 Everyone who has two eyes and two ears connected to his head can hear, can see, can understand that there is a struggle over Jerusalem. We see it in the streets of Jerusalem, demonstrations in good case and a lot of cocktails in the bad case. We see it in academic institutions where the connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem is being challenged. We see it in UN organizations like UNESCO, the organization which is in charge of preserving world history and culture, forgets the Jerusalem has any connection with Judaism, only with Islam and Christianity. We see politicians who refrain to move the embassies to Jerusalem because they are afraid to aggravate all kinds of people. And until this very day, Jerusalem is not recognized by most countries in the world as the Jewish capital, although Jerusalem as a capital is the oldest capital in the whole world. When was Ottawa, when it became Ottawa or Washington DC, even Paris and London and Brussels, all of them became capitals in the Middle Ages. While Jerusalem turned into our capital when King David moved his headquarters from Hevron to Jerusalem more than a thousand years before the Common Era. So, this is unfortunately, in spite of the history which nobody denies, especially in the Western civilization, Jerusalem is not yet being recognized as Israel's capital, mainly because of the Arab and Islamic pressure. It means that the struggle over Jerusalem also arrives into the political echelons of states like Canada and others as well. And we can hear it in the press, in the media, in all kinds of media that there is struggle over Jerusalem. And the question is, why? Okay, to us, I don't have to elaborate on the centrality of Jerusalem in the life of Judaism. This is our direction of prayer. It was, it was, it never changed. And wherever you are in the world, you pray to all Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mentioned in our, if not mentioned when we in the happy moments of our life, when we marry our children. And unfortunately, you will also commemorate it when we in the sad moments of our life. Jerusalem is actually, I would say, is something which a thread which goes to Jewish life since a person was born until he's being buried. So for us Jews, I don't have to elaborate about the centrality of Jerusalem in our communal and personal life. The question is, what do they, Muslims, what do they have with Jerusalem? After all, Islam was not established in Jerusalem. The history of Islam starts in Mecca, not in Jerusalem. Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem became only later. Not only this, historically, there was not even one day in history of the Islamic history which Jerusalem served as a capital of anything connected to the Arab or Islamic world. Today, the Palestinians claim that Jerusalem should be the capital of their future state. And without having Jerusalem as the capital, they will not have a state. They will not declare statehood. Means they actually make a condition. In order to have a Palestinian state, the condition is to have Jerusalem. Since when Jerusalem was a capital of any Arab or any Islamic country, never. Never a Caliph or a king or a Sultan or Emir, any manifestation of government in the Islamic or the Arab world, never took Jerusalem as a capital. So, why do the Palestinians claim that without Jerusalem they will not have a state as a capital of anything? So, historically, their claim to Jerusalem is totally baseless. Because of the fact that Jerusalem never served as any capital of anything. Politically, there is another problem here. Let's say, Jordan, for example, keeps telling us since 5, 6 years, every day almost, that Israel should establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, of course, with Jerusalem as its capital. I asked them, whenever I'm in the Jordanian media, I asked them, do you believe that Palestinians should have a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital? So I said, yes, of course. So I asked them, why didn't you do it when you control, when you occupy the West Bank, as you call it, which is Jerusalem for 19 years, between 1948 and 1967. You had 19 years to establish a Palestinian state on the West Bank with Jerusalem as its capital. Why didn't you do it? But didn't you do it? You had not 19 years, you had 7,000 days, more or less. So you had 7,000 opportunities to do exactly what you demand us to do and you didn't do it. What happened? Why should we do something which you didn't do when you could? They never answered. You will know the answer later. The Arab world, which also calls upon Israel to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem, why didn't the Arab world maintain any pressure on Jordan during those years of 1948 and 1967 to do exactly the same thing? Why what is correct to do today was not correct or it was not even in the air on those 19 years between 1948 and 1967? The European countries, who also advocate the establishment of Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, is Jerusalem. What did they do those years with Jordan to do the same thing? Nothing. It means something politically here is fishy because the whole world today wants to do something which beforehand nobody talked about, nobody thought that it is necessary. So it also doesn't smell well. So they tell us that Jerusalem is the third place in holiness for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. Mecca is the first, Medina is the second and Jerusalem is the third place in holiness for Islam. This is a common knowledge everybody knows. Yet, if we check this allegation, we find very easily two problems. First of all, yes, Jerusalem is considered a holy place but only for the Sunni Islam. Shia traditionally never considered Jerusalem to be any holier than any other city. For the Shia, the third place in holiness is the town of Najaf in southern Iraq. They call it Najaf al-Ashraf, means the marvelous Najaf. This is the third place in holiness after Mecca and Medina for the Shia, traditionally. The Shia started to talk about Jerusalem only after the revolution of Khomeini in 1979. And the Shia exists since the year of 632, since the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, died. At that moment, the Shia was born from a debate about the succession of Muhammad. So, a long 14th century almost, the Shia never heard about Jerusalem. Only in the last 40 years, exactly 40 years since the revolution of Khomeini, only then they started to speak about Jerusalem. So, it is, I would say, fake news about the Shia in Jerusalem. Modern news. Not only this. Even within the Islamic, in the Sunni realm, there are, or there were, two, I would say, prominent philosophers which belong to the Sunni Islam, which did not consider Jerusalem as holier than any other city apart from Mecca and Medina. One of them was named Razali. He was one of the leading figures of the Sufi Islam. He died in the year of 1111. It's very easy to memorize when he died. In Islam, you almost never know when people were born because they never registered the birth. Even a prominent philosopher died so everybody knows where he died, when he died. But, birth, he died more or less. So, he died in 1111. And another philosopher, even more important, is Ibn Taimiyah. Ibn Taimiyah was one of the cornerstones of the Hanbali school of thought in the Sunni Islam, which the Saudis follow today. The Saudis are the Wahhabi, Islam is part of the Hanbali school which Ibn Taimiyah was one of the leading figures. Many researchers compare him to Maimonides in our tradition, Ibn Taimiyah in the Islamic tradition. He did not consider Jerusalem any holier than any other city like Beirut, Damascus, Cairo, or Alexandria. Okay? And he had good reasons. We'll find out. So, not only the Shi'a, and look, Shi'a are not three people. Shi'a are like one of six from the Islamic world. It means some quarter of a billion, 250 million people, more or less, are Shi'i Muslims. And traditionally, they have no connection to Jerusalem according to their interpretation. So, it's not an Arabic aclylicite. Okay? It's not a little thing that the Shi'a do. And of course, he'll come also, Ibn Taimiyah in Razali. So, it is some kind of, how did Jerusalem become so holy for Muslims? And this is what we're actually going to deal with in this evening. How did Jerusalem become so holy for Muslims that they fight over Jerusalem with Jews and maybe with Christians as well? Since the question is about the religion, we have to follow what is written. Because Islam, like Judaism, is a religion which is based on texts. In Hebrew, in Judaism, it is the Torah, the Nevihim, Ktovim, Mishnah, Talmud, Midrashim, and Perushim, which are all written texts. So, if you want to check something in Judaism, you go to the texts. The same thing with Islam. Islam has the Koran as parallel to the Bible. And the hadith parallel to the oral tradition. Okay? The Sharia which people talk about is parallel to the halacha. Okay? So, there is another very important source in Islam which is called the Sira. Sira means the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. And these are the three most important writings of Islam, the Koran, the hadith, the oral tradition, and the Sira, the biography of Muhammad. When we go to the Koran to check about Jerusalem, we find amazingly that Jerusalem does not appear in the Koran even one time. Not even one time. The Koran has nothing to do with Jerusalem at all. It's not mentioned. And Jerusalem has in Arabic four names. Al-Quds, which everybody knows, which is the modern name which the Turkish gave Jerusalem as a short for another name, Bayt al-Makdis. Bayt al-Makdis came from, it's clear, Bayt al-Mikdash. So Bayt al-Makdis appears much in the hadith, not in the Koran. In the hadith, the oral tradition, already in the ancient parts of the hadith. Not does it appear in the Koran. Another name of Jerusalem is Ilya, which is a short of Ilya Kapitolina, the name which the Romans gave Jerusalem to denigrate the Jews. Ilya doesn't appear in the hadith, not in the Koran. And another name is the Christian name Ur-Shalem, Ur-Shalim, which again, of course, doesn't appear in the Koran. So the Koran, since the Koran doesn't deal with Jerusalem, we have to go to the hadith, to the secondary songs, which has much about Jerusalem. But in order to understand what happens with the hadith, we have to look actually into the way how the hadith was created. The hadith is a series, not a very long series of stories, anecdotes, reports about Muhammad and his companions. Why? Muhammad is viewed in the Koran, in Islam, as infallible. Somebody who is directed by Allah, everything which he has done was directed by Allah. Allah kept him from making any mistake. This is why, if a Muslim wants to behave in a way which is the best way, means directed by Allah, he has to follow the behavior of Muhammad. This is why these stories about how he buttoned his shirt, which shoe he put first and which shoe he put second. Anything in his life is important because this is the source of the