Is it true that the big Mosque in Jerusalem stands where the temple of Solomon first stood?
The Mosque was built there many hundreds of years after the temple was torn down by the Romans. The rock over which it is built is a holy spot to each of the big three religions. In Islam, it is said to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven. (I think there were at least two religeous figures that were said to ascend to heave from that rock, so I may be mistaken here. Apologies if I am, but it has been too many years since I studied Islam as a religeon rather than as polity. 🙁 The mosque itself is incredibly beautiful and to destroy it would be a horrible crime against the accumulated wisdom and beauty of mankind.
The Mosque is on or very near to what was the site of the Temple of Solomon and the Second Temple, the one of Christ’s time. The hill it is on is said to be the hill where Abraham was ordered by God to sacrifice his son (Isaac in Judeo-Christian teachings, Ishmael in Islamic teachings), I think, but I could be wrong about the location, but I know the ‘Temple Mount’ is sacred to all three religions. The Mosque was built several hundred years after the time of the destruction of the Temple, by the Romans in 70AD. While down through history there has been some trouble between Muslims and Jews, the land was considered sacred to the Muslims and I doubt if there were a huge number of Jews in Jerusalem in the years the Mosque was built (I’m not sure of the date) It was not like the current Arab-Israeli conflict, there was no ‘motive’ other than the Muslims considered it a holy place.
