It would be amusing if it were not so serious. But dare we say, Jews also (also?) should enjoy freedom of religion in their own country, Israel. Yet, it is just this right that seems to raise so much ire not only in the Muslim world, but also in those Western countries in which religious pluralism is taken for granted.
It is not taken for granted in many Muslim countries, in which conversion out of Islam is a capital crime and adherence to Christianity can be lethal, so it is no surprise that when Jews seek to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, it is cause for anti-Israel venom, for charges that Israel is anti-Muslim, that Israel denies religious freedom, that Israel is changing to status quo in the most sensitive piece of geography on the earth.
The truth is, Jewish law forbids Jews in these pre-Messianic, pre-Third Temple times from entering the grounds of the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock now stands. However, if some Jews wish to do this, or to pray there, no political authority, including the Israeli government, should stop them, any more than the Israel government stops Muslims (or anyone else) from praying at the Western Wall or the Christian holy places.
The truth is, it is stasis, not change, on the Temple Mount that is outrageous. In 1967, Israel begged Jordan to stay out of what became known as the Six Day War. Jordan did not listen. Jordan attacked Israel. Israel fought back. Israel took the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel opened the Western Wall to Jews for prayer. Jordan had closed the holiest place in Judaism to Jews since 1949. Unwisely, Israel asserted its sovereignty over the entire Temple Mount only in theory, leaving the Muslim Waqf in complete control of the Temple Mount, save the Western Wall. It is that stasis, that status quo, which closed Jews out of this area, that continued Jordan’s anti-freedom of worship policy.
So when voices around the world cry foul over the attempt by Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, these voices affirm segregation. They affirm that in the holy land, Jews and Muslims cannot mix, cannot pray in each other’s public spots, as is accepted in Western countries. Adherents of one religion visit the holy places of another and pray there. These voices apply double standards to Israel.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
