Friday, April 5, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
SIR JAMES RENO CHRISTINE MERCEDES AND ADRIENNE
S UR REY CLASS ICS MI CH ELL E L A BE N ORIGI NAL
GIVANCHY DEBBIE SHUCHAT /BRODKIN OUTLANDER
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Jerusalem 'Ownership'
BY CARL ALPERT
Special to The Jewish News
Haifa — All the assumptions
and inferences as to how much
territory Israel should surrender
to the Arabs, and how far the
Arabs are really willing to go in
return for a genuine peace in the
Middle East, will founder on one
small geographic point. The fun-
damental question is not the
Golan Heights, nor Gaza, nor
some dozens of square kilometers
in Judea and Samaria, but
Jerusalem.
While the problem mcy be
brushed aside for the time being,
the Arabs have made it unmis-
takably clear that there will be no
real peace or accomodation with
Israel until the holy city of
Jerusalem is returned to Islamic
control. This is the battle cry in
Teheran and in the entire Arab
world. It is well that Israel, and
optimistic Jews everywhere, nur-
ture no illusions on the subject nor
are quick to make broad conces-
sions on other fronts.
Hence, the Israel Academic
Committee on the Middle East
renders a distinct service when it
disseminates the highly
enlightening exposure by Prof.
Moshe Sharon with regard to the
place which Jerusalem really
plays in Moslem tradition. "No
one will contest the absolute holi-
ness of Mecca and Medina to Is-
lam," Prof. Sharon points out, but
there is nothing to substantiate
any similar role for Jerusalem.
No mention is made of
Jerusalem in the Koran. But
when political exigency required,
in ancient times as in the 20th
Century, the city is suddenly and
artificially projected as if it were
associated with basic tenets of the
faith. The Moslem claim to
Jerusalem is disingenuous, char-
acterized by dialectic reasoning
which would do justice to Marxist
logicians or Talmudic pilpulists.
It has its roots in the nature of the
Islamic religion.
To the devout Moslem, his reli-
gion is not simply another faith,
but the only faith. It is exclusive.
In such case, how does one explain
away the existence of Judaism
and Christianity? Very simple!
These two are in essence early
stages of Islam, and when
Mohammed led the faithful to
their new sanctities, they laid
claim to these two early roots of
spiritual development. Abraham
and Moses, David and Solomon,
all of whom appear in the Koran,
are true Moslem prophets. Any
other claimants to these per-
sonalities are in effect seeking to
subvert Islam and deny its histor-
ical beginnings.
phasizes, "Being the only pure
religion, (Islam) regards itself as
the sole heir to the religions which
preceded it, including their holy
places; this inheritance is re-
garded as both final and exclu-
sive."
Whenever the city was safely in
Moslem hands, it was seldom
mentioned. "Religiously speak-
ing, it fell into oblivion." Insofar
as Islamic "holiness" is concerned,
Jerusalem is in reality no more
important than any other large
city with a Moslem population —
until political expediency dictates
stressing of the "holy" angel.
"Strong Jewish and Christian
arguments subsequently forced
the Islamic establishment to base
their claim on a pure Moslem
sanctity to the city," rather than
on"inherited" Jewish tradition.
Thus the story was promoted that
Masjid al-Aqsa, to which
When political
exigency requires,
Jerusalem is
suddenly and
artificially projected
as if it were
associated with basic
tenets of Islam.
Mohammed apparently journeyed
one night, was in reality
Jerusalem. On this basis the Is-
lamic claim to the city as a holy
site was finally and firmly estab-
lished in their eyes.
There are undisputed historical
grounds for Christianity's asso-
ciation with Jerusalem. The cen-
trality of Jerusalem to Judaism
and to the Jewish people is
likewise beyond question. Yet
only Islam, whose claim is based
on the flimsiest of evidence, seeks
to make Jerusalem exclusively its
own. Jews have already had their
experience of what such exclusiv-
ity meant during the years of Jor-
dan rule. And Christians will
know from observation of what is
going on in Teheran what Moslem
exclusiveness means.
Nobel Nominee
Bonn (JTA) — Eli Wiesel, the
Jewish writer whose best known
Abraham is one of the key fig- works have been on Holocaust
ures. He was an ancestor of themes, has been nominated for
Mohammed. Tradition has it that the Nobel Peace Prize by several
he built the Ka'ba, the most ven- members of the Bundestag faction
erated sanctuary of Islam in of the ruling Christian Demo-
Mecca. And since it was Abraham cratic Union (CDU) and its coali-
who sanctified the Moriah hill in tion partner, the Free Democratic
Jerusalem where he offered to, Party (FDP).
sacrifice his son, Isaac, the Mos- ■
The German politicians wrote
lem claim to the city is thus "con- to the Norwegian Prize Commit-
firmed." Furthermore, David and tee proposing Wiesel for his con-
Solomon, also recognized as tributions to promoting under-
Koranic prophets, were also asso- standing and conciliation in the
ciated with Jerusalem, and this post-war world. Wiesel, born in
further strengthened Islamic Hungary in 1928, is a Survivor of
"rights."
the Auschwitz and Buchenwald
In short, as Prof. Sharon em- concentration camps.