Dome of Rock and Babri Masjid

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Dome of Rock and Babri Masjid

 

Dome of Rock and Babri Masjid

Priyadarsi Dutta

The Pioneer

March 22, 03

 

Evidences, archaeological and literary, prove that the Babri Masjid

was

established by destroying a temple on a site profoundly venerated by

Hindus. Annette Beveridge's translation of Babur Nama (1922) mentions

that Babar's destruction of the Ram temple was an act to assert

Islamic

might. At least 65 pieces of Hindu temple artefacts, in addition to a

dedication stone plaque by King Naya Chandra and Ayush Chandra,

recovered from the debris of the Babri structure on December 6, 1992,

lent an irrefutable credence to this theory.

 

 

Members of the secularist league have asked something even more vital.

How could it be said if Lord Ram was born at that precise site. That

is

an application of legal mind with vested interests. The VHP had been

harping that it is a matter of faith for crores of Hindus and cannot

be

subjected to legal scrutiny. The Muslims believe that the holiest

shrine

of Islam, Kaba, is situated exactly below the heavens. They will be on

warpath if somebody suggests that this belief is incompatible with

rotation and revolution of the earth and should be put to test in this

space age.

 

 

 

But it is more relevant to ask if Jerusalem's Dome of Rock could be a

matter of faith, what's wrong with Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi? The twin

mosques of Dome of Rock and Al Aqsa stand on the foundation of Jewish

Temple of Mount, the now destroyed temple built by King Solomon in

Jerusalem. Muslims believe that Mohammed climbed to paradise from Dome

of Rock. It is thus their third holiest shrine after the ones in Mecca

and Medina.

 

 

 

This should be read in conjunction with radical Islam's demand - what

has been once Islamic should always be Islamic, not just by Islamic

presence but also under the crescent banner of Islam. Once Khalifa

Omar,

Islam's second caliph (also associated with the inspiring anecdote of

dropping a message in the Nile written "O Nile, come to us if you come

from Allah, don't come if you come by yourself"), refused to pray in a

church in Jerusalem saying: "If I pray here, my folks are going to

come

and demand this place saying Omar had tendered prayers here."

 

 

 

Joseph Farah, an Arab-American journalist, wrote in the WorldNet Daily

on October 11, 2000: "In fact, the Koran says nothing about Jerusalem.

It mentions Mecca hundreds of times. It mentions Medina countless

times.

It never mentions Jerusalem! With good reason. There is no historical

evidence to suggest Mohammed ever visited Jerusalem. So how did

Jerusalem become the third holiest site of Islam?"

 

 

 

Muslims today cite a vague passage in the Quran, the 17th sura,

entitled, 'The Night Journey'. It relates that in a dream or a vision,

Mohammed was carried by night "from the sacred temple to the temple

that

is most remote, whose precinct we have blessed, that we might show him

our signs." In the seventh century, some Muslims identified the two

temples mentioned in this verse as those of Mecca and Jerusalem. And

that's the closest Islam gets to Jerusalem - myth, fantasy, or wishful

thinking. But, the Jews can trace their roots in Jerusalem back to the

days of Abraham.

 

 

 

The Old Testament mentions Jerusalem 669 times and Zion (which usually

means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times. The New

Testament mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion seven times. Quran

never

mentions Jerusalem because there is no historical evidence to suggest

Mohammad ever visited Jerusalem. Therefore, the notion that Mohammed

ascended to heaven from a rock in Jerusalem (today's Dome of the Rock)

stands no historic ground.

 

 

 

Between two Arab-Zion wars of 1948 and 1967, east Jerusalem was under

Jordanian (Arab) control. No Arab leader ever paid a visit, even to

pray, at the Dome of Rock or Al Aqsa. Isn't it a case similar with the

Babri Masjid where no prayers were read after 1936?

 

 

 

PLO's founding charter, the Palestinian National Covenant of 1964,

made

no reference to the mosques. Only when the Jews recaptured it, after

the

1967 "Six-Day War" (initiated by the Arabs), the Arab world suddenly

became passionate about redeeming Dome of Rock and Al Aqsa. This Arab

irredentism fuels jihadi passions. Muslims are going against their own

scriptures by claiming absolute control of Jerusalem.