Undoubtedly, the holy city of Jerusalem occupies an eminent position in the conscience of believers in general and Muslims in particular, for it was the homeland of our grandfather Abraham, (PBUH), the holy place of worship for the former Prophets and Messengers of Allah, (PBUT), the place to which our Prophet, Muhammad, (PBUH), the last of all of Allah’s Prophets and Messengers, was taken from Mecca on his night journey, and from which he (PBUH) was made to ascend into the heavens. In Jerusalem is Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa (The Furthest Mosque), which Allah, All-Mighty, mentioned in more than one Verse of His Holy Quran, the first Qiblah for Muslims, the second most Holy mosque (the Sacred Mosque of Mecca being the first) and the third most Sacred Place in the world (the Sacred Mosque of Mecca being the first, and the Prophet’s Sacred Mosque of Medina being the second). Travel should not be made except to it after that to the Sacred Mosques of Mecca and Medina. Allah has conferred His Divine Blessings upon its vicinity. By virtue of the holy Prophet’s night journey to it and ascension to heaven from it, the holy city of Jerusalem has become the symbol of Muslim identity.

Due to the above-mentioned facts, the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture called to an international symposium about Jerusalem and its cultural heritage within the framework of the Muslim-Christian dialogue in Rabat, capital of the kingdom of Morocco, from 19 to 21\10\1993. The Islamic organization confirmed that the purpose of the symposium is to highlight the religious, historical and civilizational importance of Jerusalem and to expose plans of making Jerusalem a Jewish city and deforming its Arabic and Islamic features. The symposium is also meant to invite Islamic, Arab and International organizations to support the cultural heritage of the city. The symposium was attended by a great number of Arab, Islamic and international personalities, some of whom were thinkers, researchers, scholars, academics, heads of the organizations, committees and establishments that are concerned with affairs of Jerusalem. Thirteen Islamic countries, one of which was the Syrian Arab Republic, sixteen international Islamic and Arab organizations, and twenty academic researchers took part in the symposium.

The symposium went along five main pivots:
First Pivot: Jerusalem along ages of history.
Second Pivot: The sacred heritage of the city.
Third Pivot: Deformation of the Islamic identity of the city and making it a Jewish city.
Fourth Pivot: Jerusalem and international organizations.
Fifth Pivot: Future of Jerusalem and the other Arab Palestinian cities under the Israeli occupation.


I had the honor of representing Syria in this international symposium; and I delivered a speech I had already prepared concerning the first pivot, namely “Jerusalem along ages of history”. The following is a summary of that speech, which was highly appreciated and warmly welcomed by all members of delegations.


Jerusalem Along Ages of History:

We, the Muslim nation, depend in our beliefs, conceptions and moral values on what the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad, (PBUH), came with from his Lord of textual Divine Revelation, i.e. the Holy Quran, or non-textual Divine Revelation, i.e. Prophetic Sunna and Tradition, which are confirmation and explanation of the Holy Quran. We also refer to his Prophetic Sunna and Tradition because they are considered as the practical implementation of his understanding of the Holy Quran, i.e. textual Divine Revelation.

Gentlemen and Ladies;
On the basis of such eternal principles and sublime moral values did Companions of the holy Prophet, Muhammad, (PBUH), set out in order to communicate Allah’s Divine Message to the whole world renewing thereby their own noble ends and using noble means for such ends. For example, Abu Bakr’s advice to the leader of the Muslim army, Usamah bin Zaid, went as follows: “Do not be untruthful! Do not act treacherously! Do not go beyond bounds! Do not deform (the dead bodies of your enemies)! Do not kill children, women or old men! Do not cut off or burn palms! Do not cut off fruit trees! Do not slaughter a sheep, a cow or a camel except for eating the flesh thereof! You will come across people who have devoted themselves (to prayer and worship) in cells and hermitages, so leave them alone with that to which they have devoted themselves…. Now, go ahead in the Name of Allah!”

Omar’s principled stance towards people of Jerusalem and the document of peace that he gave to people of Jerusalem as well as his preservation of the churches of the people of the Scripture provide clear evidence of religious tolerance of that rightly guided Caliph.

