Islam and other Peoples' holy sites

Israeli Insider ^ | 7/6/03 | Doron Kescher

[abu afak]

Islam and other Peoples' holy sites By Doron Kescher July 6, 2003

After Israeli bulldozers destroyed the foundations for a proposed mosque on a Christian holy site in Nazareth, (Muslim) Deputy Mayor Salman Abu Ahmad and local head of the Islamic Movement said, "I haven't heard of any synagogues being destroyed, but they destroyed a mosque."

The arrogance, insensitivity and stupidity of this statement is breath-taking.

Would the deputy mayor like to know why no one is demolishing synagogues (except the Arabs, who demolished 19 on the day they sacked the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem in 1948), churches or Hindu temples?

Here's a hint: which of the following religions has a penchant for destroying other people's religious shrines and building their own on the ruins?

a. Judaism b. Christianity c. Hinduism d. Islam

While all of the above religions have some holy sites which were once the property of another religion, the correct answer is 'D', Islam. It is Islam that religiously (excuse the pun) destroys sacred sites and rebuilds them as mosques. It was (and remains) Islam's way of saying, "We have defeated you, we rule you, and our god is better than your god."

Countless Islamic shrines in the Middle East, Asia Minor and India are built on someone else's holy site. Prominent examples include the Haram a-Sharif (Jerusalem), the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I (Istanbul), and the (former) mosque at Ayodhya (India). Even Islam's holiest shrine - the Kabba in Mecca - is an older pagan shrine.

The situation is further complicated in the Levant by the fact that well over 1,000 years after many of them lived and died, Islam has hijacked religious figures from other religions (mainly Judaism). Hence, sites which are holy to Jews due to their connection to a Jewish figure in history are claimed as exclusively Islamic holy sites. This is the reason why so many sites in the Middle East are "sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians," as the media often says. While Christianity acknowledges that its central figures were Jewish, Islam has no such 'magnanimity' (it is a rare Christian indeed who would claim that King Solomon or Jesus were Christians!).

Figures who lived millennia before the advent of Islam, and who would probably have rejected Islam violently had they ever come in contact with it, are not only claimed to be Islamic prophets, but are considered exclusively Islamic. Abraham (the first Jew), the Israelite Kings David and Solomon, Elijah and even Jesus are considered Muslims by Islam. The most publicized conflicts between competing claims are the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the tomb of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Hebron, both of which Jews were banned from entering until 1967.

To make matters worse, unlike Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism, Islam has not outgrown this infantile practice, and continues hijacking other people's religious shrines to this day.

Recent examples include:

The desecration, destruction and conversion into a mosque of the Biblical Patriarch Joseph's Tomb (in Nablus) on October 10, 2003; Numerous attempted attacks on Rachel's Tomb (Bethlehem); The current attempt to appropriate the tomb of Rabbi Ashi (near Kibbutz Menara); and The current vandalism and destruction of Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount, under the guise of building a mosque.

The reason for many people's desire to destroy certain (not all) mosques is therefore self-evident: in a display of arrogance and ethnocentrism, Muslims have built these mosques on other people's land. (Please note that I am not advocating the wanton destruction of mosques - I am merely pointing out why so many mosques are subject to controversy).

The proposed construction of a mosque in the center of one of Christianity's holiest sites in Nazareth was a deliberate attempt by the Islamic community to lord over their Christian neighbors.

Equally, the Muslim desire to build a massive mosque under the Temple Mount (now a fait accompli) is a deliberate, calculated attempt to destroy the physical evidence of the supremacy of the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount. (For more information on what is undoubtedly the greatest act of archaeological vandalism of all time, visit the Temple Mount Archaeological Destruction page).

The great tragedy is that the Israeli government's reaction to the wholesale destruction of the subterranean sections of the Temple Mount was not as timely and resolute as the reaction to the construction of a mosque in Nazareth.

For further information on the provocative mosque construction, visit For Nazareth's Sake.

[miltonim]

Muhammad-inspired persecution of Christians, Jews and all non-Muslims continues...