Islamic al-Aha. After all, he was the role model of every Muslim in every time, in every place and in every situation. This is why these stories are so important. And in every story, every anecdote about Muhammad and his companions actually has two parts. One part is the chain of narrators who were, it was our tradition, who actually passed the tradition from one to another. Parallel to us, Amarab-e-Arazar, Amarab-e-Akiva. The same thing which appears in the Mishnah and in the Talmud. The same mechanism. One rabbi, one narrator, heard it from one, who heard it from one, who saw Muhammad doing this and that. So this is the chain of narrators, which is called Isnad. Which I would say Isnad is something which you lean on, something which you rely on. Okay, this is the chain. And the second part is the content. How he buttoned his shirt, how he put his shoes, how he washed his hands, which first, Okay, all these stories are very important because these are the source of Al-Aha in Islam. However, since these stories were kept by heart, sometimes people remembered less than what they heard. You call it forgetting, because it is oral tradition. So sometimes people forget. I forgot the ring to my wedding. Okay, people forget things. So, it's okay, we are very, very happy. And, okay, but there are others who remember too much. And this is called forgery. Because if you heard 100 stories and you have in your memory 200 stories, where did another 100 come from? From your creative soul. Okay, so this is what I mean. And through the years of Islam, the hadith was oral for 200 years. And these years were very turbulent in Islam because of things which I will talk about later. So, everyone of those, or many of those who remember the hadith, concocted hadith in order to support all kinds of things. The main factor of hadith was the rift between the Sunni and the Shi'i Islam. Why? Because since Muhammad died, his cousin and Zanilo, Ali, means his cousin who married Muhammad's daughter, claimed that he should be the caliph. But the others who were around, Muhammad didn't like him. He was young, he was stuttering, he had baby face. So, they kicked him out, although he was beloved by Muhammad and married his daughter. And they gave it to others. Those who support Ali and his claim to power until the end of days are the Shi'i. Those who support those who took the caliph from Ali are the Sunni. So, the rift between the Sunni and the Shi'i started more or less when Muhammad died and the struggle of succession started. Now, what the Shi'i had did, the people who believed in Ali, they created hadith. Somebody heard somebody, heard somebody, heard somebody, heard somebody. He heard Muhammad saying that Ali is the best man in our community. Another hadith, somebody said that Ali is the most reliable man. Another one, Ali is the most courageous man. He is the whole plethora of hadiths which all exalt Ali and praise him. Everything of course quoted from Muhammad. That and therefore he should succeed me and his children is scheduled until the end of time. The Sunni did not sit without doing anything. They also created hadith. Somebody heard somebody, heard somebody. That Muhammad said that Ali is a crook. Ali cheated me with my daughter. Ali was called to her, kicking me away from any position. Ali was nothing. Ali is a liar. Books and books about Ali were authored by the Sunnah. Of course, everything is quoted from Muhammad against Ali. The Shi'i is whole books and books, a whole shelf of books. How Ali is the best man. Again, everything is quoted from Muhammad. So, everyone who looks at these two bookshelves understands immediately that these bookshelves were created after Muhammad died in order to support the political approach, either for the Shi'a or against the Shi'a. And there were many other reasons why to create hadith. I'll give you one example just to show you. The first watermelons were brought to the Islamic world in the mid 9th century, 845 more or less. Merchants went to India, brought this nice vegetable, green outside, red inside, very attractive, very sweet, and they made good money, very good money by the first shipment which came from India. However, you can sell in watermelons in high price only one time. Why? When you buy watermelons, you buy also the seeds. So, what can you do now? You take all the seeds from the bottom. You plant them in your backyard. You water them after two, three months. You have a whole backyard full of watermelons. What will happen to the price? It will drop. Out of the sudden, there is a hadith which somebody heard somebody, who heard somebody, who heard somebody, who heard Muhammad saying that the price of a watermelon in the market cannot be less than two dirham, which is like a salary of a half of a month. Okay? He didn't see a watermelon in his life. How could he say anything about the price of a watermelon in the market? Okay, so it is clear that this kind of hadith was created by the merchants of watermelons. Okay? And this is how the hadith became a very, very big corpus of thousands and thousands of traditions which many of them were created during these 200 years in order to promote all kinds of things from sects like Shia and the Sunnah, even watermelons and many other things. Towards the mid-9th century, nine scholars of hadith saw the situation and they decided that it cannot go on like this. They gave a hack in the standard and they said, enough. We have to clean the hadith from all the concoctions which were introduced into the hadith by all kinds of interests, the Sunnah, the Shia and the others. And they developed a mechanism how to check the hadith, how to judge whether the hadith is correct or not. They checked the line of the narrators and they checked in every line, every chain, every couple, the first and the second, the second and the third. Whether they lived in the same place, whether they lived in the same time and whether the one who quotes actually took lessons from the one who is quoted. And if all these three questions were answered, yes, yes, yes, they went to the next couple. The one who quotes lived in the same place in the same time. And did it take lessons from the one who is quoted? If yes, yes, yes, they went to the next couple. This is how they checked the chains. And only chains which were continuous, they gave a hack share to the hadith. But if they found that one lived in Istanbul and one lived in Cairo, the one who is quoted. And the third lived in Lebanon. And okay, how could they quote each other? It's impossible because those days they didn't have telephone. They didn't have fax. They didn't have email. They didn't have WhatsApp or telegram or any modern ways of communication. So this hadith is evidently forged. Okay, this is the way how they judged the hadith by checking the chain of narrators. Where is the problem? Very soon after this checking started and the reliable chains were found. Those who concocted hadith concocted hadith with reliable chains. With chains which got the seal of approval. So now you don't know whether what hadith and they kicked out like more than 90% of the stories. Ladies and gentlemen, Muslims, very responsible or very worried about Islam, they did it in much of agony and much pain to declare that, yes, we have a lot of stuff which is forged. We have to get rid of it. For example, 1200 years ago, we have to salute them for the courage to come and say, yes, there are people within us who concocted hadith. And everyone left behind them a book which contained only the reliable hadith which he thought to be reliable. Since they used the same method, they came to more or less the same book and all these 9 books are considered as reliable books. Everything else is concoction, maybe concoction, for sure concoction, all kinds of epithets together, and they kicked out. Why do I elaborate so much about the hadith? Everything about Jerusalem in Islam comes from the hadith. So now we have to check it really what is true, what is not, and the modern research developed different ways how to evaluate hadith in order to come to the real story of the hadith. Not everything is forged, but today the modern research developed different methods of how to judge the hadith in order to come to which hadith is accurate and which is forged. What I want to give you today is actually the Hebrew Gilsai Ephes, the zero version, means the real version of what happened with Jerusalem in Islam based on music of hadith, like puzzle, which I would say from, imagine if you have a puzzle of 1000 parts and you have 950. If you combine them in the good way you see the picture, although some parts are missing. So this is the picture which I would like to show you today how Jerusalem became holy for Muslims and now the lecture begins. So far it was the preamble for the preface. Officers usually speak in segments of an hour and a half. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to start by telling the untoward story of Jerusalem in Islam. Our story starts in the Arab Peninsula, more or less in the year of 610. This today is Saudi Arabia. The Arab Peninsula is this, including Yemen. Hell's Israel is here. Our story starts in Mecca in the year of 610. More or less. 610, parallel to our time, is after the Talmud was sealed before the era of the Guionim started 200 years later. These 400 years are more or less a lacuna in Jewish sources because nothing which was written in these 400 years was preserved. Since the Guionim started in 850 more or less we have Jewish sources. But since the seal of the Talmud in the 5th century until that 9th century we have a gap of years which nobody knows really what was alternate. This is an era which we talk about. In Mecca, Mecca is in that time the center of the Hijaz. The Hijaz is the western part of the Saudi or the Arab Peninsula, the western part. Mecca is a central city of commerce and worshipping of an idol, a female idol, an idolist, named the Kaaba. The Kaaba, the Black Stone which the Muslims encircle today in the Hajj was an idol for hundreds of years before Islam came to the world in the 7th century. The pagan Arabs believed that the Kaaba is the goddess who is in charge of fertility. It means pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. She is the one who is in charge of it because she looks like a big egg which reminds them of the stomach of a lady who is pregnant. That's why they worshipped the Kaaba in order to get pregnant and so forth. Mecca was a Haram. Haram means a city where you are not allowed to come with your weapon. It means you come for commerce, you come for the Kaaba, you don't come for struggles and to fights and you leave everything out. This is what the word Haram means. And they were coming to worship the Kaaba. The Kohen of the Kaaba of those days, the custodian was a guy named Abdul Mutalib. He had a son named Abdullah. Abdullah means the servant of Allah. They knew about Allah as an abstract god although they had also idols. Who is in heaven, nobody sees him, nobody hears him. Nobody is there. Nobody really knows what Israel is but we