Dome of the Rock

Muslims taking off their shoes before entering. This tradition is practiced because when Abraham approached the burning bush, God told him to take off his shoes because it was holy ground. For some reason, Jews haven't adopted this ritual.

Whenever I picture Jerusalem, I see a white city scattered with ancient buildings and a huge, golden dome that looks like the sun. I never thought I’d be able to get up close to the bright dome that  pierces my eyes  but lucky enough, my Comparative religion class finally. We were told to cover every inch of our skin and our class of 17 ecstatic students walked to the bus stop together, caught three different buses, and arrived in the old city.  To get to the dome of the rock you first have to walk through the Jaffa gate, through the Jewish quarter of the city, down a couple hundred stairs, pass 2 security check points, up a long bridge over the woman’s section of the Cotel, then you go through the Arab market and you finally come to a huge, ancient courtyard. No outsiders are allowed into the mosque nor could we go into the dome of the rock castle but walking up close to such a beautiful, holy place was truly astonishing.

            There was a line of Muslims at the front door who would say a prayer and then take their shoes off and float into the building. When I tried to walk in, the Arab guard at the front shooed me away and yelled something in Arabic. At this moment, I thought about the orthodox synagogue that welcomes anyone in graciously and the holy church in the old city that let me in with open arms and gave me a tour of the church even though they knew I was Jewish. It upset me a bit that they exclude everyone who is not like them and fail to greet newcomers or foreigners. Also, the Dome of the rock isn’t just significant for Muslims, but to Jews as well. The rock is supposedly where Abraham was going to sacrifice Jacob and where Noah brought his ark but because the Arabs have control of the area, Jews are not allowed in and there’s only one hour a day when Jews and tourists are allowed to walk into the courtyard and up close to the dome. This separation exists everywhere in Jerusalem and because we can’t live to learn together, both sides are missing out and living with fear and hate. I felt very fortunate for being able to see this beauty up close, but the conflict and hate that surrounds the area diminishes the sanctity of the building and in turn, reminded me of the partition that both Judaism and Islam live with in Israel.

            When we returned back to campus, a Muslim speaker came to talk to us. He used to be a Muslim extremist who worked for Fatah who hated Jews, but two life experiences altered this perspective and made him realize that peace will only come when both sides see each other as human and not as an “Arab” or a “Jew”. When his father had cancer, he took him to the Hadassah hospital and was very skeptical about this because he assumed that the Jews wouldn’t treat his father well but it was his only choice of action. After spending lots of time at the hospital with his father, he saw his father joking around with the Jewish nurses, he saw doctors treating him extremely well, and he saw that the Jews were taking care of him with all their power. A year or so later, he took his mother to Tel Aviv on a Friday afternoon. His mother had asthma and started having an attack but her inhalers were all out and because it was Shabbat, everything was closed and they couldn’t buy one nearby. He got her into a car and the closest thing that was open was the Ben Gurion Airport. His mom fainted in the car and when he drove her into the airport, he expected the Jewish security officers to turn him away. Instead, they called ambulances and right there on the floor, performed some sort of surgery and tried to save her life. Although his mom died on the way to the hospital, he saw that the Jews didn’t care that he was an Arab and tried to help him. These two experiences brought him to an understanding that Jews were not his enemy and that he needs to learn to live side by side with them.

            Now, he spends his time preaching at schools about negotiation and tries to steer Arab children away from hate. He explained to us that in almost all Muslim schools, hating Jews is in their curriculum and from a young age, they are taught that in order to please god, they must kill Jews and take back Palestine. He taught us how they twist words and meanings around from the Quran to justify the killing of Jews. His goal is to educate kids and teach them the real messages of the Quran which he believes to be the peaceful and beautiful words of god.