Hagar And The Temple Mount Controversy by Gerald A. Honigman
“A surreal scene took place near the holiest place for the Jewish People…After a few words of Torah in memory of Ari Fuld, who was murdered by a Muslim terrorist, a group of people sang Hatikvah…the Israeli national anthem. The reason police arrested them was because they sang it on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem…Thanks to appeasement to the intolerant, violent, terror-laden Muslim world, Israel now has strict laws against Jews. It forbids Jews from any Jewish activities on the holiest site to the Jewish people, the Temple Mount…After we were released…when we went back to the entrance to ask what was happening, the policeman yelled at us again and pushed us out. When I told him I was not used to a policeman shouting at me and pushing me, without explaining what I had done, he shouted at me: ‘Get used to it!’ ”
Violence at the Temple Mount and Western (“Wailing”) Wall–the former’s western retaining wall which remained after Rome destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E. during the first major revolt of the Jews for freedom and independence against the conqueror of much of the known world in 66-73 C.E.–is nothing new. Openhttp://q4j-middle-east.com to see one of the Judea Capta coins Rome minted to commemorate this conquest. Previous incidents of violence make this episode at the Temple Mount appear as child’s play–except perhaps for its much deeper and even more troublesome significance.
Besides Arabs shooting at, throwing stones, and such at Jews; Orthodox assaulting non-Orthodox Jews; and so forth, in July 2017, three Arab-Israelis left the Temple Mount and attacked Israeli border police. Two were killed and two more injured.
Frequently, such violence occurs because of rumors that Jews have plans to damage or eliminate the Muslim structures of conquest placed atop what Arabs renamed the Haram al-Sharif–the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque–at or near the site where the sacred Holy of Holies was located in both the Temple of Solomon and its successor built after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, courtesy of ancient Iran’s Cyrus the Great. See what the Persian king had to say about this himself…http://cyruscylinder2013.com/2…..r-could-be/.
The Temple Mount is located on the Hebrew Bible’s Mount Moriah. And the Holy of Holies is said to sit over the site of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son with Sarah, Isaac, to show his devotion to G_d.
As Arabs would do with many other stories they only learned via the Hebrew Bible (regardless of whatever recitation–“Qur’an”–they say Muhammad heard from Allah via the Angel Gabriel, whom they also only learned of via that same Bible), which pre-date Muhammad’s sojourn with the Jews of Medina who hosted him during hisHijra(flight from enemies in Mecca) by millennia, they later replaced Isaac in this account with their own alleged ancestor, Ishmael.
Numerous, similar, thumb in the eye Islamic religious structures of victory were erected elsewhere as lands of the Dar al-Harb (Realm of War–lands of the “Infidel”) became part of the Dar ul-Islam via successive imperial Arab, Turk, and other Muslim colonizing invasions from the 7th century C.E. onwards.
Besides the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque erected atop the Temple Mount, the magnificent Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey–built on the site of the former Byzantine Greek Orthodox patriarchal cathedral after the Turks’ conquest–is another prime example, as is The Grand Masjid (Mosque) of Córdoba, built on the site of a Visigoth church in Spain (aka the invading North African Moors’ al-Andalus). Regarding that last example, and on this same wavelength, the plan to name a new proposed fifteen-story mosque near 911’s Ground Zero “Cordoba House,” rankled more than a few folks in the know.
Okay, now we’re ready to return to the Arab/Muslim alleged connection to Ishmael (Ismail) and thus also to Abraham (Ibrahim), the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif), the Western wall (al-Buraq’s Wall), and so forth…
My wife, Elisabeth, has amazed me for four decades now–for many reasons. How time flies when you’re having so much fun (please don’t shoot, Dear).
Some years ago, however, she raised a question I had thought about before but was then shoved onto the front burner of my brain by her inquiry. The recent arrest of Jews on the Temple Mount, that I opened this essay with, then told me that those earlier comments had to be resurrected and expanded upon for new readers. We’ll return to this shortly.
During the 19th century, European scholars of the Middle East–German Jews in particular–were prone to paint a picture of a tolerant Muslim world which treated non-Muslims admirably.