heard about him for all kinds of Jews and Christians. And Abdullah was the son of the custodian of the Kaaba. Abdullah had a son, means the grandson of the custodian. The grandson was named Muhammad in his home. To their home one day in more or less 6 under the 10 comes a Jewish rabbi who ran away from Yemen, from the south apparently because he got in trouble with his community. And he settled in their home and started to sit with the young Muhammad and to tell him about the stories of the Bible. Tells him about Adam and Eve that Adam was created from mud and he was created from his rib and whatever. And the Noah and the Ark and all these things. And Muhammad learns all these stories and he believes in them, Allah of course. And he comes out, goes out to the streets of Mecca to spread the new belief in what Kaab tells him at home. He starts to talk to the Meccans about Ghan Adam, about Adam and Eve, about the snake, about the people who were sinful. Allah kicked them since they ate from the forbidden tree and the people were sinful and Allah decided to bring a Tawafan to flood the whole world. So he brought the Tawafan and they told Noah to build a tabood. You understand what I say, right? Noah to build a Tawafan in Ark and he saved Noah and his wife and kids and some animals and everybody else flooded with the Tawafan and then came Abraham and Abraham had two wives, Sarah and Hajar and Sarah had a son named Ishaq and Hajar had a son named Ismael and Ishaq had a son named Yaqub and Yaqub had 12 Aspart Shratim and one of them was Yusuf and father Jacob made him a nice garment and he dreamt about the sun and the moon and the stars who all worshipped him and father warned him, don't say to your brothers they will hate you and he told them to the brothers and they hated him and the ones abducted him to the field and they threw him into the pit and they sold him to a convoy of Medianin and they took him to Egypt and sold him there and there he had this affair with a lady so they must have kicked him to the jail and in jail there were two servants of Pharaoh Pharaoh who dreamt about one is squeezing all the stories which we know from the story of Joseph and then came the other and Pharaoh was dreaming about seven cows and seven weeds and all these things and they decided to compare exactly all the stories and then the Israelites came to Egypt and they were saved by Allah from the Abu-Diyyat Pharaoh and slavery to Pharaoh and Allah took them, redeemed them to the desert and then they were afraid to go into Eretz Israel because they are giants in Eretz Israel and they were afraid of them what is Parashat Shlach and about the prophets and David and Solomon and Zechariah and Isaiah and all and of course Jesus Christ he knows about but also and he means Muhammad when he tells them all these stories he also demands all kinds of demands that they will stop he told them also about the Ghanayd and the Gehenom means the paradise and the hell and the reward for the righteous ones and the punishments for the wicked ones and he also demanded the people of Mecca stop bearing the daughters alive they had this practice in order to reduce the population of women and they were bearing the daughters alive and he actually dedicated a whole chapter in the Quran against them because it was in New May to treat newborns, females in such a way he called upon them to stop selling slaves they were catching people in the desert and bring them to the slave market and selling them, men, women now how do you sell a person in the slave market you stripped him or her totally because who wants to buy something something which is in wrapping we want to see the merchandise very humiliating and he shouts at them how can you do such a thing to creatures of Allah who are like you exactly creatures of Allah who gives you the permission to sell people in such a humiliating way and he of course doesn't like the fact that they are cheating in commerce they have a heavy kilo for purchasing and a light kilo for selling and they were making money on the difference there were corks and this also he purchased against he actually wanted to bring some tikkun olam to Mecca to the way which people were behaving in this place after all he learned from Kaab Kaab was the name of the Jew who came to his home when the Meccans heard all these stories from Muhammad they looked at him excuse us these stories we know those stories from the Jews and the Christians you are actually what you tried to sell us is Asatir el Awalin Asatir el Awalin in Arabic is I would say the stories or the fables or the Mises of the first ones or the old ones means the Jews and Christians you actually recycle Jewish and Christian sources you plagiarized whatever you came to us with it's all copied and this allegation that the whole Quran is plagiarized from Jewish and Christian sources appears in the Quran 11 times 11 times the Quran quotes the people of Mecca telling Muhammad that all he is doing is copy and paste from Jewish sources well you know what I mean okay this is the worst thing which you can tell somebody who comes with a new gospel new idea tries to correct the world and people tell you what do you mean you copy them they made fun of it not only this after 12 years of activity where his success was very limited he succeeded to to convert maybe some dozens of people not more they even tried to kill him and after three or four attempts to kill him he understood that he cannot anymore live in Mecca because he will be killed by the Meccans and this will be the end of it so he runs away in the year of 622 12 years after he started his activity to Medina which is here like 180 kilometers to the north of Mecca in Medina he comes and immediately he becomes a judge why? he is a stranger he doesn't know one for another so he can be an honest judge he doesn't have any friends in this place so and you know if a judge knows one of the sides he should decline from the fight but since he cannot he can be honest judge so he became the judge of his district in the city or the area where he lived he became supreme judge of the whole city afterwards he becomes the ruler of his neighborhood and after two years since he came to Medina he became the ruler of the whole city definitely an upgrade compared to what he was in in Mecca because in his home a town he was humiliated he was laughed at he was chased maybe murdered and here in Medina he becomes the ruler of Medina after he became a judge so definitely but he wanted not only to be the master of the place thank you so much you know in the desert water is very important he didn't want only to rule Medina he wanted also to convert the people of Medina to Islam because there are also part of them were pagans Jewish more or less half of the population of Medina was Jewish and all of them were descendants of a part of tribe named Banu Quraiza this is the name of the tribe of the Jewish tribe who lived in Medina he approaches them to convince them to convert to Islam if Jews give up on their religion and convert to Islam Islam evidently is a better religion so it will ease on him to convert the pagans so he first approaches the Jews who approaches the Jews who did the joke Kaab his mentor the Yemeni tribe he went to the Jews in Medina and started to talk to them maybe they would convert all what Muhammad has he learned from you means he has the copy why should we leave the original and convert to the copy if also be like us he should convert to Judaism and will accept him of course Muhammad didn't like it he was very angry when he had this story or this demand of the Jews and he started to hate them but in order to convince them to convert to Islam he started to pray to Jerusalem up north because Jerusalem is to the north from Medina it's here as if saying to them hey you pray to Jerusalem let's unite and come under my ages and we'll pray to Jerusalem together they didn't buy and they didn't convert to Islam although he was praying to Jerusalem around year and a half 16 17 months in Jerusalem but they didn't convert to Islam he got very angry at some point so he burnt the trees which they were making living on it didn't work so he burnt the houses it didn't work so he slaughtered the men the males and he took all the women one of his wives Safiya was one of the one of the daughters of the Kuwaita Jewish tribe she was 14 he married her and he consummated the marriage immediately in his tent after all she was a widow from engagement because he slaughtered her fiance right in front of her eyes so since there were no Jews anymore after all the males were slaughtered he did the same thing to two different Jewish tribes who lived near Medina one was named Banu Kainuka means the sons of Kainuka and the other one was Banu Ladir so he slaughtered all these three Jewish tribes who lived around Medina and since then there is no point to pray to Jerusalem because there are not anymore Jews to convince to convert to Islam so then the Pasuk the verse descends upon him from Allah of course to direct the prayer down south to Mecca later in 630 he occupies Mecca burns all the idols keeps the cover because the cover was too important for the people because she is in charge of something very important and Jerusalem was abandoned in his life which he never came out and this is what we have to do so this is the role of Jerusalem in the days of Muhammad himself a direction of prayer for a year and a half almost that's all which was cancelled later in the first time in Mecca between 610 and 22 he used to go to the town of Taif which you can see to the east from Mecca Taif also he had a little community of supporters and used to go to visit them and maybe collect some support the way to Taif takes a day and a half of work day and a half between a day and a half there is a night until this very day and at night you have to stay outside in the desert because you will be devoured either by 4 legged animals tigers all kinds of others and or by 2 legged animals who will catch you to sell you to slavery and will take your camel or your horse or your donkey and annex them to their fleet of camels and so forth so between the 4 legged and the 2 legged animals you do not want to stay in the desert by yourself you have to spend the night in a place where people live and they protect you as they protect themselves from the same animals they protect themselves more or less between Mecca and Taif there is a village named Zhu Orang very important to remember these names because these are actually the important details this is google maps from the days of Muhammad well the landscape did not change exactly but you see today is only the roads which the south is paved most probably on ancient roads because this is always what people do so this is from the space this is Mecca as you can see this is Taif and this is Zhu Orang Zhu Orang Mecca and Taif Muhammad used to go to Zhu Orang the half day sleep in Zhu Orang wake up in the morning and go for a whole day walk to Taif back he went whole day from Taif to Zhu Orang spend the night in Zhu Orang and walk