In Arabic, Jerusalem is Jewish

The Times of Israel - blogs ^ | 8/14/2013 | Simcha Jacobovici

[Former Fetus]

Ansar Beit al Maqdes”. Writing in response to my recent post on the origin of the name “Palestine”, my friend Ilan Pomeranc pointed out that this Jihadi group’s name witnesses to the Jewish status of Jerusalem.

“Ansar Beit al Maqdes” literally means the “Army of the Holy Temple”. Media outlets mistranslate the name as “Army for Jerusalem”, but Jerusalem does not appear in the name at all. In Arabic, “Jerusalem” is often called, in shorthand vernacular, “al-Quds”. What this term literally means is “the Holy”. “Quds” is merely an Arabization of the Hebrew “Kadosh” i.e., “Holy”. So if you put the two Arabic names for Jerusalem together what you get is “al-Quds al-Maqdes” which literally means “the place of the Holy Temple”.

Why do Arabs – in fact, all Islam – call Jerusalem by this name? Why not the “city of the Dome of the Rock”? Or the “Mount of Al-Aqsa”? After all, today the place is dominated by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques. More than this, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad took a night journey (Lailat al Mi’raj) to heaven from the rock where the dome now stands (sura 17 Al-Isra of the Quran). Why don’t Muslims refer to this night journey when speaking about Jerusalem? Why is Jerusalem not called “the place of the Holy journey”?

[Former Fetus]

Great article. Don't miss the link to the just-as-good article on the origins of the name Palestine.

[tophat9000]

Your using reason and logic,evil evil logic......don't you know that is racist and islamaphobic?.....you need to be stoned to death and your head on a pike for speaking blasphemy ......Are you a global warming heretic?

..do you wear Obama masks and mock the ONE!?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Former Fetus.