While it is true that live dhimmi Christians and Jews (later, Zoroastrians as well) could be a better source of continuous revenue for various imperial Muslim conquerors via special taxes and such than dead ones (but forget about non-“Peoples of the Book”–Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and so forth, who either converted or were slaughtered); and that there was no Holocaust, per se, of Jews under Muslim domination…it is nevertheless also true that such Ahl al-Kitab populations never knew what the morrow would bring.
Massacres, forced conversions, enslavement, subjugation, and so forth were no strangers in the realm of Islam. A reading of Middle Eastern Jewish scholars such as Tunisia’s Albert Memmi and Egypt’s Bat Ye’or, and Western Jewish scholars such as the late Bernard Lewis and Norman Stillman, are musts on this subject.
It seems that the early whitewash–which still continues in too many sources–was largely done to contrast an allegedly tolerant Arab/Muslim East (where Jews have been commonly known as kilab yahud “Jew dogs,” “sons of apes and pigs,” and “killers of prophets”) to a historically intolerant Christian West, complete with its inquisitions, crusades, blood libels, forced ghettoization, demonization, forced conversions, massacres, Holocaust, and branding of the Jew as the perpetually wandering deicide (G_d-killing) people.
So…what does all the above have to do with Abraham’s concubine, Sarah’s servant, Hagar?
Firstly, to reiterate, all that we know of Abraham, in general, and of Hagar and Ishmael in particular, comes via the Hebrew Bible…not Arab sources. The Torah is our one and only original source–whether transmitted to pagan Arabs via Jews or Christians whom Muhammad encountered.
Since he spent his formative years with many of the Jewish founders of the date palm oasis of Medina (earlier refugees from the Roman wars with Judea), Jews, undoubtedly, had the greatest impact.
It’s no accident that Muhammad had his followers pray facing Jerusalem at this time, and that reading the Qur’an is in many ways like reading an Arabized version of the Hebrew Bible. Jews were indeed influential in the Arabian Peninsula practically up to the dawn of Islam. Yemen even had a series of Jewish kings.
Much earlier, we have good corroborative evidence from contemporary, non-Hebraic sources that Asiatic Semitic Habiru/‘Apiru were on the move, causing headaches for Canaanites, Egyptian Pharaohs, and so forth about three and a half to four millennia ago–right around the time of Abraham.
We also know that around that same time Semitic Hyksos “Shepherd Kings” (the 15th Dynasty) conquered Egypt…probably neighbors, possibly kin to the Hebrews, who, in turn, were likely a branch of the Habiru discussed repeatedly in the treasure trove found in late 19th century Egypt–correspondence between Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (Ahkenaten) and their officers and vassals in the region contained in some 400 cuneiform Tel el-Amarna tablets, and elsewhere as well.
One of the names mentioned in Hyksos’ (native Egyptians were not Semitic) records was Yacub… Jacob, the earlier name of Israel–who asked permission of Pharaoh to bring his people into the fertile Nile Delta (“Land of Goshen”) during famine in Canaan.
Recall, much later, Hebrews would fall into much harsher times when “a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph” arose (Exodus 1:
. Some scholars say this occurred after the hated Hyksos rulers were defeated by native Egyptians. If the Hyksos looked favorably upon the growing numbers of fellow Semitic Hebrews in their midst, it’s no big stretch to see how native Egyptians would soon turn on the overthrown foreign leaders’ allies as well.
For Bible readers, recall the moving Joseph story–especially when, as an adult and a top Egyptian official, he first hides his true Hebrew identity and challenges his brethren, many of whom, out of jealousy, sold him into slavery.
After an amazing, emotional tale of reunion and forgiveness, involving his younger full brother, Benjamin (Rachel was both of their mothers), as well, Joseph breaks down and reveals himself. He next assists his elderly father, Jacob (who for years had mourned him as dead), and their extended Hebrew family, and allows them to enter the land…perhaps G_d’s plan to save the future Tribes of Jacob/Israel via the enslavement of a young Joseph in Pharaoh’s realm.
There is indeed much corroboration that such events quite possibly occurred…certainly more than is found in most–if not all–other religious histories.