for half day to Mecca this was the day and a half at the night he spent in Zhu Orang because in Zhu Orang followers who gave him shelter to the night in their place which they lived in the morning when he woke up he used to pray in one of two mosques which the Muslims of Jorana built near the village one was closer to the village so they named it the closer mosque al Masjid al Adna in Arabic the other one was further from the village so they named it the further mosque al Masjid al Aqsa al Adna al Aqsa this is in Arabic the closer and the further the further mosques was in the other side of the village which was near the village one morning he wakes up in Mecca which he calls the Holy Mosque and a new revelation descended upon him during that night and he cites it to his followers and this verse actually appears in the Quran chapter 17 verse 1 which says in English or in Arabic both in Arabic Lailan glory to him who took his servant Lailan means at night in spite of the dangers those with two and those with forelegs from the minal Masjid al Haram from the Holy Mosque ilal Masjid al Aqsa to the further mosques which we means the deity which we blessed its surroundings in order to show him our wonders since Allah hears and sees everything glory to him who took his servant at night from the Holy Mosque to the further mosque which we blessed its surroundings in order to show him our wonders since he hears and sees everything this is the verse in the Quran and it tells it to his followers they know exactly where the al Aqsa mosque is half a day walk and Allah gave him such a miracle during one night in spite of the dangers those with forelegs and those with two legs in spite of all these dangers he took him all the way to Jorah and back during one night and he woke up in his bed with the pajama safe and sound and his wife swears that he didn't get out from bed to the whole night what a miracle this is the story as it is in the Quran they didn't make a big issue out of it because they were used to all kinds of miracles which happened to him and they continued with their routine Muhammad died in 632 in Medin since then started the era of the caliphs first caliph was Abu Bakr the first Muslim first man who believed in Muhammad means the oldest in Islam and he was the caliph for two years a snake bit him and he died 634 then the successor was Umar the combatant the warrior the commander of the army because those days they had some problems with some tribes which tried to get out of Islam and they had to be coerced back into Islam and Umar controls Islam for 10 years since 634 to 44 and he actually is the one who burst to the north and occupies the Sham area Sham means what today is Syria Jordan, Lebanon and Eratz Israel Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and this area is the Sham this area is being occupied by the Muslims between 634 and 44 the 10 years which Umar control Islam they put siege on Jerusalem in October 637 October means it's almost the winter Jerusalem those days is controlled by the Christian Byzantines and the one who is in charge of Jerusalem is the bishop Sofronius the last bishop of Jerusalem Byzantine and he sees these Muslims around him and it's October and the siege which they put on Jerusalem and he hopes that the winter which starts more or less in those days will fill all the systems of Jerusalem with enough water so they can survive in their summer when there is no rain unfortunately apparently the winter of that year was not as he expected and towards April towards the end of the winter he sees the systems and he sees that there are more half filled means they will not stay in the city under siege people have to drink people have to add some water actually evaporates so he understood that he cannot survive he will not survive and whenever the Muslims occupy a city by force they slaughter the men and they take the women so he didn't want to be slaughtered it's not so comfortable and he decided in April 1638 to surrender he opens the gate goes out hoping that nothing will happen to him asks no demands to sit with Umar the caliph himself not with any deputy or any other was to the boss sits with him and of course signs on the surrender without any pressure he couldn't say anything Umar imposed on him everything he agreed with no other choice and after signs he shake hands and he invites Umar to come to the city into the city as a conqueror without any fight of course Umar accept the invitation takes his entourage after Sufronius into the city in the entourage there is a very important person Ka'ab the Jewish mentor of Muhammad he lived after Muhammad and he came to Jerusalem within the entourage of Umar entering the city for the first time the Byzantines did not allow Jews to enter Jerusalem for hundreds of years hundreds of years Jews were abandoned in Jerusalem they could not come to Jerusalem openly maybe some sneaked into but they not over Ka'ab was apparently the first Jew who was allowed to go into Jerusalem with permission because he was one of the entourage of the conqueror Umar they go to the tour in the city and they are about to enter the temple mount Ka'ab takes off his shoes why? there is a verse in Saphir Shemot shalna alecha, meal rag lecha ka'a makoma shirata o medala matkode shu take your shoes off your feet because the place which you are stepping on is a holy place what happened to Moses in the desert in front of the bush so similarly Ka'ab takes off his shoes Umar the caliph sees him with his shoes in his hands asking what is this? why do you carry your shoes in your hands? so Ka'ab says this is a holy place Umar looks at him very angry and says you are trying to push Jewish ideas into our religion you immediately put these shoes on before I get angry at you now Ka'ab knew that whenever Umar gets angry at somebody this somebody is losing very fast, is losing the connection between his head and shoulders and he didn't want to lose you know it's important connection so forced by Umar Ka'ab puts his shoes and goes into the temple mount with shoes this story what does it tell us, what do we understand from this that Umar the one who is in charge of Islam doesn't know that temple mount is a holy place ok and he lived with Muhammad like brothers means he didn't hear from Muhammad that this place is holy let's say he forgot Ka'ab reminds him with the shoes he heard from Muhammad that this place is holy he himself would take off his shoes no he would tell everybody take off the shoes Ka'ab reminded me but this is not what happened whatever it is the opposite that he forces Ka'ab to wear the shoes because he does not accept the fact that that place is holy this was the year of 638 not only this in the temple mount umar asks Ka'ab where did the Jews pray when they were here because Ka'ab tells him this was the beckon dash so he tells him that the Jews were praying in the north in the northern part of the temple mount why? because they prayed to the south this way they will pray towards the place where the temple was a tricky way ok? so umar again tells him you are trying to push Jewish issues we will pray from the south to make it to the south turning our beck to the center of the temple mount which was once the temple we will not pray from the north or face to the place of the temple we will pray from the south where our beck are forward to the temple which is behind us ok? so everything which Ka'ab tries to push into Islam is a Jewish thing umar negates and do the opposite in order not to allow any connection with Judaism and the holy places of Jerusalem especially in this place so this shows us all these stories that in the year of 638 when Jerusalem was occupied by not by force by surrender it was not yet considered holy for Muslims first forward umar was murdered in 644 after him was the third caliph who was murdered in 656 and after him was finally Ali the founder of the Shia he became the caliph in 56 but immediately a rebellion started against Ali and the rebel was actually the governor of the Sham of this part he was subordinate to the caliph and he was the governor of the Sham his name was Muawiyah Muawiyah Ali was the Umayyad clan the branch of the Quraish tribe of Muhammad and he the Muawiyah rebels against against Ali the fourth caliph and declares himself as the caliph Ali in 661 was murdered so Muawiyah became the caliph because now there is no struggle anymore Ali was murdered the fourth caliph so Muawiyah became the governor of the Sham becomes the caliph the fifth caliph once he became the caliph he moves the capital city from Medina to Damascus where he is already for 20 years the governor because all of the officers all the administration everything is in Damascus and he didn't have anybody in Medina so all his family and cousins those who controlled the Sham for him were in Damascus so he had nothing with Medina he moves the capital to Damascus not only this Medina is in the desert those days they already occupy Iraq in order to go from Medina to Iraq it's like 10 days walk you have to load your camel with so much water so much food for both of you you and the camel so you cannot anymore ride it you have to walk because the camel is too much has too heavy of load it's not practical to govern such a place like Iraq from Medina and to the west there is a sea the Red Sea yet how to build ships so they cannot cross the sea they will learn it later when they will go to Europe from Morocco today in the year of 711 so until then they don't know yet how to build ships so Medina is actually in the middle of nowhere you cannot go to the east to Iraq you cannot go to the west to the sea so there is useless when the empire goes bigger so we move them another reason why to move the capital to Damascus here you go to the Euphrates and you go down with the Euphrates to wherever you like your camel can drink from the river can eat grass from the near the river two people can ride the camel or the horse ok it's much easier much more logical from the logistics point of view to run the empire from Damascus to Medina so the people in Medina which actually make living out of convoys and everything they are very angry at this because he took all the Parnosa and he takes it but he couldn't care less about them and Damascus becomes the capital within few years Damascus becomes the richest town in the whole world because everywhere when they found churches in Iraq and forward and of course private assets they loot they take to Bayt el-Mal Bayt el-Mal means the house of the money or the property and tons of gold silver copper and many other things which they looted wherever they went because Allah gave them all the countries and the others are infidels and they distribute whatever they took to the combatants and they build buildings of bricks and live like novorish life of you know very lucrative life after all they have all the property which they looted and they play with water and they pull everyone pulls a little river into his property into his living room and out so imagine somebody sits in his couch in the living room with