
1099 evinced little Moslem reaction at first. Then, as a
Moslem counter-crusade developed, so did a whole
literature extolling the virtues of Jerusalem. As a result, at
about this time Jerusalem came to be seen as Islam's third
most holy city. 

Then, safely back in Moslem hands in 1187, the city
lapsed into its usual obscurity. The population declined,
even the defensive walls fell. 

The British conquest. Only when British troops reached
Jerusalem in 1917, did Moslems reawaken to the city's
importance. Palestinian leaders made Jerusalem a
centerpiece of their campaign against Zionism. 

When the Jordanians won the old city in 1948, Moslems
predictably lost interest again in Jerusalem. It reverted to
a provincial backwater, deliberately degraded by the
Jordanians in favor of Amman, their capital. 

Taking out a bank loan, subscribing to telephone service,
or registering a postal package required a trip to Amman.
Jordanian radio transmitted the Friday sermon not from
Al-Aqsa but from a minor mosque in Amman. Jerusalem
also fell off the Arab diplomatic map: the PLO covenant
of 1964 did not mention it. No Arab leader (other than
King Hussein, and he rarely) visited there. 

The Israeli conquest. When Israel captured the city in
June 1967, Moslem interest in Jerusalem again surged.
The 1968 PLO covenant mentioned Jerusalem by name.
Revolutionary Iran created a Jerusalem Day and placed
the city on bank notes. Money flooded into the city to
build it up. 

Thus have politics, more than religious sentiments, driven
Moslem interest in Jerusalem through history. 

The writer is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle
East Forum.