Ancient stories fuel lasting violence

News of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians hardly surprises anyone. This year, as the Jewish Passover coincides with the Muslim Ramadan, religious tension grew, resulting in violence. The Associated Press reports various incidents against the Jews. In Jerusalem, two Palestinian militants killed three people and wounded more than seven, while, in Tel Aviv, a car rammed into Jews, killing at least one and wounding six. In the past few days, dozens of rocket attacks hit Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, to which “Israel responded with fighter jets following the most sustained barrage of rockets launched at it since 2006.”

In the past week alone, Israeli police entered Al-Aqsa twice, after “hundreds of rioters and mosque desecrators [had] barricaded themselves” inside. “When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators.” The report of the Israeli police says that they needed to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque because not only over 350 radical Palestinians hid at the mosque after committing anti-government attacks, but also many extremist Jews sought to enter the premise to perform their Jewish sacrifice since the mosque is located on the Jewish holy Temple Mount, where two Jewish biblical temples were located.

This religious spot is therefore of deep significance to Jews and Muslims. Being the location for two Jewish temples answers the question on Jewish significance. What, then, makes the location of Al-Aqsa so important to Muslims? Why is this mosque, in particular, a sensitive place?

Why is a clash at the Al-Aqsa Mosque so important?

The answer lies in Islamic texts claiming that Muhammad—who presumably lived in Mecca in Arabia—had actually visited this location and made it sacred for Muslims.

Muslims believe that, in one night, the Angel Gabriel came to Muhammad in Mecca with a winged horse-like creature, which was bigger than a donkey and smaller than a mule and possessed strong and long wings. The Muslim tradition calls the winged beast Buraq.

Gabriel and Muhammad mounted Buraq and flew to Jerusalem. They landed on Temple Mount. Muhammad then met some earlier prophets—including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus—and led them all in ritual prayer, acting as their religious imam (leader). He then rode the winged creature once again and ascended to heaven to meet Allah himself.

Muslims—for over 14 centuries—have forged a strong claim for Jerusalem with this story, declaring religious legitimacy for the location that has always been held dear by Jews and Christians as well.

While many people may mock the story of a winged horse-like beast flying from Mecca to Jerusalem, the vast majority of Muslims wholeheartedly believe the story as completely factual. They consider it as one of the greatest miracles of Muhammad. Granted, most progressive Muslims find the story implausible—or embarrassing—and insist it was merely a dream in Muhammad’s mind.

Of course, scholars of religion are not convinced by these Islamic claims: After all, there is a mythical story with identical features in pagan religious books by Zoroastrians. For these academic researchers, Islam undoubtedly borrowed the Buraq story from pagans, just to establish legitimacy over Jerusalem, thus competing with Jews and Christians around claims of legitimacy over the land.

But this story is strongly consequential, not only concerning what we see today in Jerusalem, but as evidenced throughout history.

Just a few years after Muhammad’s death, the story of Muhammad flying to Temple Mount opened the gate wide for Muslim warriors to conquer Jerusalem, declaring it a Muslim land. The logic goes: If Muhammad visited this land, it’s ours. Soon after the conquest, Muhammad’s successor (caliph) built Al-Aqsa Mosque as a prayer room on Temple Mount, declaring the location an Islamic holy spot.

But that was not enough as a declaration of possessing Jerusalem.

About 60 years after Muslims conquered Jerusalem, another caliph built a gigantic Muslim structure near Al-Aqsa: the Dome of the Rock. Inside the Dome, he inscribed many anti-Christian and anti-Jewish statements on the walls—all to emphasize Islam’s superiority and hegemony, declaring it the only valid religion that replaced and surpassed earlier biblical faiths.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa became the third important mosque in Islam, after those of Mecca and Medina, while the Dome of the Rock became a giant sign of Islam’s superiority on Temple Mount.

Al-Aqsa is not a mere mosque—it’s a theological declaration.

While many rightly condemn violence in Jerusalem, very few actually realize or admit that the dispute between Jews and Muslims is theological at its core, and that’s why the tensions run so high.