his feet in the water what can be better in the fish inside you know nets here and there and life of really novorish of lucrative life but this was not the only problem they were still drinking as they did before Islam came to the world because it is very very hard to convince a full society to stop drinking after they drank for generations alcoholic beverages and they continued drinking to a degree that there were stories about some caliphs from the Umayyads who were seldom found sober to that degree just imagine running a state when you are drunk and not only this most of the men were in the battlefields in the east already in Persia but what Iran is today in the west they went to North Africa where Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and the number of men of males in Damascus the number of women because the husbands went to the war now those days they didn't have any communications they didn't have trains and airplanes so when somebody went to the war which is thousands of miles to the east or to the west usually he lost the connection because there are no phone, no fax no email, no whatsapp no trains and no planes so how can you keep connection with your wife if you don't come to vacation this was the situation working all this way took months so there were many women in Damascus who know nothing about their husbands are they alive, are they not the husbands in the battlefield don't know if their wives are alive so the detachment before between the men and women created a situation where two men in Damascus felt very comfortable to have everything which they want with every woman because there are no men so imagine a sin city like Damascus with alcoholic beverages which stream over every place very rich, nuvorish and women are easy prey to every man who was there and the women are not afraid the husbands if they are still alive they are thousands of kilometers fighting against the Persians there or the others so this was the situation in Damascus and not only this in year of 680 something tremendous happened in the town of Karbala here not far from here in southern Iraq the son of Ali Hossein Ben Ali was hiding there in the swamps of southern Iraq actually he does not accept the rule of the Umayyads and he was actually a rebel so the caliph Yazid Ben-Muawiyah sent a unit to catch him and they actually caught him and they killed him but they didn't have on those days cameras to prove that the mission is accomplished so how can they prove it they beheaded Hossein Ben Ali and they brought the head to Damascus to show the caliph the caliph didn't have television those days or newspapers or even radio so how can he publicize the fact that Hossein Ben Ali the rebel is murdered is killed so he kept his head the head on his desk for a whole month imagine the smell oh it was open so it could be so everyone who comes sees what is there and then so they see and they get carefully and they behave because this what happens to anyone who tries to do something against the regime now this man Hossein Ben Ali was actually the grandson of Muhammad because Ali married Muhammad's daughter Fatima and this was their son means this is what you do to the grandson of Muhammad and this what he did actually he raised the whole wave of resentment against the caliph because even those who did not support the demand of the shia to government yet they didn't support this deed ok so they were drunk they were immersed in adultery and there were killers and Hossein Ben Ali was the only one how did they allow themselves to behave in such an unislamic way the alcohol is forbidden killing is forbidden and adultery is also forbidden how can they allow themselves to behave in such a way there is a hadith which says that somebody heard Muhammad saying that anyone who comes to Hajj with full intention and pure heart all his sins are being cleansed and he gets out from the Hajj as clean as a baby who is just born great we can celebrate everything in Damascus through the whole year we can have whatever we like drink and whatever we can kill here and there we'll go once a year to Mecca to Hajj we'll run the spin around the Kaaba we'll say we obey you Allah we obey you and all the sins will be cleansed and we can go to Damascus to continue what we stopped a week earlier in the year of 682 2 years after the behavior of Osemen Ali a guy in Mecca stood up and said enough is enough you the people from the Sham you are coming to Hajj when you are stinking of alcoholic beverages you cannot even work straight and I know what you have the hip flasks in your suits this is not Hajj this is a joke what you do this is not real stay out first repent stop drinking stop killing then come to Hajj and he cuts the ways in front of their faces by the way it reminds us of Isaiah first chapter which says to the people of Judea kithavu leraot panay mibikesh dut mirdchem remos khatseray when you come to see my face who asked you to come to step on my grass rachatsu hizaku wash yourself purify yourself stop sinning before you come to pilgrimage to the temple this is what Isaiah says to the Israelites of his days the same thing the guy in Mecca tells the people from Damascus go away repent stop drinking then you come to Hajj otherwise stay out so they couldn't go to Hajj they went to the caliph and they said let us go to Hajj and we have many sins to clean but the caliph couldn't do anything because half of his army is in Iran where Iran today is in the east the other half of the army is going to the west where Morocco is and a few policemen which he has in Damascus are either drunk or very tired so how can they fight those Bedouins who are still big fighters good fighters when all these ex-fighters in Damascus are immersed in alcohol immersed in whatever they do there and they became so weak, so fat so ineffective when it comes to fighting in the desert so for 10 years they could not defeat their rebellion in Mecca they could not go to Hajj in Mecca 10 years but Hajj is one of the 5 pillars of Islam one of the 5 most important commandments how can they not go, they have to find some alternative so the caliph collected his wise men those who are concocting hadith all the day against the Shia to consultation the situation so they tell him look we have many Jews who converted to Islam in order to get rid of the taxes which he put on them there are many Christians who converted to Islam for the same reason Jerusalem is under our hands the history of Jerusalem as a holy city is in our streets because of the mass conversion of Jews and Christians let's convert the Hajj to Jerusalem because we control Jerusalem so they say hey Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran how can we do it? you remember the verse glory to him who took his servant at night from the Holy Mosque to the further mosques let's tell everybody that the further mosques Al-Aqsa is in Jerusalem nobody knows about Jorana about that village nobody knows because nobody goes there to Hajj nobody goes to Mecca and the people in our area do not know this story about Jorana that Al-Aqsa is actually there let's say that Al-Aqsa which is mentioned in the Quran is actually in Jerusalem and we will take vacation from offering hadith against the Shia we will start offering hadith about Jerusalem so first of all they take this verse and they author a new exegesis to this story which is in short says somebody heard somebody Muhammad saying that Al-Burak was brought to me according to some commentators are female mule another group of commentators say that this female mule knowings but her hoofs reach the horizon such long hoofs I rolled her and she immediately brought me to Jerusalem there I met the Gabriel the angel he gave me a test of prophecy I passed it and he took me into the Haram into the Temple Mount we prayed a short prayer and he took me to the first heaven knocked at the door a sound asking who is this he says Gabriel who is with you Muhammad was he invited yes the door opens and there is Adam the first human being he is the custodian of the first heaven he welcomed me and blessed me and we together went to the second heaven Gabriel knocks at the door sounds somebody said who is this said Gabriel who is with you Muhammad was he invited yes the door opens and there are the two cousins Yahya and Isa who are these Yahya Yahya, Johannes Isa Jesus the cousins means the sons of the aunt cousins and the sons of the aunt Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron do you have a proof that it's not this they blessed me wished me good luck and took us to the third heaven who is this the door opens who is there Yusuf Joseph Sadiq brought me in wished me good luck and took us all to the fourth heaven the whole story again who is there the custodian Seth the son of Adam also Sadiq welcomed me and took us to the fifth heaven the whole story again who is there Aaron custodian of the fifth heaven Sadiq who took us to the sixth heaven and there the custodian is Moses, Musa he took us to the seventh heaven where the custodian is Ibrahim means Abraham Khalil the companion of Allah and he took us to the throne of Allah and Allah gave me the commandment of the Tfilah, the prayer and here comes the strawberry on the cake and I prayed in front of everybody this is the most important part of the story, why the one who leads the Tfilah in Islam is not the one who has good voice another one who knows the Nossach another official Khazan and not one who has your side or year of mourning the only one who is allowed to lead the prayer is the ruler the political leader state and mosque in Islam he is the only one who is allowed but if you if you went somewhere somebody who is nominated by the caliph or by the ruler of the city to replace him in the prayer whoever tries to lead the prayer without an order is considered as a rebel against the government this is how the distinction is so when Muhammad tells or says that I prayed in front of everybody meaning Moses from the sixth heaven who prayed behind him what does it mean that he is now the the ruler and then when they pray behind him they actually accept him as the leader and this event is I would say the establishing event of Islam because this puts Islam not as a satir al awalin copy and paste from the former religions this put the Islamic totally different status as the higher of all the religions the real religion while Judaism and Christianity are now invoiced as of that moment because the prophets of Judaism and Christianity Moses and Jesus actually accepted the leadership of Muhammad in that event in heaven this is why it is so important because Islam the seal of approval of Deen al-Haq means religion of truth while Judaism and Christianity as of that moment become deen battle means religion of falsehood or null and void and this event which actually gives Islam the seal of approval or harsher this is the only religion in the world in the Quran in the Deen al-Haq and Islam the religion that Allah is Islam no Judaism no Christianity only Islam which supports this idea that Islam came to the world to