Middle Eastern Myths "The Myth of Al Quds" By Dr. Richard Booker In the Bible, the prophet Zechariah writes of the time when God will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. He says, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all people; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it" (Zechariah. 12:2-3). "It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (Zechariah. 12:9). We are seeing this battle unfold before our very eyes with Israel and the Arabs on the front lines of the battle. But according to the Bible and unfolding events, the nations will also soon join in the battle. For the purpose of this discussion, we want to look at the battle in view of the historical claims Islam has on the Temple Mount as the "third holiest sight" in Islam. The Arab word used for Jerusalem, which you hear often in the media, is "Al Quds." Let's consider the "Myth of Al Quds." Jerusalem in the Bible and Koran You can tell how important a person, place or thing is to people by how often they speak of that person, place or place. We speak most about what we love and cherish. Since people talk about that which is most dear to them, we should be able to get a good idea of how important Jerusalem is to Jews and Arabs by reading their holy books, the Bible for the Jews and the Koran for the Arab Muslims. We discover that Jerusalem is mentioned over 800 times in the Bible. There are 657 references in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and 154 references in the New Testament. Yet, Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran. And there is no reason that it should be because Mohammed never went to Jerusalem. In Mohammed's lifetime, Jerusalem was outside the sphere of Islam. This should make it clear that historically, Jerusalem is very important to the Jews, but has had little or no importance to Moslims until recent times. Furthermore, observant Jews pray facing Jerusalem while Moslims pray facing Mecca. Jews make pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Moslims make pilgrimages to Mecca. The Temple Mount became part of Islam long after the time of Mohammed. And this was for political
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