An Inter-Religious Vision of Peace in the Holy Land
May 2010
My high esteem for Judaism and Islam has led me to envision a path to
peace that goes beyond anything we have seen yet:
The Task of the Jews in
the Peace Process
Up until now neither Jews nor Muslims have, it seems, been really aware
of their task in the peace process.
For instance: in their effort to secure peace, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate
has declared that Muslim ownership of the Temple Mount is not to be called into
question. – Yet, in spite of the good intentions behind the Rabbinic declaration,
since the Jews have returned to their old Biblical homeland Muslims have feared
for their sanctuaries on the Temple Mount. They know of the Jewish longing for
a New Temple. In their view it is only a matter of time before the Jews take
their sanctuaries from them. – Only a real New Temple for the Jews at a
location other than the Temple Mount could free them of that fear. Yet the
Chief Rabbinate is announcing there will be no New Temple – unless the Messiah
builds it.
But how real and
pressing this Muslim fear is was shown only a few months ago when, in an opinion poll, 64 % of all Israelis (including 49% of nonreligious
Jews!) said, they wanted a New Temple now. – So far the Temple Mount has been
the only construction site Jews have had in mind, no alternative has been
suggested. The conflict around the Temple Mount / Haram ash-Sharif is therefore
highly acute, yet nobody dares talk about it. Why?
Trauma makes both
parties blind
One major obstacle to approaching it is to be found in the traumatisms
from which both parties are suffering:
The Jews are suffering from the trauma of persecution and annihilation,
culminating in the Holocaust. Unfortunately this trauma has been renewed in
their new homeland which once seemed to guarantee safety.
The trauma of the Muslims relates to military defeat in two World Wars
and the economic disaster from which most Muslims are suffering– a fact that
cannot be concealed behind the fabulous luxuries enjoyed by the few who control
the oil revenues. These weaknesses prevented the Muslims from fending off the
partition of Palestine. They could therefore only perceive the establishment of
the state of Israel as a catastrophe and a permanent thorn in the flesh.
Peace will become possible only when both parties find a way to overcome
their trauma and when they learn to accept the legitimacy of the other. But how
could that happen?
The Role of God’s Chosen
People
In my eyes there is only one way: Jews must make the first step by reflecting
on what it means to be “God’s Chosen People”, and by accepting the mandate
inherent to that role: that they become healers. A therapist who is working
with a trauma patient needs to set aside his own traumatisms if he wants to
help his patient; likewise the Jews will have to put aside their heavy trauma,
at least temporarily, and ask themselves how they could effect healing in the
given situation.
So far they have tried to take the lead by forcing their way, but now
they will have to ask themselves what the traumatized Muslims will need if they
are to become cooperative. In that self-examination the Jews will realize, that
above all else, the Muslims need to be respected. Only if their honor is
restored, can their trauma dissolve.
Jews will have to realize that by erecting the Jewish State in the midst
of the realm of Islam, and, moreover, around one of the most sacred sanctuaries
of Islam, the Muslims’ sense of honor has been injured. How can it be restored
without the need to extinguish or dissolve the cause of that injury: Israel?
Legitimizing
Illegitimate Children
In order to find an answer to that question we need to go back in
history: Jews never recognized the legitimacy of Islam – just as they never
recognized the legitimacy of Christianity. If they now reflect on the task of
being “God’s Chosen People”, and come thereby to realize that they will have to
act as healers, they will see how to pay the respect due to the Muslims, and
will understand that they already have the means to bring this about. All
that’s needed is to stop regarding them as illegitimate children.
It is an undisputed fact that three religions regard the Biblical father
Abraham as their father – and the
Jews should have every reason to feel proud of and grateful for being the root
of a tradition that has brought forth so mighty a following, namely the
Christians and the Muslims. Until now they have, however, been unable to feel
that. They were unable to recognize the legitimacy of that mighty following
because they feared dissolution in that flood; they were afraid of losing their
own identity. Yet today‘s situation is completely different. The quest for
peace demands of them that they legitimize their children, both Christians and
Muslims, whom they once could regard only as illegitimate.
Nor will it be sufficient to make a verbal declaration, this intention
needs to be expressed in a symbol of the utmost importance and significance –
and here the two thousand year history of Jewish longing for a New Temple
provides the perfect opportunity:
A New Temple for a new
World
As long as both Jews and Muslims feel traumatized, every attempt to
build a New Jewish Temple can only trigger fierce violence if not World War
III.
But now a New Temple can prove a source of pure bliss – even reaching
far beyond the parties immediately involved – provided the Jews do their
homework and resume in earnest their role as “God’s Chosen People”. For then
they will see that a New Temple today cannot in any way be a symbol of “we are
better” – because today’s leaders must before all else be servants. If they
want to have a healing effect, “God’s Chosen People” will have to serve their
Abrahamic brothers and sisters, whom they have so long disowned. This is the
only way to peace. The New Temple will therefore not act as an instrument of
aggrandizement for themselves to the exclusion of the others, but will above
all serve to unite the Abrahamic community.