replace Judaism and Christianity and this event which gives Islam the superiority over everything in the world is connected to Jerusalem because Muhammad came to heaven not for Mecca so where will you go to Hajj Jerusalem so this is the story which is invented because of the rebellion in Mecca in order to convince the people to come to Hajj to Jerusalem rather than going to Mecca because Mecca was closed so this is one of the most important stories which meant to inflate Jerusalem in the sense of Mecca and they often thousands of stories like this I'll give you one or two for example somebody heard Muhammad says that a man or anybody prays in a mosque he has his reward if he prays in Mecca he has 7 times the reward if he prays in Jerusalem 77 times the reward if there is very hot sun or rain or snow falls on him his reward is 777 times in Jerusalem evidently Jerusalem is holier than Mecca so where will you go to Hajj this one example of Hadith which is concocted in those days in order to establish the idea that Jerusalem is a better place for Hajj in Mecca and many more hadiths I want to record and it worked and there were some people who came to Hajj to Jerusalem after 10 years of rebellion in Mecca in 692 they had enough power and they went to Mecca and they killed Abdullah ibn Zubayr the rebel they crucified him and they beheaded him this is not a practice which was already in the 7th century made by the Caliph Yazid ibn Muawiy and the Hajj went back to Mecca all these stories about Jerusalem were abandoned to the side and the whole thing was forgotten until the days of the Crusaders in the 12th century when Saladin came with his army and defeated the Muslims in Karei Chitin near Tveria and then he went to Jerusalem he again sold these stories to his soldiers in order to inflame them against the Byzantines and it worked and they succeeded to defeat them and Jerusalem was re-occupied by the Muslims and there were people who still came to Hajj dozens of years after this event who lived in the between the 13th and 14th century authored the book Ibn Daimiyah the guy he authored the book which forbids coming to Jerusalem for Hajj forbids performing the ceremonies of the Hajj in Jerusalem forbids going to sleep in Jerusalem in order to get cured from all kinds of illnesses and the problems in the body so if he forbids it means that there were people who still were doing it and it worked very well and in 1875 to a degree that in 1875 the Teppan Mount was viewed by a camera of those days like this this is a picture from 1875 look at the floor look at the floor what does this floor tell us without words this place is almost abandoned because in Jerusalem you cannot have such height of grass or weed going if people go there this is clear evidence that in that year 1875 the place was almost abandoned nobody really went there regularly the British occupied Jerusalem in 1917 from the Ottoman Empire and they nominate the Mufti Hajjamil Hussaini as the one in charge of Jerusalem and he discovers immediately the potential of Jerusalem city for tourism he authors this book I have here the original a brief guide to Al-Haram and Sharif Jerusalem published by the Supreme Muslim Council which he presided it cost 150 mils you know what it means 15 pence okay and this one which I show you it was published in Jerusalem 1929 I have the version of 1930 which is the same what does he write in this booklet page number 4 he talks about the Haram means the court of the Temple Mount historical sketch we want to read the whole thing we will read only two sentences look at him its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute the identity of the Haram and Sharif with Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute this too is the spot according to the universal belief means the Islamic world as well universal belief on which and he records from Samuel second Samuel book David built an altar under the log and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings this is what the Mufti wrote in this booklet ladies and gentlemen this Mufti was probably the biggest and worst Jew hater in the 20th century he is the one who arranged the massacres against the Jews in 1920 1921 1929 in Hebron in Jerusalem in Tveria and those Jews were not Zionists they were from the Yishuba Yashan Kharedi Jews especially in Hebron he incited the Arabs in these cities against the Jews he arranged the big Arab revolt between 1936 and 1939 the British wanted to catch him so we ran to Iraq and he was in Baghdad incited the Baghdadis against the Jews and in 1941 they massacred the Jews of Baghdad 179 people men and women were slaughtered in Baghdad kids were amputated girls were humiliated in two days of riots against the Jews in Baghdad because of the incitement of the Mufti the Palestinian Mufti who created the Palestinian national movement and he went to Hitler became one of the closest friends of Hitler there are all kinds of rumors about his participation in convincing Hitler to go for the final solution in 1941 but definitely in 1944 he took active role in the extermination of almost half a million Jews in Hungary where the Nazis collected the Jews in Hungary in 1944 in Budapest they wanted to take them to Auschwitz to be exterminated but they were afraid that partisans would blow up the bridges of the trains so the Mufti went to Yugoslavia to Bosnia and he went to Bulgaria and he recruited some 30,000 Muslims to the bridges so those Jews will safely be brought to Auschwitz to be exterminated this is what the Mufti did in order to get rid of the Jews in the whole world supported the Nazis as he did but this Jew-hater had no problem to write in this book that the Temple Mount is the place of the Solomon's Temple and even David his father offered a piece of him okay this is what he wrote today when you listen to the speakers the music is totally, totally different let me show you a clip I don't have it in English but I will translate it to English this is after some years ago after some days of riots some times it doesn't happen it's something special and that's why today's new Jerusalem after a few days of protests there was a riot in Beirut and several houses thousands of refugees who were killed in the east and east were killed after a few days of riots in Jerusalem today life is more or less calm and why are you so upset and why do you think so why is this tension in Jerusalem and why particularly now it erupts a class of member Tibi explained to us that the Muslims are outraged because the Israeli police restricted the age of those who come to the al-Aqsa to 50 and above means they don't let the youngsters to come because the youngsters are throwing stones and all kinds of things the question is why if the youngsters are making torres why should they be allowed why are they outraged when Israel restricts the age of those who come to the al-Aqsa house the answer is the religious problem which they have with us according to Islam Jews should live under the Islamic yoke as themiz al-Dimmah as they say in Arabic means people who live under the auspice of Islam a Jew cannot ride a horse only a donkey a Jewish home should be lower than the Islamic home a Jewish synagogue should be lower than the mosque a Jew and a Christian should pay jizya means skull tax when they are humiliated in the Qur'an means calling on the floor give the money from their hand and get kicked out from the room a Jewish Christian has to go off the sidewalk and walk in the sewage canal in the street when a Muslim comes and father them if he doesn't have enough space if they stay on the sidewalk and the sewage canal in the middle ages was collecting everything from the homes and not only from the kitchen and this is where the Jewish Christian has to walk while the Muslim should walk on the clean and dry sidewalk this is the rules of the Zimmah Jews have no right to a state Jews have no right to an army police or any manifestation of independence and sovereignty and here the Jewish police tells us Muslims who can come into the Temple Mount to the axon or not it is against the rules of physics if Jews tell us what to do what not to do that's why they are outraged when the Jewish police says you yes and you no they hear that all kinds of people from the Israeli right side of the political map call to change the state of Israel call to change the status of the Temple Mount from an Islamic place to a Jewish Islamic place like what happened in Marat Makhpela in Khebron the one who speaks is the Mufti of today of those days we are the owners of the place means not you the Jews the journalists asking what do you think the Jews are trying to do they want to take over they want to bring the extremists to pray here and this is what aggravates them to pray the Jews will pray on the Temple Mount because they want they first have a new Fatih on the ground and we always say that Al-Aqsa belongs to the Muslims only to the Muslims and Jews have no right to Al-Aqsa at all means the Temple Mount Jews have no right to the Temple Mount excuse me Mufti only 80 years ago this place is the place of Solvon's Temple as we read and even his father offered there so how can this Mufti come and say the Jews have absolutely no right to the Temple Mount this is actually contradiction where did it come from and the answer is very clear since the days of the first Mufti until the days of this one between the Jews and Temple Mount some road accidents happened the first one was 1948 when Jews succeeded to establish a state on part of the land of Israel second problem came in 1967 when Jews occupied another part of the country and Jerusalem as well and now what will happen again to come to Temple Mount to pray and all these things the Jewish sovereignty and Jewish activity on Temple Mount for them it means that Judaism actually comes back to life after Islam came to the world to replace Judaism and for them it is a religious threat on the mere existence of Islam because if Judaism comes back to life in the shape of a state with an army with police, with ministries with force and activity on Temple Mount in Jerusalem in general and in Temple Mount in particular it means for them that Judaism comes back to life after Islam came to the world to replace it and this immediately poses a danger on Islam because the whole reason is to cancel Judaism and that's why from the religious point of view Muslims cannot fathom the Jews that the Jews are coming back not only to the land to the sovereignty to the statehood and to be active again in the Temple Mount because this means that Judaism goes through a process of resurrection to the world to cancel it all together and for them this is before anything connected to territory or to human rights or to political issues it's first of all a religious problem which they cannot take and this is why the Palestinians are not alone in this and they know that if they will take a state without Jerusalem the Jews the whole Islamic world will accuse them for betraying the Islam by leaving Jerusalem to the Jews to come back to life and this