So what if prophet ascended to heaven from Jerusalem

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Apr 3, 2011 at 05:23

Dear Dr Pipes:

Your reader Sara and many others assert that since it is believed that Muhammad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem, Muslims somehow have a huge claim on Jerusalem. If a guru of mine chooses to go to heaven from Mecca, do I get a right on Mecca? That a non-muslim guru will not even be allowed to enter Mecca, let alone die there and ascend to heaven from there makes it even more difficult for anyone else to make Mecca sacred to them. For one reason or the other valuable icons of other cultures and religions --remember Hagia Sophia, Ayodhya, Cordoba, and New York's proposed Cordoba house-- have to be made more sacred to Islamists non-muslims are extended no freedoms in Islamic countries. Hypocrisy of some people knows no bound.

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