Islam and Peace
The Policy of Peace in Islam How to attain normalcy in Jerusalem
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city, they cannot worship God in the proper sense
of the word.
If the condition for visiting this sacred place were
that only that person or group could visit it who
enjoyed political dominance there, Jerusalem would
be turned from a place of peaceful worship into a
battlefield. As political power can be wielded by
only one religious group at a time, the other two
groups, who are not in power, will constantly be in
opposition to it. In this way, a place which should
remain perfectly ‘tranquil’ will be eternally rent by
clash and confrontation. As a result, not even the
group in power will have the opportunity to
perform its religious rites in peace.
This is indeed a very practical and important
question which demands a serious rethinking. I
would like to deal here briefly with the position of
Islam in this matter.
The first indirect reference to Jerusalem appears in
the 17th surah of the Qur’an. It says: ‘Glory be to
Him who made His Servant go by night from the
Sacred Mosque to the distant Mosque, whose
precincts We have blessed” that we might show