is why they keep saying again and again that without Jerusalem they will not establish a state because they will not be willing to show their faces in front of their brethren, the Arabs and the Muslims without Jerusalem which remains in the Jewish hands they will cannot show their faces they were so ashamed to show their faces within their brethren without Jerusalem and this is why they keep claiming again and again I believe them that they will not establish a state without its Jerusalem as their capital because of this not only this Palestinians actually show it in this scarf which they produce and this is the PLO on one side they say Jerusalem is ours but on the other side they show Palestine Palestine the complete country the whole country they know the connection without Jerusalem there will be no Israel without Zion there is no Zionism no Zionism this is why they keep insisting on every Jerusalem because they know that the world so far has not yet recognized Jerusalem as our capital and this is a weak link in the chain of Judaism in the land of Israel this is why they insist on Jerusalem and whenever Israel does something which is viewed as perpetuation of our presence in Jerusalem they get outraged because for them it is a religious problem before anything else in June 1st 2008 one day before Yom Yerushalay the Israeli government decides to build some 800 or 900 apartments in Har Choma and Pisgadzeev two neighborhoods on places which were Alex to Jerusalem after the 6th day war after Jerusalem was liberated of course they are outraged and the Jihad channel Al Jazeera dedicated that day in its main news bulletin no less than 15 minutes to this issue ladies and gentlemen 15 minutes for one item in the main news bulletin it's a big time in the first they bring a footage from Jerusalem made by the correspondent in Jerusalem a lady which implicitly claims that Israel actually destroys all the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem out from the walls in order to build Jewish neighborhoods over their roads, sheer line the second one interviewed and this item was a Palestinian guy named Khalil Tafakji who is in charge of maps in the Palestinian Authority and he claims that Israel brought Jerusalem almost all over the West Bank again sheer line and they looked for an Israeli to get on him because of all these things they approached the ministry of foreign affairs they didn't want to get into this question so they went to the private market and some speakers in Israel were busy that evening I was free so they approached me to come to the studio in order to give to an interview as they call it about what Israel decides to do in Jerusalem let me show you the interview the broadcaster his name is Jamal Ryan he is the mastermind of Al-Jazeer he is the editor he determines the wording and the wording is very important when you want to label all kinds of people he is the one who is in charge of the best face which people saw when Al-Jazeer was born in November 1996 he is in Qatar the state which broadcasts Al-Jazeer and I am in Tel Aviv again pure history we were in Jerusalem 3000 years ago Islam is only 14 centuries means we were in Jerusalem 16 centuries when their forefathers were still paying Arabs in the Arab world we were in Jerusalem 16 centuries when their forefathers were still paying Arabs in the Arab peninsula drinking wine bearing the daughters alive according to their sources and worshipping idols and idolises ok so this is I didn't invent anything I just quoted their history by the way we do the same thing in the we say clearly in the beginning our forefathers were worshipping idols and they attacked everywhere and now the Qadishbah who got us closer to his worship ok so the same thing they said the same thing about themselves here he quotes the verse which talks about al-Aqsa but he stopped quoting it because he doesn't mention Jerusalem and Al Aqsa originally as you know already was not in Jerusalem it was in Jorana it was brought to Jerusalem as fake news of the 7th century Subhanallah the 4th The Quds were not mentioned in the Quran or once Ya Sayyidi, why are you talking about politics? Why are you talking about politics? Why are you talking about politics? If you heard The Quds are outside the negotiations The Quds are to the Jews, it is a point It is impossible to talk about the Quds in any way and you are repeating this truth again and again about the negotiations Ya Sayyidi Mordechai about the negotiations Those who were established after the 6th war Givat Saffati, French Hill, and Arochoma All these are all settlements This by the way, the kind of Warding and Jazeera just to undermine the legitimacy of the Israeli presence in that place but if you call it settlements it's less than neighborhoods Okay, the innuendo is bad So this is why he says Mustapterat means settlements We are talking about Shikak We are talking about We are talking about a new Shikak inside the city of Quds You are talking about Mordechai You are talking about it about 1000 and there was a decision to establish 10,000 and this decision was made and now the strikes are being carried out from under the table to 1000-2003 The Quds will probably continue to the western part after that, why is that? Why Israel did not establish the Shikak and did not establish Qatar in the city of Qatar? What is your question? And here, and here I must say something very serious Al-Jazeera, which bought us from Qatar never, never talks about Qatar Never Everything which Al-Jazeera brings from other countries from Israel, from the states, from Europe from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq they never deal with Qatari issues Only since Saudi Arabia put a siege on Qatar like 2 years ago only then they talk about Saudi Arabia in this regard but they never report anything about the Qatari government about the Qatari what they do nothing and most of the people in the Arab world do not even know that Al-Jazeera brought Qas from Qatar to their degree the whole thing which they do is sticking their nose in their pots of others to see what they cook listen I want to say that your words mean that the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis are based on the real matter which is being talked about now, Mr. Mordakhaikidar Brother, I invite you to the Quds to see with your eyes how the Quds became an obvious city after the war under the hands of the Arabs until 1967 we built this city for the Christians, for the Muslims and for the Jews to talk about it as you never did under the control of Islam because Islam divided the Jews from the Quds and the Christians so I want you to give me an answer under the control of the Jews why all of this there were Palestinian negotiations in Israel you talk about stability and you make decisions about stability more than the earthquake and in total what is the Palestinian state in the future, not like that there is even today another Palestinian state a state in Gaza and a state, God willing on the Arabian side and if the Palestinians continue in this way in the negotiations there will be a state in Khaleel and in Ramallah and in Nablus according to the negotiations that were made according to the negotiations that were made in Israel but the international decisions are different for everything you say the Eastern Jerusalem is occupied occupied, occupied, occupied everyone knows about it the Arabian state did not follow any state in the world because in this region any leader of any state like you left the south the Jordan region was occupied for this land not in the Arabian Gulf any leader of any state against the Jews, against the Algerians against the Algerians the Arabian Gulf did not have any leader for any state in the world so no one can be occupied from any land the Jordan region was occupied until 1967 and this region did not follow any state in the world and so we were able to control it we did not I want to thank you for the Arabian studies Bar Elan Talabib he did he he didn't thank me as he should and not only this after the program was finished at midnight he called Waleed Al-Omari the one in charge of Al-Jazeera in Israel and gave him a shower why he sent me so and Waleed told me this after some days so he said look Minister of Foreign Affairs didn't want to come others were busy and the only one who was available was Qadar and he wanted an Israeli and here you are dealing with him because these are the Israelis of today they know what they want and they don't give up since then and this was June 1st 2008 almost 11 years ago I was invited to Al-Jazeera several times but not to programs of these men he doesn't want me apparently and actually one time I was invited to the main news bulletin and I told the one who invited me if Jamal Rayyan is the broadcaster you better find out before you invite me otherwise you're going to suffer so he didn't allow you so I knew that he doesn't want me towards the end of 2015 seven and a half years later the man Jamal Rayyan explains his policy in editing Al-Jazeera as the mastermind of Al-Jazeera and he relates to the question of inviting Israelis because there are many Arab newscasts or radios and TVs who boycott Israel and do not invite Israeli altogether and Al-Jazeera does so he wanted to explain what happens with Israelis and why he invites them and he says now you know it's not an assumption and it's not some kind of maybe he says it the man was in charge of Al-Jazeera in a way which cannot be clear and you know what you understand listen to what he says there is no on the other side it becomes one voice and it's not possible I feel that it's better to defend the Palestinian issue of course sometimes you don't have difficult situations when you don't welcome Israelis I'll give you an example with me a professor from Bar Ilan his name is Burda Khaykidar and the opposition was and the goal of the opposition was to talk about the causes of the continuation of the West Bank and the expansion of the economy so I asked this question what is the goal and he said this is our main point from the ancestors when you were Arab you drank the coal and you ate the cotton and you ate the girls and you worshiped the sheep and you ate the girls they inserted this part of that interview into his monologue in the editing they took it from the archive and they put it into his monologue this is our city from the 3000s I said from the history it's impossible for you to read the Bible from the Qur'an of course Dr.Fahman said the Bible didn't fit in the Qur'an but God saved me and I said Glory be to God Ladies and gentlemen I spoke yesterday I don't remember where not far from here Shahid Filan and I sort of remember more or less what I said don't remember everything and this was yesterday the man after seven and a half years memorizes knows my name although he interviewed me only one time knows my university and quotes line after line from that interview and the man actually interviews every single day dozens of people because it's the main narrative why? and this man is the most powerful man in the