IN RESPONSE TO MY MOST RECENT POSTING ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT, a reader e-mailed:

I'm writing to you about the following from your blog:
"two ancient temples once stood.
''And that, please God, is where the temple shall rise again,'' he said.

Although I strongly support the right of people of all religious faiths
(or none) to visit the Temple Mount, I don't find that last quotation
very encouraging."


Whenever I read anything like this it reminds me of my first visit to the western wall. There, as a religious Jew, I faced the extraordinary reality of the dome of the rock - one of the most beautiful and revered buildings in the world. One can't help noticing that it is, shall we say, in the way of rebuilding the Jewish Temple.

Traditionally religious Jews must believe that the third temple will be built in that location, unless we receive a clear divine command to build it elsewhere, but most of us believe the rebuilding will happen, at that very site, only when the Messiah comes. When the Messiah comes anything can happen, so - who knows - perhaps the dome of the rock and the Jewish temple will superimpose.

There are definitely Jews (not a large number) who want to rebuild that temple as soon as possible, and to them the Dome of the rock is an immediate annoyance. Please do not assume that the person you quoted belongs to that minority. He may just, like me, long for a time in the future when religious hatred will be completely resolved and there will be no impediment to rebuilding.

The reason why I found that comment "not very encouraging" is that it can hardly be taken by Muslims as anything but "fighting words." I don't know exactly what the speaker meant; maybe he was hoping that God would put a third temple on the Temple Mount in quantum superposition with the Dome of the Rock or put them both in parallel timelines linked to the temple platform or whatever, but what would naturally occur to most readers would be that he wanted the Dome of the Rock torn down and replaced with the third temple. Who knows how selectively he was quoted by the reporter who, being a reporter, would naturally display his words prominently and not necessarily in context. But saying anything like this to the media on a newly reopened tour of the Temple Mount was, to say the least, imprudent and unhelpful.

To underline my point I refer you to a recent article in Al Jazeerah (via Protocols), which quoted "The Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan�s largest political party" as follows:

�Bush spoke during the Aqaba meeting on June 4 about sharing the holy land between Israelis and the Palestinians. What Bush meant found expression in the Zionist decision allowing Jews to enter the Islamic shrine, because historians do not recognize the existence of any holy place for the Jews in Jerusalem,� the statement said.

My italics. The Islamic Action Front is promoting a fantasy that denies a basic historical fact - the ancient Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, a fact verified by a vast amount of historical evidence - to support their political agenda. The article continues:

The IAF cautioned that allowing Jews to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque had the aim of �demolishing the Islamic shrine and rebuilding the alleged biblical temple in its place�.

My italics. Unfortunately, statements like the one from that Jewish tourist give support to this accusation and indirectly give credibility to the people who deny that there was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. When Jews and Christians call for a third temple on the Temple Mount, it can only be seen by Muslims as a provocation. It too is a fantasy, about the future rather than the past. Fantasizing about how we wish the past had been is futile: we can't change what really happened. Fantasizing about the future can be pretty futile too: what we imagine may not happen (and fantasies about what God is going to do have an especially poor track record). In the meantime there is the present to be lived in. I wish we could leave aside both fantasies and try to get along with each other right now.

AFTERTHOUGHT: No, I'm not saying that all eschatological scenarios are false. How the heck could I know that? I'm saying that such scenarios have had a lousy track record so far and if you hold to one you should hold it with humility and put some real thought into how your expression of it affects events and people in the here-and-now.