What Jerusalem Means to Us

Reviewed by: What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections ed. by Saliba Sarsar and Carole Monica C Michael Vicente Pérez (bio) What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim Perspectives and Reflections Eds. Saliba Sarsar and Carole Monica C. Burnett North Bethesda, MD: Holy Land Books (Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation), 2021. 214 Pages. The history of Jerusalem defies any single narrative. Conquered and ruled by competing forces for millennia, its story includes periods of creation and destruction, coexistence and exclusion, peace and war. The Jerusalem of today is no different. Ruled by the state of Israel since 1967, the city is experiencing yet another phase of internal conflict. For Israeli Jews, contemporary Jerusalem is a modern city of growth and opportunity. It is also the realization of their spiritual capital where the Jewish Temple of David once stood. For Muslim Palestinians, Jerusalem is a radically different city. It is a city turned against them. Governed by an apartheid system based on the goal of Judaization, their experience has been one of struggle and survival. Whether it involves home demolitions, the confiscation of land, or restrictions on religious practice, the Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem are living through another dark period of the city's latest transformations. The discriminatory nature of contemporary Jerusalem is an inescapable fact for Palestinian Muslims. It is a structure woven into the fabric of daily life that reveals the stark differences between the rights of Jews and the rights of Muslims. For this reason, the recently published What Jerusalem Means to Us: Muslim [End Page 90] Perspectives and Reflections cannot offer what it perhaps should. Troubled by the harsh realities of life under Israeli rule, this is a book that struggles to provide a view of the city's sacred meanings and ordinary treasures for Palestinian Muslims. It struggles, however, not because its authors have nothing to say beyond the Israeli occupation. On the contrary, one of the achievements of the text is to provide Palestinian Muslim perspectives that exceed it. But the text, like its authors, cannot avoid the occupation either. Jerusalem today is largely Israel's Jerusalem, and whatever the city means to its Muslims, they must contend with what Israel has made it to mean for Jews. Muslim Perspectives and Reflections is a companion to the earlier book of the same name devoted to Christian perspectives on Jerusalem. Both were published by The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation and edited by Dr. Saliba Sarsar. For this later volume devoted to Muslim perspectives, Dr. Carole Monica C. Burnett joined as co-editor.1 In this text, Drs. Sarsar and Burnett frame Jerusalem as more than a city. For them, it is a possibility for the peaceful and equitable coexistence of the three Abrahamic communities: Muslims, Jews, and Christians. And in their view, this possibility is grounded in the traditions of each religion and is necessary for protecting Jerusalem's universal character. As Sarsar and Burnett suggest in the introduction, "[t]he point is that no one country or religion should hold a monopoly over Jerusalem. Its spirit is and must remain one of faith, resilience, and hope for all humanity" (p. xxvii). The purpose of the book, of course, is much more than an argument for the coexistence of Jerusalem's diverse religious communities. It is also a statement about the particular importance of Jerusalem to Muslims told through the perspectives and experiences of those living within its walls or tied to its fate through family. Muslim Perspectives and Reflections presents twelve chapters by Palestinians with distinct relationships to the city. Some reflect the views of Palestinians who live in Jerusalem. Others are the views of Palestinians born outside of Palestine but who have visited the city. In either case, the chapters offer a set of perspectives that cover several themes in different and interesting ways. One of the most central of those themes is religion. A text concerning Muslim perspectives on Jerusalem would be little without accounts of the city's profound location within Islamic history and spirituality. Thus, several chapters discuss or reference the founding of Jerusalem as the first qibla for the Muslim community during the time of the Prophet

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