Specifically and symbolically this will mean that the New Temple of the
Jews will not be constructed on the Temple Mount, because in their intention to
serve they will hand the place that hosted the previous Jewish Temples over to
the Muslims who are anyhow already in possession of it. Instead, the New Jewish
Temple will either have to constitute a bridge between Haram ash-Sharif, the
sanctuary of the Muslims, which has for thirteen hundred years occupied the
Temple Mount, and the Holy Sepulcher, the sanctuary of the Christians, which
has been there for seventeen hundred years – or it will have to be sited in an
entirely new place.
It is this very gesture of being willing to serve that will bring about
the change from confrontation to cooperation.
By this gesture, the esteem of the Muslims will be restored. What is
more, this gesture will bring together something like a new “tribe”, the tribe
of the Abrahamites. In reality that tribe has existed for ages, but it could
not function as such as long as it was not recognized. Once they know
themselves to be fully recognized the Muslims will be able to stop seeing the
Jews as an alien enclave in their territory; they will come to see them as
brothers and sisters in their common homeland.
An Abrahamic solution
In an Abrahamic solution, of course, the Christians cannot be absent.
They too need to be recognized as legitimate children of Abraham. And that,
too, will be accomplished by this new Jewish Temple project.
As the New Temple will link the former Temple Mount, Haram
ash-Sharif, with the Holy Sepulcher,
something like a pan-Abrahamic sanctuary will come into existence, a common
sanctuary for all followers of Abraham, consisting of three completely
autonomous parts. Just as the Muslims do not want to have any interference at
Haram ash-Sharif, and the Christians do not want to have any interference at
the Holy Sepulcher, the Jews will not need to be afraid of any interference in
their part of the sanctuary, the New Temple. And, cognizant of their newly
defined role as God’s Chosen People, the Jews will establish their new
Temple-cult in such a way that it may serve to heal all.
The result of that service will be that the Jews will no longer have to
fear for their existence in their new homeland. They will be able to walk on
the path of their tradition in peace – and in the spirit of service which now
extends well beyond the boundaries of their people. Thus their trauma, too,
will dissolve – in a way that could never have been envisioned under the
condition of trauma. But once the healing has taken place – and because its
results are quite impressive, not only for Abrahamites, but also for other
peoples far beyond – this way to resolve a conflict will become attractive and
relevant for peoples all around the world over.
Through this spirit of service and healing the whole world will change
and become a truly humane place.
The Task of The Muslims
in the Peace process
The Muslims too could serve peace in a comparable way:
When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem shortly after the Prophet
Mohammed’s death, they did not hand over the Temple Mount to the Jews but
instead built a Muslim sanctuary on top of the Temple Mount. The Jews were
again left without a Temple – which is the ancient background to our conflict
today.
And then, 1200 years later, in the 19th century, as the Jews
started to re-immigrate to their ancient homeland, they were not allowed to buy
land – because under Sharia, Islamic law, the Jews were subject to the
status of Dhimmi, which is a status of subordination under the Muslim
majority. They therefore had to accept certain settlement restrictions. They
could not reconstruct their Temple, nor could they build a state of their own
in their former homeland.
The United Nations’ 1947proclamation of the partition of Palestine in
order to allow the Jews to resettle in their former homeland, surely was a
grave injustice towards the population of Palestine. This was why the Muslim
nations could not recognize that decision. But besides this foreground reason
another factor is active decisively, one that is never ever talked about:
according to Sharia, Islamic religious law, Israel is an artificial
non-Islamic entity within the realm of Islam and therefore could never ever be
recognized as an independent state. From a traditional Islamic point of view no
peace agreement with this new entity could ever be regarded as permanent. This
is the situation from a Sharia point
of view – no matter how many negotiators on both sides try to ignore the factor
religion in this context; religious laws are and will be an essential part of
reality, especially in this conflict. Therefore:
An Evolution of Sharia is a Prerequisite to Peace
Once the Muslims feel the need to make a substantial contribution to
peace in the Holy Land, they will find an appropriate way to apply Sharia, based on the Qur’an – because,
if in this matter Sharia were to refer to the authority of Suras 2,257
and 5,48, which state that in matters of faith there must be no coercion, but
competition in virtue, the dhimmi-status
could be abolished. Israel could be regarded as an equal. Anyhow, the integrity of that evolved view
would need to be acknowledged by a worldwide conference of Islamic scholars.
A Daring Vista: Muslims propose the solution
Once Sharia has thus been renewed Muslims
will regard the Jews as their brothers and sisters. They will, therefore, allow
the Jews to construct the Holy of Holies of a New Temple next to the
foundations of the Holy of Holies of the former Temple – especially once they
will have realized that the Jews have taken a completely new approach, namely
to respect Muslims as genuine Children of Abraham, and they will therefore also
respect the given ownership conditions at the Temple Mount.
Once the Muslims have seen the spirit of service on the part of the Jews
they will give their consent to the new plans for a New Jewish Temple: having
renounced the old Temple Mount the Jews will find a new place for their Temple.
They will site it as “a bridge” between the former Temple Mount, now one of the
holiest places of Islam, and the Holy Sepulcher, the central shrine of
Christianity, thereby generating, without any intermixing, one magnificent
Abrahamic sanctuary, which will be the final seal to a generally accepted and
permanent treaty of peace between the three religions.