The Peace of Jerusalem

Wonders of the World: The Dome of the Rock and Swedish Tourist Girls

Since I'm back in Jerusalem to cover for Tim while he's on vacation, I spent yesterday morning at the Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) to fulfill a promise to a religious Iraqi friend in Baghdad. I had told him I would pray for his safety at the Dome of the Rock, the Islamic shrine that now covers the site of where the great Jewish temple of Solomon once stood.

This was something of a secret mission. Non-Muslims are forbidden to pray here by order of the Palestinian Waqf, the Islamic guardians of the site. In the past this hasn't been such a problem. It's not a particularly sacred site for Christians, and traditional Jewish law forbids Jews from setting foot on site, which they call the Temple Mount, lest they inadvertently step on the Holiest of Holies, the inner sanctum of the temple, the exact location of which is now lost to time. But recently, extremist Jewish groups have decided that a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount might help speed the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the Temple, and have tried to hold prayers here, while others have hatched plots to blow up the Dome of the Rock. In 2000, a visit by Ariel Sharon to Temple Mount sparked riots that marked the beginning of the Second Intifada. Afterwards, security on the Temple Mount became very tight.

But yesterday, Israeli police were letting tourists flood in, and the Waqf didn't seem to mind, a sign perhaps that tensions in the Old City have eased for now. So I found a shade tree, and despite being a pork-eating infidel, murmured what I remembered of the Muslim hadith, and prayed that the peace of Jerusalem might find it's way to Baghdad. Hope that's a blessing not a curse.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem