The fact that we believe that Jerusalem is holy does not mean that we are justified in conquering it and dispossessing the inhabitants of it. Before Islam came on the scene, Jerusalem was ruled by the great Christian empire--the Byzantine Empire. They expelled Jews and banned them from entering Jerusalem:
The Byzantine Emperor Constantine, however, rebuilt Jerusalem as a Christian center of worship, building the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335.
Jews were still banned from the city, except during a brief period of Persian rule from 614-629 CE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...CE_-_638_CE.29
And from a Zionist website:
Byzantines
Constantine was the founder of the Byzantine empire and a devout Christian. He tried to make Jerusalem into a center of Christian worship by erecting many churches there, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and designating various areas as Christian holy sites....In 614 the Persians actually managed to capture Jerusalem...but this victory was short-lived and the Byzantines returned in 629
to again expel the Jews. They ruled Jerusalem until their defeat at the hands of the Muslim Arab caliph, Omar, in 638.
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/jer.html
(I am going to be quoting from this site repeatedly, so keep a note that it is the "Jewish Agency for Israel" website.)
After Prophet Muhammad [s] united Arabia under the banner of Islam, the Byzantine Empire declared war on the Muslims at the Battle of Tabuk. You see, at that time, the Arabs were backwater backwards people (much like today) and horribly disunited amongst warring tribes, each worshiping their own gods. The two great empires of the time--the Byzantines in the West and the Persians in the East--capitalized on this and fought each other over Arab land in Syria/Palestine and Iraq, and the Arabs were reduced to vassalage. The Byzantines and Persians were two great elephants, and the grass underneath (the Arabs) was trampled underfoot. Each set up its own vassal client states in Arab lands. In Syria/Palestine, the vassal state was known as the Ghassanids...and this includes Jerusalem.
Then Prophet Muhammad [s] united all of Arabia under the banner of Islam, all under one God. The Byzantines declared war on the Muslims, in what is called the Battle of Tabook. Thus began the Byzantine-Islamic wars. In the Battle of Yarmouk, the Ghassanids (who were Arabs living in Jerusalem and under Byzantine rule) defected and assisted the Muslims in overthrowing the Byzantines, and so Jerusalem was conquered:
The Ghassanids remained a Byzantine vassal state until its rulers were overthrown by the Muslims in the 7th century, following the Battle of Yarmuk in 636 AD. It was at this battle that some 12,000 Ghassanid Arabs defected to the Muslim side.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassan..._Byzantine_era
The Prophet's disciple, the Second Caliph of the Muslims, went to Jerusalem himself to accept the pledge of allegiance from Jerusalem. He entered Jerusalem whilst his servant was riding the camel and he (the Caliph) was walking, so the people thought his servant was the Caliph of the Muslims. In any case, the Second Caliph (Umar ibn al-Khattab) reversed the 400 year Christian ban on Jews:
And from the same pro-Israeli website:
The Byzantines returned in 629 to again expel the Jews. They ruled Jerusalem until their defeat at the hands of the Muslim Arab caliph, Omar, in 638...The majority of the population was still Christian,
though the Jews were allowed to settle there. They developed two Jewish quarters: one southwest of the Temple area, and one north of it.
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/jer.html
Hundreds of years later, the Zionist Jews gave their thanks to the Muslims by expelling the Palestinians from their homes, creating the largest refugee population in the world.
But alas, I am going out of order. So Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem at the behest of the Ghassanids and allowed the Jews to return. For hundred of years, the matter was such, until the Crusaders invaded. They subsequently slaughtered the inhabitants and again expelled the Jews. From the same pro-Israeli website:
Crusaders
In 1099 the Crusaders besieged Jerusalem and, in one of history's strange ironies, the "City of Peace" was once again involved in war and bloodshed. The Christian soldiers, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, scaled the city walls and massacred the inhabitants -- Jews and Muslims alike. In order to repopulate the city, the Crusaders transferred Christian Arab tribes from Transjordan and settled them in the former Jewish quarter.
Jerusalem became the capital of the Crusader kingdom and thrived because of the concentration of all the government and church bodies there. Tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims visited the city every year, thus adding to its growth and prosperity. But the Jews were still for the most part banned, as during the previous Christian period.
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/jer.html
Then the prince of the believers, the shining knight, the exemplar, the standard bearer, the righteousness of the faith--SALADIN--came and liberated Jerusalem from the grips of the Crusaders. Unlike the Crusaders, he didn't slaughter the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Rather, he showed such restraint and mercy upon the Crusaders that his own secretaries complained and said that it was too much...Saladin allowed the Eastern Christians to stay if they so wished it, and he was merciful on the Crusaders as well, allowing them to leave for a pittance ransom, much of which he paid from his own coffers....many of the Crusaders left--escorted by Saladin's own guards who protected them--with chests full of gold (which had been stolen from Jerusalem):
They [the Crusaders] stripped the ornaments from their churches, carrying with them vases of gold and silver and silk- and gold-embroidered curtains as well as church treasures. The Patriarch Heraclius collected and carried away gold plating, gold and silver jewelry, and other arteacts from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/salahdin.html
But Saladin turned a blind eye:
Yet Saladin allowed them to do it, in order to keep his word not to bring any harm to them:
Imad al-Din was amazed at the amount of treasure that had been carried away by the departing Latins. He reports having told Salah al-Din that these treasures could be valued at 200,000 dinars. He reminded him that his agreement with the Latins was for safe conduct (arnan) for themselves and their own property, but not for that of the churches, and he counselled that such treasures should not be left in Latin hands. But Salah al-Din rejected his proposal:
"If we interpret the treaty [now] against their interest, they will accuse us of treachery...Let us deal with them according to the wording of the treaty so they may not accuse the believers of breaking the covenant. Instead, they will talk of the favours that we have bestowed upon them."
