38 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, May 10, 1985 ANALYSIS Jerusalem Not Holy City To Arabs, Professor Says BY CARL ALPERT Special to The Jewish News We Will Beat Your Best Price GLASS & MIRROR BI-FOLD SUPER SPECIAL existing Doors $123.99 Installed $128.99 Installed $145.99 Installed 4 ft. openings 5 ft. openings 6 ft. openings NEW MIRRORED BI-FOLD DOORS—FINEST QUALITY Slim Fold@ $190.00 Installed $200.00 Installed $250.00 Installed 4 ft. openings 5 ft. openings 6 ft. openings Lowest Prices On All Types of Mirrored Walls, Furniture, Bars, Cubes, Etc. Heavy Glass Table Tops, Shelving, Beveled O.G. Edges. - Shower and Tub Enclosures, Replacement Windows. 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The fundamental question is not the Golan Heights, nor Gaza, nor dozens of square miles in Judea and Samaria — but Jeru- salem. While the problem may be brushed aside for the time being, the Arabs have made it unmistakably clear that real peace or accommodation with Israel is impossible until the holy city of Jerusalem is re- turned to Islamic control. This is the battle cry in Teheran and the entire Arab world. It is well that Israel, and optimis- tic Jews everywhere, nurture no illusions on the subject, nor ' be quick to make broad conces- sions to other fronts. Hence, the Israel Academic Committee on the Middle East renders a service when it dis- seminates the view by Prof. Moshe Sharon of the impor- tance that Jerusalem really plays in Moslem tradition. "No one will contest the absolute holiness of Mecca and Medina to Islam," Sharon points out, but nothing substantiates any similar role for Jerusalem. In- deed, when pious believers here face Mecca in their daily prayers, and crouch over touching their heads to the ground, they are in effect physically directing their back- sides to Jerusalem. No mention is made of Jeru- salem in the Koran. But when political expediency required, in ancient times as in the 20th century, the city is suddenly and artificially linked with basic tenets of faith. The Mos- lem claim to Jerusalem is sus- pect, characterized by dialectic reasoning which would do jus- tice to Marxist logicians or Tal- mudic pilpulists. It has its roots in the nature of - the Islamic religion. To the devout Moslem, his religion 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 personali- ties are in effect seeking to subvert Islam and .deny its historical beginnings. Abraham is one key figure, an ancestor of Mohammed. Tradition has it that he built the Ka'ba, the most venerated sanctuary of Islam, in Mecca. And since it was Abraham who sanctified the Moriah hill in Jerusalem where he offered to sacrifice his son, Isaac, the Moslem claim to the city is thus "confirmed." Further- more, David and Solomon, also recognized as Koranic proph- ets, were associated with the city, strengthening the Islamic rights there. In short, as Prof. Sharon em- phasizes, "being the only pure religion, (Islam) regards itself as the sole heir to the religions which preceded it, including their holy places; this inherit- ance is regarded as both final and exclusive." Whenever the city was safely in Moslem hands, it was seldom mentioned. "Religious- ly speaking, it fell into obliv- ion. ' Insofar as Islamic "holiness" is concerned, Jerusalem is in reality no more important than any other large city with a Moslem population. "Strong Jewish and Chris- tian arguments subsequently forced the Islamic establish- ment to base their claim on a pure Moslem sanctity to the city," rather than on "in- herited" Jewish tradition. Thus the story was promoted that Masjid al-Aqsa, to which Mohammed apparently jour- neyed one night, was in real- ity Jerusalem. On this basis the Islamic claim to the city as a holy site was finally and firmly established in Moslem eyes. There are undisputed histor- ical grounds for Christianity's association with Jerusalem. The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism and to the Jewish peo- ple is likewise beyond ques- tion. 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 exclu- sivity meant during the years of Jordanian rule there. And Christians will know from observation of events in Tehe- ran what Moslem exclusive- ness means. Carter Slams Hate Articles New York — Former President Jimmy Carter last week con- demned the publication of anti- Semitic articles by a Saudi Ara- bian newspaper in 1984. In a letter to Abraham Foxman, associate national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), Carter said that "it is alarming that anyone any- where would choose to circulate anti-Semitic slander." The former president was referring to a series of articles published last year in the Saudi Gazette which uses arguments from the anti-Semitic tract, Protocols of the Elders of Zion.