For those wondering why Muslims in Jerusalem closed their mosques on Sunday to flood the Temple Mount once they caught wind that Jews would be headed to the site en masse may want to look no further than Israeli scholar of Arabic culture and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, Mordechai Kedar. Kedar sheds some light on why the Muslims absolutely hate when Jews pray on their holiest site – the Temple Mount.
“In the eyes of Islam, Islam did not come to the world to live alongside Judaism and Christianity. Islam came to the world to take their place. Furthermore, in order to build itself from the ruins of Judaism and Christianity, everything that was once Jewish or Christian became Muslim” Kedar said.
Providing an example, the professor continued: “Abraham became the first Muslim. All the churches they conquered became mosques. King Solomon built a mosque in Jerusalem according to the Muslim version” he said facetiously.
Citing a Quranic verse, ‘Religion for Allah (God) is Islam’, Kedar explained that it means that from their perspective, Judaism for them presents a “struggle between the Din al-Haq (true religion) and the Din al-Batl (false religion, which is Judaism. Judaism is a false religion. Jews lost everything they had in the world and Allah threw them into exile. And they have to stay there as the people of “Dhimma”, protected people of Islam, everywhere”.
Therefore, according to their Islamic belief, Kedar notes: “Jews have no right to come to the land of Israel and take it because it is Muslim land. And since they conquered it in the 7th century, every country has a one-way ticket to enter Islam, not to leave”.
As the Muslim sees it, “1948” was “the first accident, a Jewish state was proclaimed. In 1967, a second accident – they conquered Jerusalem!” the Middle East expert added.
“what will be the next accident? They will want to build the Holy Temple!” he says.
“And then, if the Holy Temple is built, Judaism will return to become a relevant religion. Then what will become of Islam? Because the Islam that came to the world to take Judaism’s place, cannot reconcile Judaism that is a religion that’s alive and kicking. It contradicts the most basic premise of Islam, its entire raison d’etre – as a religion that came into being to establish itself on the ruins of Judaism” he added.
As Islam sees it: “when a Jew prays, it’s bad. When he prays in Jerusalem, it’s even worse. But when a Jew prays on the Temple Mount...There is absolutely nothing worse! Because then he’ll build the holy Temple, Judaism will return to relevancy and Islam will have to return to the desert because it will no longer have any reason to be in the world” Kedar concludes.
