Jerusalem/Israel - The Freest Arab Press in the Middle East -
Open to All Religions - Mosques, Churches and Synagogues Full of Believers

The Jerusalem Times is published by Palestinians in Jerusalem - under Israeli rule. So do Al-Quds, Palestine Report, and others. Ironically, the only free Arab press in the Middle East is published in Israel. Arab and Iran media have their own reporters in Israel. The freedom of speech allows Arab and Iranian journalists to criticize Israel and praise Arab police states, tyrannies and theocracies.

The sole Arab parties in the Middle East participating in free elections send members to the Israeli parliament (where they use the Western freedom of speech to critisize Israel and praise Arab police states). The only freely elected Arab parliamentarians in the Middle East are members of the Israeli Parliament - in Jerusalem. The only court in the Middle East from which an Arab or a Muslim can expect justice is the Israeli Supreme Court - in Jerusalem - which is one of the most highly regarded in the world. Israel is the only place in the Middle East where an Arab or Muslim can freely criticize his government.

Moslems at Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem/Israel:


Christians visiting Omar Mosque in Jerusalem/Israel:

Churches in Jerusalem/Israel (Israeli Yellow Pages)

TREATMENT OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS (AND THE OTHER INFIDELS) IN SAUDI ARABIA, SPIRITUAL CENTER OF ISLAM (World Travel Guide):


Mecca: the spiritual centre of the Islamic world, forbidden to non-Muslims.

Medina: the second-holiest city in Islam, forbidden to non-Muslims.
Saudi Arabia prohibits Christians from practicing their religion and Jews from living in the country. Apostasy from Islam is punished with public beheading.

The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem (Daniel Pipes): "The Jewish connection to Jerusalem is an ancient and powerful one. Judaism made Jerusalem a holy city over three thousand years ago and through all that time Jews remained steadfast to it. Jews pray in its direction, mention its name constantly in prayers, close the Passover service with the wistful statement "Next year in Jerusalem," and recall the city in the blessing at the end of each meal. The destruction of the Temple looms very large in Jewish consciousness; remembrance takes such forms as a special day of mourning, houses left partially unfinished, a woman's makeup or jewelry left incomplete, and a glass smashed during the wedding ceremony. In addition, Jerusalem has had a prominent historical role, is the only capital of a Jewish state, and is the only city with a Jewish majority during the whole of the past century. In the words of its current mayor, Jerusalem represents "the purist expression of all that Jews prayed for, dreamed of, cried for, and died for in the two thousand years since the destruction of the Second Temple."

What about Muslims? Where does Jerusalem fit in Islam and Muslim history? It is not the place to which they pray, is not once mentioned by name in prayers, and it is connected to no mundane events in Muhammad's life. The city never served as capital of a sovereign Muslim state, and it never became a cultural or scholarly center. Little of political import by Muslims was initiated there.

One comparison makes this point most clearly: Jerusalem appears in the Jewish Bible 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, or 823 times in all. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion 7 times. In contrast, the columnist Moshe Kohn notes, Jerusalem and Zion appear as frequently in the Qur'an "as they do in the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita, the Taoist Tao-Te Ching, the Buddhist Dhamapada and the Zoroastrian Zend Avesta"-which is to say, not once."