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We all know that if a lie is repeated many times it ends up becoming a "reality" in the minds of many. This social corollary is more evident in those who are gullible and uneducated, but most of all in those who to validate their agendas are willful receptors of it. This is more evident in the Arab masses than in many other communities. They clearly qualify as sure victims of this spiritual abnormality.
The Muslim "claim" over Jerusalem is based upon what is written in the Koran, which although Jerusalem is not mentioned even once, nevertheless talks (in Sura 17:1) of the "Furthest Mosque": "Glory be unto Allah who did take his servant for a journey at night from the Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque." But is there any foundation to the Muslim argument that this "Furthest Mosque" (Al-Masujidi al-Aqtza) refers to what is today called the 'Aksa Mosque' in Jerusalem? The answer is, none whatsoever.
In the days of Mohammed, who died in the year 632 of the Common Era, Jerusalem was a Christian city within the Byzantine Empire. Six years after Mohammed's death, Jerusalem was captured by Khalif Omar only in 638. Throughout all this time there were no mosques at all in Jerusalem, only Christian churches. And it was a Christian church that stood on the Temple Mount, it was called the 'Church of Saint Mary of Justinian', which was built in the typical Byzantine architectural style.
The 'Aksa Mosque' was built 20 years after the Dome of the Rock, which was built in the year 691-692 by Khalif Abd El Malik. The name "Omar Mosque" is therefore entirely false. In or around 711 — that is, about 80 years after Mohammed died — Malik's son, Abd El-Wahd — who ruled from 705-715 — reconstructed the Christian-Byzantine Church of Saint Mary and converted it into a mosque. He left the structure as it was, a typical Byzantine "basilica" structure with a row of pillars on either side of the rectangular "ship" in the center. All he did was to add an onion-like dome on top of the building to make it look like a mosque. Then he named it 'El-Aksa', so it would sound like the one mentioned in the Koran.
Therefore, it is crystal clear that Mohammed could never have had this mosque in mind when he compiled the Koran, since it did not exist for another three generations after his death! Rather, as many scholars long ago established, it is logical that Mohammed intended the mosque in Mecca as the "Sacred Mosque," and the mosque in Medina as the "Furthest Mosque." So much for the Muslim claim based on the Aksa Mosque!
With this fact understood, it is no wonder that Mohammed issued a strict prohibition against facing Jerusalem in prayer, a practice that had been tolerated only for some months in order to lure Jews to convert to Islam. When that effort failed, Mohammed put an abrupt stop to it on February 12, 624.
Jerusalem simply never held any sanctity for the Muslims themselves, but only for the Jews in their domain.
[Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann is a writer for the Algemeiner Journal. Originally published in the Algemeiner Journal, August 19, 1994.]
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