First They Came for the
Mosques, but I Was Not a
Muslim
By Dallas Darling
When Israeli Defense Forces responded with tear gas, rubber
bullets, and arrests towards neo-nonviolent Palestinians who
were trying to prevent Jewish extremists from entering the AlAqsa Mosque compound, it was mindful of Pastor Martin
Niemoller’s poem: “First they came for the communists, and I
did not speak out-because I was not a communist.” Pastor
Niemoller was a German minister who witnessed disappearances
and atrocities during the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. By
the time he tried to speak-out and criticize the Nazi’s,
though, it was too late. He, along with millions of
Communists, Socialists, Gypsies, Jews, Pacifists and other
opponents of nazification, was sent to a concentration camp.
The al-Aqsa Mosque is located at the south
Mount in Jerusalem. The mosque commemorates
night journey to heaven on horseback. It
minbar, or pulpit, that was commissioned
end of the Temple
Prophet Mohammed’s
also contains the
by Saladin around
1190. At the time of the creation of the Israeli state in
1948, the city was divided, but Israel seized all of it in the
1967 Six-Day War.(1). Since then, the al-Aqsa Mosque and
Temple Mount have been a source of conflict. Recently,
Palestinians also clashed with Israeli forces in the West Bank
town of Hebron near the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Their march
against Israel’s plan to renovate two holy sites in the
occupied territory was declared illegal. Israeli troops fired
tear gas and stun grenades wounding several demonstrators.
Although Jews and Palestinians revere the Hebron heritage
site, which is the burial place of the biblical patriarch
Abraham, it too has been marked with discord. Israeli
officials just announced that the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron,
and the Masjid Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem, are
“Jewish Heritage” sites. Israelis worship in a part of the
Ibrahimi Mosque that has been converted into a synagogue.(2)
On February 25, 1994, a U.S.-born Jewish extremist, Baruch
Goldstein, massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers in the mosque.
Some Palestinians have claimed that occupation authorities
have prevented prayers and worship in the mosques.
Regrettably, Zionist groups in Israel have called for the
elimination of all non-Jewish religious symbols and presence
in Palestine.
The actions taken against Islamic mosques under Israeli
occupation comes on the heels of Switzerland’s referendum
banning construction of minarets. Some in Switzerland believe
the tall slender towers attached to mosques, where people are
summoned to prayer, are unsightly. During the U.S.-Iraq War, a
number of Islamic mosques were either damaged or completely
destroyed. Images of U.S troops “verifying the kill” of
wounded insurgents in some mosques still resonate throughout
the world. It is reminiscent too of mosques and museums that
were destroyed throughout Palestine in 1948 as part of a
policy to destroy national identity. Some mosques were even
used as detention centers, while others were converted into
synagogues, night clubs, and restaurants.
In her book “Occupied Voices,” Wendy Pearlman details the
story of Muna, a Palestinian mother living in the occupied
West Bank. During the second neo-nonviolent Intifada, her 15
year-old son was shot to death by an Israeli sniper. Muna
said, “We are people. We are human beings. We raise our
children, and we are tired. If the world had a conscience,
then it would stand with us. Our goal is to free our country
so that there are no more settlers in our land, no more
roadblocks, nothing to prevent us from going to Jerusalem…I
want to send a message to the whole world that our people must
live.” Perhaps life begins by first acknowledging and revering
those of different faiths and cultures, including their
historical and religious sites.
After his release from a concentration camp, Pastor Niemoller
was remorseful for not doing more in helping the victims of
Nazi aggression. He condemned extreme nationalism, patriotism,
and militarism and became a vocal proponent of Pacifism. It
seems that these ideologies-along with extreme secularism,
materialism and militant types of democracies and corporate
globalization that are being forcibly imposed onto others-are
still diluting monotheistic faiths and spirituality. In truth,
they have become like gods, demanding total obedience to the
State and a blind allegiance to the perpetual cycle of
violence and retaliation.
As hundreds of Israeli soldiers lay siege to the al-Aqsa
Mosque, and as Palestinian youth use the minarets to call for
prayers and support, can Pastor Niemoller’s “First they came…”
poem be applicable to Palestinians and their sacred heritage
sites? If so, “First they came for the mosques, and I did not
speak out-because I was not a Muslim. Then they came for the
churches, and I did not speak out-because I was not a
Christian. Then they came for the Temples, and I did not speak
out-because I was not a Hindu or Buddhist. Then they came for
the Synagogues, and I did not speak out-because I was not a
Jew; Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak
out for me.”
– Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading
on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations
Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism,
Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John‘s
Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity:
Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and
Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can
read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and
wn.com//dallasdarling. He
PalestineChronicle.com.
contributed
this
article
to
Notes:
(1) Brockman, Norbert C. Encyclopedia Of Sacred Places. New
York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. p. 130.
(2) Ibid., p. 131.
(3) Pearlman, Wendy. Occupied Voices, Stories of Everyday Life
From The Second Intifada. New York, New York: Thunder’s Mouth
Press/Nation Books, 2003. p. 84-85.