As just one example, long-haired, bearded Semites are depicted on Pyramid walls bringing their flocks into Egypt. And there are multiple accounts of an official with a Semitic name who occupies a position very much like Joseph in ancient Egyptian records–even coins with the name “Joseph” on it (!!!). The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), is the ultimate reliable source for this particular account… https://www.wnd.com/2009/09/111091/. And there are others as well, such as… http://www.biblicalchronologis…..Joseph.php
So, the Biblical story of the Hebrew patriarch, Jacob/Israel, gaining permission to enter the Nile Valley, most likely occurred and happened during this time. And he was the grandson of the original Hebrew patriarch, Abraham.
Yes, you say, but others will claim that Arabs and other Muslims have their own version of all of this as well.
True, but, once again, keep the following in mind…
After Muhammad fled pagan Arab Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E., he undoubtedly learned much from the Jews. He listened to their prayers, discussions, Biblical stories, and so forth. And while the actual timing of his decision on the direction of prayer (qibla) for his followers may never be known, during his sojourn in Medina, they were instructed to pray towards Jerusalem. Early prominent Arab historians such as Jalaluddin came right out and stated that this was done primarily as an attempt to win support among the influential Jewish tribes for Muhammad’s own religio-political claims. Medina was a mixed Jewish-pagan town. Not a few modern historians have reached that same conclusion.
It is from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to Heaven on his winged horse, al-Buraq. As we’ve seen, an Islamic shrine, the Dome of the Rock, would later be erected on this Jewish holy site after the Arab colonizing, imperial conquest of the land.
Not only do many, if not most, Arabs now deny that a Jewish Temple ever existed there, they call the Western Wall “al-Buraq’s wall”– where Muhammad rested his horse (with the head of a woman) before his ascent to Heaven from the Temple Mount.
There is no doubt among objective scholars that Jews had an enormous impact on both Muhammad and the religion he founded… Period.
Hebraic Biblical stories are prominent in the Quran, and the holy sites for Muslims in Jerusalem (i.e. the shrine and mosque of conquest erected on the Temple Mount of the Jews) are now deemed “holy” precisely because of the critical years Muhammad spent in Medina with the Jews.
Not mincing words, the Temple Mount, Biblical stories of Abraham, Ishmael, the Angel Gabriel, Moses, Zakariah, etc. and so forth had no prior meaning to 7th century C.E. pagan Arabs worshipping stone idols in Mecca’s Kaaba.
While there was some early Christian influence, intense scholarship has shown that the Holy Law (Halakha) and Holy Scriptures of the Jews had a much greater influence on the Qur’an, Islamic Holy Law (Shari’a), and the like.
Muhammad’s “Jerusalem connection” was most likely not established until after his extended stay with his Jewish hosts. And, again, as we’ve already discussed, this was no mere coincidence.
As with Jerusalem, so with Islam’s subsequent supplanting of the Hebrew son of the Hebrew Patriarch Abraham and the Hebrew Matriarch Sarah–Isaac–with the allegedly “Arab” son of Abraham’s concubine, the handmaiden of Sarah, Hagar… Ishmael.
When the Jews refused to recognize Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets and chief political honcho, he turned on them with a vengeance. He decapitated the men and enslaved their women and children…So much for the rebirth of Israel in 1948 on about one quarter of one percent of the region as being the cause of Arab-Jewish strife.
Before long, with the exception of Yemen, there were virtually no Jews left on the Arabian Peninsula. And the direction of prayer was changed away from Jerusalem and towards an Islamized Kaaba in Mecca instead.
For far too long, such issues have lied dormant.
Jews have historically been trained to not rock the boat in the lands of their non-Jewish hosts–whether in the Christian West or in the Muslim East…
Sha! Shtil! (Hush! Quiet!) became the modus operandi of survival.
But this has taken a huge toll in many ways–some of the latest occurring in that den of hypocrites and numerous anti-Semites masking themselves as “anti-Zionists” (after Auschwitz, the latter term is a bit more acceptable in many circles) known as the United Nations.
Among many other travesties, one of its agencies, UNESCO, recently sided with Arabs in referring to the Temple Mount as solely a Muslim Holy site, the Haram al-Sharif, not a Jewish one…https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37697108. It also referred to the Jews’ age-old “Wailing” (Western) Wall area simply as “al-Buraq’s Plaza.”
