Dome of the Rock

I feel like wherever we go places, I always notice the things we don’t talk about. Like today: almost every building we entered into, whether it be a restaurant, school, the home of the mayor, or just a home, there was a photo of the Dome of the Rock hung up, usually in a nice frame. This surprised me. As far as I understood, the Dome of the Rock isn’t really the most important site for the Muslim religion.Even Jerusalem isn’t as important as Mecca or Medina- at least, that’s what I remember from my slight knowledge of Islam, which could be wrong. In any case, seeing those photos really got me thinking. Why would so many have this photo?

The reason that I thought of was more political (although that isn’t the exact word I’m looking for) than religious. The Dome doesn’t just represent the place where the Prophet went up to heaven. It represents Jerusalem. For those living in Palestine, having a picture of the Dome reminds them of their goal: to get their homeland back. Encompassed in that one picture is not only religion, but politics (like everything else). The Dome is the only real thing that they control in Jerusalem (and even then, it was given to them by the Jews). Therefore, the Dome helps remind the Palestinians that they will (hopefully, in their mind) regain Israel/Palestine once more.

Of course, I’m not Palestinian, so I could be just making stuff up. This is just what I personally gathered from what I saw.

Hannah