This disaster provides an opportunity for Christians and Muslims to reflect upon their common humanity.
The world watched as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned, due to a disastrous inferno that nearly crippled the 850-year-old church. Nearly 3,000 miles away, the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem also dealt with an apparently accidental fire of its own.
Thankfully, two of the Catholic holy relics in Notre Dame—the Crown of Thorns and the Fragment of the Cross—survived the devastating blaze. No news outlets have reported any damage to al-Aqsa, which was built on the Temple Mount, known as Haram esh-Sharif to Muslims. A similar kind of symbolism holds true for Muslims and their connection to al-Aqsa. The mosque is much more than a place that holds the five daily prayers. Like Notre Dame, al-Aqsa has a complex history of religious tension, warfare and occupation. Originally built by Caliph Umar on the grounds of a former Byzantine building, al-Aqsa was imagined as a continuation and perfection of Judaism and Christianity.
The fire at al-Aqsa ignites feelings among Muslims that are similar to the feelings of Christians who watched the inferno at Notre Dame Cathedral. Both of these holy sites capture the diversity of both Christianity and Islam as well as the good and the bad of our common humanity. These places of worship symbolize the battleground of civilizations, the glories of revolutions, the emergence of nation-states and empires, as well as the struggle for liberty and independence among oppressed peoples.
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