JERUSALEM AND ISLAM: It's not so straightforward. Stephen Schwartz writes:

Islamist claims about Jerusalem are, in reality, questioned among Muslims. Shia Muslims consider Karbala, the site in Iraq where events occurred at the origin of their sect’s history, as superior to Jerusalem in importance. In Ottoman archives, Jewish and Christian tenancy in Jerusalem confers special privileges on their religious representatives living under Muslim rule. Some Muslim dissenters have claimed that the Dome of the Rock, a major part of the Haram-i-Sharif, i.e. the Islamic complex on the mount, was built as a political act against domination over the Muslims by the caliph of Damascus.

Throughout Muslim history, the development of Jerusalem was neglected in comparison with that of other Muslim religious centers, aside from Mecca and Medina, and listed here from west to east, rather than by importance – but including Fez and Marrakesh, Cairo, Istanbul, Damascus, Kerbala, Baghdad, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Qom, Samarkand, and Delhi. The association of Jerusalem with the Prophet Muhammad’s out-of-body experience known as the “Night Journey” has been ruthlessly exploited by anti-Israel extremists as a pretext for disruption and violence.

And will still continue to be.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jerusalem and Islam.