Omar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, visited Al-Qiyamah church in Jerusalem; and when it was time for prayer, the Patriarch invited Omar to perform prayer in the church, but Omar refused and went out of the church to perform prayer. Having finished prayer, Omar addressed the Patriarch, “O old man! If I performed prayer in Al-Qiyamah church, Muslims will take my prayer therein for an excuse to put hand on the church; and I decline to pave the way for depriving you of your own church, which you deserve most.”

Dr. Gostaf Lobbon said:
“When the Europeans entered Jerusalem, their behavior (towards Muslims) was completely different from that of Omar bin Al-Khattab towards Christians (when he conquered Jerusalem).” The Priest of Loboy city said, ‘When our people conquered the walls and towers of Jerusalem, they beheaded some of the Muslims and ripped open the bellies of some other Muslims; and Muslims had to throw themselves off the walls of the city; some of them were burned in the fire and died after a long time of suffering and pain. In the streets and yards of Jerusalem, there could be seen only heaps of heads, hands and legs of Muslims; and one could not walk along in the streets except on the dead bodies of Muslim inhabitants of the city, which was only some of the evil that visited them from the Europeans.”

It is narrated that the European fighters went even further in evil-doing as to hold a conference in which they decided to eradicate from the face of the earth all of the remaining Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem, whose number was about sixty thousand people, and whom they exterminated in eight days without any exceptions of women, children or old men.

Upon his conquest of Jerusalem, Sultan Saladin permitted all of the Europeans to leave it after paying a little Jizyah (head tax). Saladin’s treatment was humanitarian, for he released a great many of the Europeans from paying Jizyah and allowed the eastern Christians to remain in the city.

Imam Ibn Katheer describes Sultan Saladin’s forbearance and mercy towards Christians upon his conquest of the holy city of Jerusalem: “The Sultan (Saladin) released a great many people (Europeans), of whom were daughters of kings, women, children and men; and he also set free a lot of other people. He distributed all of the money he received from them of gold among his soldiers and did not take anything for himself, for he, may Allah have mercy on him, was very clement, forbearing, brave, courageous and merciful.”

Muslim conquerors were well-known for rectitude, straightness and humanitarianism, while the European conquerors used to wade into the blood of their Muslim victims and kill all of the men, women and children they came across in their homes or mosques sparing the lives of non of them, not even those who took refuge in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa (The Furthest Mosque); and the streets were filled with the bodies of dead Muslims and flooded with their blood. In other words, while the Europeans did all such brutal inhuman acts, none of the houses of Jerusalem were looted by Muslim soldiers and none of the Europeans were hurt. On the contrary, Muslim soldiers and policemen, in compliance with Sultan Saladin’s commands, went along the streets and checked safety of all houses in order to prevent any aggression against Christians. Also, Al-Malik Al-‘Adil (The Just King) was greatly influenced by the sight of the Christian captives and asked his brother Saladin to set free a thousand of them. Saladin granted him the captives, whom he immediately set free; and Saladin announced that he would set free all old men and women.

The European women came with tears in their eyes to ask Saladin what would happen to them after their husbands had been captured in the fight. Saladin promised to set free all of their husbands and also gave the widows and orphans grants of his own wealth. In other words, Saladin’s mercy and tenderness were in complete contradiction with the evil acts of the European invaders.

Both ancient and modern Christian historians testify to Saladin’s noble manners and character, his forbearance, and his good treatment to the European women, especially when he allowed them to get out of Jerusalem in peace and honor together with their possessions and servants.

The wife of the captive king Guy Louze Ginan was in Jerusalem. She came to Saladin and asked him to allow her to accompany her husband in captivity in Nablus; and he allowed her to do so.

Princess Atinette, the widow of Arnat, also asked Saladin to allow her to leave Jerusalem and to release her son from captivity. The Sultan honored her, allowed her to travel and released her son.

As for orphans, old men and women from among the Europeans, Saladin did not only release them without any ransom but also gave them financial aids of his own wealth.