Certainly Salah al-Din's magnanimity towards the Latins contrasts sharply with the attitude of the victorious Crusaders in 1099.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/salahdin.htmlSalah al-Din assigned each group fifty of his officers to ensure their safe arrival in territories held by the Christians. One chronicler gives Salah al-Din's officers credit for their humane treatment of thc refugees, noting that these officers,
" who could not endure the suffenng of the refugees, ordered their squires to dismount and set aged Christans upon their steeds. Some of them even carried Chnstian children in their arms."
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/salahdin.html
The Christians had destroyed and ransacked the mosques. Yet, Saladin (Salah al-Din) preserved and refurnished the churches...not only that but he allowed the Byzantine patriarch to directly rule them:
Salah al-Din allowed them to pray freely in their churches, and he handed over control of Christian affairs to the Byzantine patriarch...When the Byzantine emperor received the news of Salah al-Din's victory in Jerusalem, he asked him to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Greek Orthodox Christians, a request that Salah al-Din granted.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/salahdin.html
Saladin
When the Muslims, under Saladin, recaptured Jerusalem in 1187,
the Jews enjoyed a short period of resettlement in Jerusalem. But with Saladin's death, the city remained without any stable authority and was shuttled back and forth between Christians and Muslims.
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/jer.html
And lastly:If the taking of Jerusalem were the only fact known about Salah al-Din, it would be sufficient to prove him the most chivalrous and great-hearted conqueror of his own, and perhaps of any, age.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/salahdin.html
Then the Muslim Mamluks came...from the pro-Israeli website:
Mamluks
In 1250 a new Muslim force appeared on the scene, the Mamluks, who managed to establish themselves as rulers of Jerusalem for over 260 years.
Jewish life in Jerusalem was somewhat freer under Mamluk rule than it had been with the Christians. The city remained poor but Jewish scholarship and learning thrived.
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/jer.html
Jerusalem came under the domination of the Ottoman Turks in 1517 when Sultan Selim I took it in a bloody battle with the Mamluks. His successor, Suleiman the Magnificent, left his mark on Jerusalem's history by building the present-day wall around the Old City. The construction of the wall, which took five years, made a great impression on the Jews of the time and it remains as one of the dominant architectural features of the city to this day...
http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/jer.html
Then after World War I, the British colonized Jerusalem and Palestine. Then the Zionists pressured the British to give them Palestine, and organized illegal immigration to Palestine. They founded the Jewish Colonization Agency...You see, at that time, they didn't have to be sneaky like they are today. They openly declared themselves to be colonists, because colonialism was in vogue back then. It was not only tolerated, but it was encouraged and thought of as a good thing. It was one colonist (Zionists) to another (the British).
And so the Zionists colonized the Palestinians, and the rest is history.
WHENEVER the Muslims conquered Jerusalem from the Christians, they always welcomed the Jews back; they granted the Jews the Right of Return, even though it was the Christians--not the Muslims--who expelled them from Jerusalem. Is it not interesting then that the Zionist Jews pay us back by expelling us Muslims from the holy land just like the Christians did to them! They deny us the Right of Return, even though throughout history we gave it to them.
GST, you said that all three religions find Jerusalem to be holy so how can they all live in the same place. Well, the only time that all three religions lived there in peace was when it was under Muslim rule.
As for the Jews, they've ruled Jerusalem twice, once in ancient times and today. Both times they ran the natives off of their land. As mentioned in numerous verses in the Old Testament, the Jews put the natives of Palestine to the sword, killing women, children, young and old, virgins, pregant women, infants, and even unborn fetuses...For example, let's see what they did to the people of Jericho...just for your reference:
Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Arabs.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho
OK, so how did the Israelites deal with the natives back then when they ruled the land? Let's read from the Old Testament itself (which the Jews believe in):
Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it. They completely destroyed everything in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys – everything. (Joshua 6:20-21 NLT)
And there is much more on the behavior of the Israelites:
Deuteronomy 20:13
And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword....
Deuteronomy 20:16-17
...In the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
And we see how the Jews rule Palestine today...they started by expelling half a million Palestinians. They forbid the Muslims from praying in their mosques, including restricting access to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. (Remember how the Muslims allowed the Christian patriarch HIMSELF to rule over the great Christian church!)
Originally Posted by adamw1
As someone who does not really have a religious view but does have a respect for religion i would like to say this thread is fascinating. Iv always believed religion is something you are born into depending on what side of the fence you were born so to speak and it is used as an excuse for far to many atrocities and always will be. My question is,how does your faith or any faith for that matter explain theorys on scientific evolution etc?
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oh well im a lost cause .. 
