Caliph Umar Farooq found the Temple Mount to be a garbage dump for Jerusalem in the 7th century and personally cleaned and restored it!
Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times
Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac and they did love and honor each other. According to the Holy Quran, when Isaac’s son Jacob was about to die, he assembled his sons and told them to stay loyal to God of Abraham, God of Ishmael and God of Isaac. According to the Holy Quran, Jacob mentioned Ishmael before his father Isaac as he was the older brother. The Quran records this in the following verses:
The same did Abraham enjoin upon his sons — and so did Jacob — saying: ‘O my sons, truly Allah has chosen this religion for you; so let not death overtake you except when you are in a state of submission.’ Were you present when death came to Jacob, when he said to his sons, ‘What will you worship after me?’ They answered, ‘We will worship thy God, the God of thy fathers, Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, the One God; and to Him we submit ourselves.’ (Al Quran 2:133-134)
If Ishmael and Isaac could love and honor each other so can all the Muslims and the Jews and let me provide a little financial incentive.
For the fifteen million Jews Jerusalem is certainly the Mecca and so it is for the two billion Christians. One and half billion Muslims hold Jerusalem to be the third holiest place after Mecca and Medina. So Jerusalem can certainly be the tourism Mecca of the Middle East, if peace is ensured and the 21st century conveniences are provided for the travelers.
Mecca gets several million travelers a year, not only at the time of Hajj, but, year around and Jerusalem can do better as it will be attracting Christian and Jewish travelers as well.
Today, I read about Indonesia, the government will waive visa requirements for 30 countries as early as next month to boost the country’s foreign exchange income from the tourist industry, as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo broadens the size of his economic package to support the ailing rupiah. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said on Monday that the revision of the visa-free list could attract at least 1 million new foreign tourists to the country and an additional foreign exchange income of US$1.2 billion on the assumption each tourist spent $1,200 during his or her stay.
International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012.[5]
With a billion people traveling every year, sky is the limit for Jerusalem.
Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession, between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus,[2][3] but slowly recovered. International tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance of payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (€740 billion) in 2011, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8% from 2010.[4]
From left to right, top to bottom: Chichen Itza, Christ the Redeemer, Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Petra, Taj Mahal, and Colosseum.
To partake from this tourism boom, New7Wonders of the World (2000–2007) was an initiative started in 2000 as a Millennium project to choose Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments.[1] The popularity poll was led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber and organized by the New7Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland, with winners announced on 7 July 2007 in Lisbon.[2][3]
The New7Wonders Foundation claimed that more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone and the seven spots were chosen, shown in the picture above.
I read some where that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has an IQ of 180. I do not know if it was a rumor, sarcasm or reality. But, his recent electoral success and becoming the longest serving leader of Israel certainly speaks of his intellectual ability. He can certainly see that going big after trillion dollar tourism industry is worth his attention rather than quibbling over a few settlements in the West Bank or demolishing a few houses in East Jerusalem.
If he will not see the point his adversary Isaac Herzog, who could not make the cut in this election cycle will certainly see it by the time next elections become due. This could certainly be the sale pitch of the 14 Arab politicians, who became members of Israel Knesset in the election this week and became the third largest party in Israel.
Additional Reading
The Muslim Times’ Collection to Show, Islam or the Holy Quran are Not Anti-Semitic
Categories: Highlight, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Travel, Travel News