Page 224 - Islam Denounces Terrorism

222 Islam Denounces Terrorism

The other great mosque of Omar was erected on the Temple
Mount to mark the Muslim conquest, together with the mosque
al-Aqsa which commemorates Mohammed's Night Journey.
For years, the Christians had used the site of the ruined Jew-
ish Temple as the city rubbish dump. The Caliph helped his
Muslims to clear the garbage with his own hands and there
Muslims raised their two shrines to establish Islam in the third

most holy city in the Islamic world. 20
With the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, the city became a safe
haven in which all three religions could co-exist in peace. John L.

Esposito writes:
When the Arab armies took Jerusalem in 638, they occupied a

center whose shrines had made it a major pilgrimage site in
Christendom. Churches and the Christian population were left
unmolested. Jews, long banned from living there by Christian
rulers, were permitted to return, live, and worship in the city of
Solomon and David. 21