The politically motivated holiness of al-Aqsa to Islam

Al-Aqsa is one of the two mosques that sits atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In this essay, Professor Mordechai Kedar of Bar Ilan University argues that the holiness of al-Aqsa to Muslims was invented to resolve political issues in 7th century Islam, some fifty years after Mohammed's death. Here's an excerpt: Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50 years after Mohammad's death. In 682 CE, 'Abd Allah