whole Arab world because he holds to the heaviest stick named El Jazeera by which he can hit whoever he wants if he wants to kill somebody politically in no time he does it with El Jazeera he disseminates news and fake news nobody knows what is told he can kill people and that's why he is one of the most powerful people in the Arab world and he remembers line after line from an interview which he did with Israeli professor seven and a half years earlier why? why? and this was very clear this was the first time which he has to face the reality which actually negates his belief because for him in Israel who is knowledgeable about Islam who fights for his state is actually the resemblance he resembles the resurrection of Judaism and he lives in Israel and he is a state means that the whole thing for him was a trauma and if you look at him all his sticks when he is speaking about me you can see how the whole thing is post-traumatic phenomenon which you see this is why he remembers everything this is why apparently he works out with a puppet in my shape and he stabs it but the issue is not me the issue is actually he belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood and for them the Muslim Brotherhood Jerusalem is something totally different from what we understand this is the center of their discourse I'll show you May 1 2012 Cairo the launching of the election campaign of Morsi Morsi was the for one year was a president of Egypt between mid 2012 and 2013 how it was hosted by Sisi the president of today the campaign took two months started in May 1 until the end of June and that day on the stage in an Egyptian street in Cairo happens what I want to show you courtesy of memory with him and his brothers we saw the big dream that we dream of all of it the United Arab countries the United Arab countries the United Arab countries will come back God willing will come back the United Arab countries by the hand of this man and the one with him God willing will be the capital of Khilafah will be the capital of the United Arab countries is the Jerusalem God willing not only the capital of the Palestinian state the capital of the Arab world united under the Muslim brotherhood ok and repeats it after the crowd shout TAPIR will be our capital not Cairo nor Mecca nor Medina but Jerusalem God willing and it will be our capital of the Uds martyrs martyrs means to Jerusalem are marching martyrs ok and he is not the Palestinian he doesn't speak from the Palestinian point of view he speaks from the Islamic point of view because this is the problem of Islam the fact that we Jews are in Jerusalem in our capital goes for them when we control Jerusalem they cannot fathom this because it's a threat on Islam because they are afraid that if Judaism comes back to life again will come the clowns of the city and say that Islam is no more than copy and paste from Jewish sources and they cannot accept it this is why the struggle of Jerusalem is actually the struggle of Islam on its validity because if Judaism comes back to life in Jerusalem it means that Islam has no role in the world after all Islam to the world to replace Judaism and Christianity and here the conspiracy Israel was established by whom by the British Empire under the leadership of Balfour who was an evangelical Christian means this is conspiracy between the Christians and the Jews later the League of Nations who accepted the declaration and made it into an international document in San Remo 1920 again now the world who the heck gave them the Japanese the permission to give an Islamic soil like Eris Israel to the Jews who do not deserve to have any state who should live under the Islamic yoke and gave the Russians and the other members of the League of Nations the permission to vote to give the Jews an Islamic land which belongs to us and this is why they don't accept any international document including the San Remo a convention not to mention the others so this is the conspiracy between the Jews and the Christian world and now come Trump with an evangelical here and he recognizes Judah is a Jerusalem as the capital of the Jews who the heck gave him Jerusalem to give it to the Jews but it belongs to his father he inherited from his father so everything which happens in the world today which actually is some kind of recognition but of the fact that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews they totally are against it because nobody in the world has the permission to give our city which look according to Islam any country, any land, any city has only one way ticket to enter Islam not to get out from Islam and since Jerusalem was once occupied by the Muslims so it should remain forever nobody has the permission to take any land, any city, any piece of land from the Islamic world so this is totally against the Sharia the same thing we have by the way Spain and with Sicily and with other parts of the Balkans all the way to the gates of Vienna where they were defeated where they are defeated in 1684 Ladies and gentlemen this is the struggle the struggle is not a territorial struggle the struggle is a religious struggle of Islam to prove its validity on the expense of Judaism and Christianity by the way now the question is what do we do with this do we surrender, do we give up on our place our capital, our holy city or do we tell them guys your holy city is in Mecca Jerusalem is holy to us maybe Christians as well you go there, this is your place you occupy Jerusalem in 638 when you didn't consider that Jerusalem to be holy at that time the whole thing about the Jerusalem was concocted by the Umayyads because of the rebellion in Mecca when they couldn't go to Hajj and the proof is that the enemies of the Umayyads the Shia did not accept the idea that Jerusalem is a holy city and this is why Shia had another city Najaf and they don't consider why because the enemies the Umayyads those who be headed Hussein bin Ali their caliph this is why the Shia is against it and this clip which I showed you me and Jamal Ayan had thousands of topics and I recognize those from Iraq according to the dialect and according to the names of the people the typical Iraqi names they support the Jewish whole to Jerusalem because for them they have another holy city Najaf and they actually are against the Sunnah so this is the Serb of Jerusalem which involves also forging maps Jordan when Jordan was in Jerusalem until 67 the Jordanian government published books and maps about Jerusalem I have it here I can show you the original guide to the West Bank of Jordan Jerusalem this book was published in 1963 four years before we liberated Jerusalem from the Jordanian occupation this map is attached with blood to the first page let me show you the map what does it say here Mount Moriah the El Aqsa is the building in the south of the court Solomon's stables very of Jeho Shaphat tomb of Zechariah Abshalom Spila Mount Zion half of the Bible is in a Jordanian map and the Jordanians were not Zionists in those days they are not Zionists until today but the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism had no problem to publicize this map of Jerusalem with all the Jewish names of places and areas in the tomb in Jerusalem another map which mentions this is this this is a property of a friend of mine Heimstein where he lives in New York and look at this Mount Moriah this is not empty this is a mount and the gates and El Aqsa again is the building in the southern part of the court and I have many more Jordanian maps which state the same thing Mount Moriah this is said after we liberated Jerusalem the maps are redrawn let me show you one or two of them here Al Masjid El Aqsa is the whole thing the building in the south changes its name and now it's called Al Masjid El Kibli Masjid El Kibli in Arabic means the mosque of the direction of the prayer because it's in the south and they pray to the south to make it so since El Aqsa became the whole space the whole court now the mosque in the south which formerly was El Aqsa in the Jordanian maps now it is called the mosque of the direction of the prayer why did they change the naming of El Aqsa and the mosque in the south the reason is very clear since 1967 Rabbi Gorel who was then the chief military Rabbi of the of the IDF and his brother-in-law Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen the Rabbi of Haifa called upon the Israeli government to establish a synagogue to build a synagogue in the northern end of the Temple Mount because this part was not annexed to the Temple Mount by hordes and the Rabbani below actually so they want to pray on the Temple Mount in a place which was for sure not part of Baita Mcdash in the old times for the Muslims if Jews start to pray on Temple Mount this is what they are afraid of that Judaism comes back to life on the Temple Mount so in order to incite all the Muslims in the world they call the whole thing El Aqsa because El Aqsa appears in the Quran and now the Jews are actually challenging the El Aqsa not the El Aqsa El Aqsa the whole thing now since the whole thing is called El Aqsa since 1967 they have to give a new name to the mosque in the south or the most of the direction of the prayer and this change happened after 1967 this shows you that fake news were not invented in the United States of America in the 21st century it was in the Islamic world already in the 7th century and in the 20th century so nobody can as royalties on fake news they can show other people how to do it very well after all the Hadith large parts of it were concocted and many things as we saw ladies and gentlemen the question now is left for us Jews in Israel and abroad do we succumb to such discourse which denies us from all the rights which he had in Jerusalem denies our history denies our religion and claims that our religion is Dean Bartel means religion of null and void or do we fight my personal approach we cannot otherwise but fight fight back it's not easy, it's a challenge yet it is durable because now we can use social media and other things which we can however don't forget we are a small nation if everyone of us will send only 10 emails a day about Jerusalem or 10 posts on Facebook about Jerusalem in favor of Judaism and everyone in the Islamic world will do it they outnumber us, big time because there are what, billion and a half Muslims in the world and one of thousand, 15 million maybe Jews in the world they will defeat us in no time we have to get to work on this thing everyone of us who has access to email Facebook, Twitter Instagram, whatever in my humble view should get under the stretcher and start working because otherwise since they outnumber us and they are much more money than us and they are much more presence in the United Nations and they influence some kinds of organizations like UNESCO they might defeat us if we sit, lay back and wait for Israel to do the job it's the job of every Jew and everyone who supports the Judaism and the Jewish presence in Earth, Israel in general and in Jerusalem in particular ladies and gentlemen get to work thank you so much