[Sender]

And the Arab states warn against any plan to "Judaize" Jerusalem, the Third Holiest City in Islam. The first two being, of course, Brussels and London. I would have thought that a city in the Netherlands might be the third, or maybe even Detroit. Then there's that city with the Black Meteorite and numerous once-captured lands. It reminds me of some kind of ancient cargo cult, waiting for the cosmic airplane Baraq to airdrop a load of willing virgins after an acceptable sacrifice, the human kind.

But Mohammed never visited Jerusalem. Never sent a postcard. Mohammed never owned the tombs of the Patriarchs. Mohammed never made a desert into a thriving paradise. Quite the opposite.

[Sender]

Mohammed never made a desert into a thriving paradise.

Okay, okay, there's Dubai. But it's fake snow and fake islands.

[Grizzled Bear]

Then there's that city with the Black Meteorite and numerous once-captured lands.

Does this mean that Tripoli is an American Holy City?

[PIF]

“But Mohammed never visited Jerusalem. Never sent a postcard. Mohammed never owned the tombs of the Patriarchs. Mohammed never made a desert into a thriving paradise. Quite the opposite.”

To add to that:
The Islamic Empire’s capital was Amman (now in Jordan). The Caliph was bored and wanted to get some air, so he moved the entire court and all it's functionaries to an obscure desert village called Jerusalem. However, after a bit, the court became restless and quarrelsome.

The Caliph did not want to leave his new capital, but he could not abide the unseemly behavior of his court. So he decided to do some thing to make them happy and divert their attentions as well.

His architects located a suitable building site, and on that site he ordered a glorious temple to be built. But it could be no ordinary temple, it had to have some attraction for his court (now languishing in relative poverty, since all the bribes and so forth which kept them in riches were far away in good old Amman).

He let it be known that Mohammed had ascended from the vary spot that the new temple now stood on - everyone in the court at the time knew that was false, but the masses did not, especially the hordes of new converts.

The Caliph granted his court the right to charge admission to the temple and all other concessions. The court was mightily happy now that money was once again flowing into their pockets from this new tourist trade to the new roadside attraction.

Eventually the Caliph grew weary of the desert life and moved his capital back to Amman, leaving the obscure desert village to once again be reclaimed by nature and goat herders. Except for the gleaming roadside attraction now called the Dome of The Rock...