Therefore, the difference was great and clear between what Saladin did when he conquered Jerusalem in 1187 AD and what the European conquerors did to the city and its people when it fell under their power in 1099 AD, for they killed all of the Muslims they met there. The Christian historian Ibn Al-‘Ibri said, “The European conquerors remained in the city (of Jerusalem) for a whole week during which they killed more than seventy-thousand Muslims in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa (The Furthest Mosque).”

It is worth mentioning that the danger that threatened the European conquerors of Jerusalem was not from Muslims but rather from their own brethren Europeans. No sooner did they enter the boarders of the Crusader Emirate of Tripoli than some Europeans began to attack them and drive them away to the north of Tripoli itself. But people of Tripoli were afraid for themselves and their city of such great numbers of crowds of empty-handed fugitive Europeans and, therefore, they blocked the doors of their city in their face and refused to put them up or help them with their distress. No only so, but they also looted what remained with them of the money that Saladin had given to them. In other words, the Christians of Jerusalem did not receive from their European Christian brothers even one little part of the good treatment that they had received from Saladin and his men. Therefore, they went to Antioch, where they found temporary residence.

In the light of the above-mentioned, it can be said that proper religiousness makes man a merciful forbearing fair gentle creature; and how great the need is nowadays for real human values to confine and rightly guide the destructive power that man’s mind has created.

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After other speeches had been delivered, participations and discussions had been carried out, the different aspects of the question of the holy city of Jerusalem together with its cultural and civilizational heritage had been fully elaborated, and the historical roots of the city had been confirmed, the symposium made the following recommendations:
1. The symposium confirms the Islamic nature of Jerusalem and the state of security and peace in which it remained under the Islamic rule at all times.
2. The participants call for cooperation of all efforts to maintain the cultural, historical, and civilizational heritage of the holy city of Jerusalem, which the symposium considers as a collective responsibility and humane duty that should be borne by the human community in general and adherents of the three Revealed Religions in particular.
3. The symposium requests international governments, organizations and committees to work effectively to stop the current attempts aimed at blotting out the historical and civilizational features of the holy city of Jerusalem and deforming its cultural and civilizational identity and to put an immediate end to the policy of Judaization of Jerusalem and other occupied Palestinian cities.
4. The symposium reiterates the recommendations and decisions formerly made by Islamic and Arab conferences providing all kinds of material and moral support to the educational and cultural establishments in Jerusalem in particular and all occupied Palestinian territories in general, and also to the Islamic and Christian establishments there.
5. After having studied future of the holy city of Jerusalem, the symposium reiterates that Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian State, that it is a holy city open to people of the three Revealed Religions within the framework of human co-existence without touching any of the rights of its Muslim or Christian Arab inhabitants.
6. The symposium highly praises steadfastness of the Palestinian people of Jerusalem and requests international community to provide all kinds of material and moral help to the people of Jerusalem so as to enable them to maintain the historical and civilizational heritage of their country, to support educational and scientific establishments, to protect mosques and other places of worship in their holy city being features of the cultural heritage of Jerusalem.
7. The symposium confirms the importance of the study of the present situation of the Islamic Awqaf (Endowments) and the different possessions of the churches of Jerusalem and the bad conditions they have suffered under the Israeli occupation.
8. The symposium recommends that the Islamic Organization of Education and Culture in cooperation and arrangement with UNESCO should work to preserve the cultural heritage of the holy city of Jerusalem.
9. The symposium criticizes the judgment passed by the High Israeli Court on 23\9\1993 AD putting the holy site of Jerusalem under the Israeli sovereignty, which enables the extremist group of Abna’ Al-Haikal (Children of The Temple) to get control over such holy site.
10. The symposium recommends the study of the civilizational heritage of the holy city of Jerusalem and requirements of its maintenance and preservation, which can be effected through a technical committee set up especially for this purpose.
11. The symposium calls for constant Muslim-Christian coordination and dialogue for the maintenance and protection of the cultural, civilizational and educational heritage and preservation of the sacred places of the holy city of Jerusalem.

In the end, the symposium desires to express its high appreciation and deep gratitude to the people and government of the Kingdom of Morocco for the friendly reception, gentle welcome and generous hospitality that they kindly offered to all of the participants of this symposium.