For folks and organizations like the United Nations, flying horses with heads of women evidently have more historical value and corroboration to back up such beliefs than accounts of nations and peoples for millennia from all around the world for the historical claims of the Jews. Try reading the ancient accounts of Roman and Roman-sponsored contemporary historians such as Pliny, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, and Josephus for starters…. not to mention the Christian Gospels. Question: Does Matthew 2:1 say that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea or in Bethlehem of the West Bank?
Finally, we’re now ready to deal with the notion that Arabs are the Jews’ more-deserving cousins since they’re allegedly descendants of Abraham’s son with Hagar–Ishmael/Ismail–and that, in Muslim reality, both Jews and Christians corrupted their earlier Scriptures.
For the sake of historical accuracy, we need to be very precise. The Bible clearly states that Ishmael is the son of an Egyptian woman.
Above, while we’ve seen that Semitic culture entered Egypt as a foreign implant, it’s still an extremely far stretch to say that Hagar and Ishmael were thus Semitic Arabs and not, at least partially (in Ishmael’s case), of native Hamitic Egyptian stock instead.
It seems, just like some Jews wanted to contrast Western Christian and Eastern Muslim treatment of their brethren to make a point earlier, that later–to try to sing Kumbaya together and ease the strife between Jewish and Arab nationalisms–other Jews quite possibly (if not probably) stretched the identity of Hagar from Egyptian to Arab as well.
By the way, dear readers, do you know of anyone else discussing this stuff? Please let me know if you do. As with the Kurds (at least until recently), for quite some time, I’ve often felt very lonely…
As just one nasty example of how this is now manifesting itself, think of the large numbers of Jews on campus–“Progressive” professors and indoctrinated students–who jump at the opportunity to join groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, the BDS movement, Arab Student Union, J Street U, and so forth in one-sided bashings of Israel and Zionism…with Hillel sometimes hopping aboard as well, either directly or indirectly.
This is where a combination of ignorance and bending over backwards in the appeasement we’ve been discussing has led to.
While Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula traveled to Egypt and elsewhere, the bulk of Semites coming into Egypt were not of that origin–regardless of wishful thinking by the Arabs themselves and espousers of the Winckler-Caetani Theory…which, among other things, makes Babylonians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Hebrews, and so forth all Arabs.
Ergo, the actual claim by Arabs that, after all, the whole region is really just “purely Arab patrimony” anyway.
Given that Abraham (son of a Babylonian Chaldean Semite), surfaced in history when he did, coincidental with the Semitic Hyksos conquest of Egypt, Hagar was most likely a native non-Semitic–or Semitic Hyksos–Egyptian. She was not likely Arab–so neither was Ishmael.
When the Jews mentioned Arabs–in the few places where they did–they were not shy to call them just that.
So, Geshem the Arab appears in Nehemiah 2:19 and 6:1-6 as one of the three leaders opposing the Jews rebuilding the Temple after their return from Babylonian exile. If Hagar was Arab instead of Egyptian, the Jews would have no reason not to say so.
After the Arab imperial conquest of Egypt and much of the region some twenty-four centuries later, with the spread of Islam via its Jewish-tutored, Arab Prophet and his Caliphal successors, it was beyond convenient for Arabs to hijack and write themselves into the original Hebraic stories.
My point here has not been to argue about the validity of particular religious beliefs. That’s between people and G_d.
But when Jews themselves, in the City of David, have to cave to such nauseating consequences of others confiscating their own history and beliefs–such as those Jews recently arrested for singing Hatikvah on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon, King David’s son–the facts need to not only be revealed and proclaimed loudly for all to hear, but also effectively acted upon.
Whatever agreement/reasonable compromise may or may not be reached regarding Jerusalem and the whole of land of Israel (including Judea and Samaria), the current sickening situation where Jews must consent to being virtual strangers to their own original most holy of sites in their own land must come to an end.
A much more reasonable solution, addressing the needs of both parties to the conflict, must be worked out if possible…meaning that Israel can actually find a true partner for a real peace which does not see negotiations merely as a Trojan Horse to help further the Arabs’ destruction-in-stages, post-’67 War agenda that the latter day Arafatians still openly espouse. Listen to what they tell their own people in Arabic (MEMRI, referred to above, will help here)–not what they sometimes say to a frequently all-too-willingly gullible West.
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