Jerusalem through the eyes of three faiths

Tension between the universal and the particular is epitomised in the divisions and unity of Jerusalem. An interfaith tour enabled RALPH GENENDE to appreciate both.

Several years ago, a group of Melbourne Jews, Christians and Muslims embarked on a journey to Jerusalem. I took part in that journey. The journey impelled me not only to reflect on my years of interfaith engagement but also to encounter firsthand the challenges and limitations and the joys and opportunities of the interaction. It was both harder and easier than I had anticipated, and it left me both less confident and more convinced about the importance of interfaith dialogue.

There is nothing better for encouraging faiths to recognise what unites and differentiates them than travelling together. And when the destination is Jerusalem, there is nothing more complicated.

Jerusalem united and divided Jews and Christians for centuries. Spiritual birthplace of Jesus, locus of his yearnings and many of his teachings, Jerusalem is also where he confronted Jewish power and the dream places of his people. It would become, over the centuries, one of the conflict points between Jews and Christians. During medieval times (especially at the time of the Crusades), it would represent not only the powerlessness and persecution of the Jews but also their "replacement" by Christianity. Since the Jews had rejected the Christian messiah, God had rejected them, made a new covenant, and chosen a new Israel.

And it was here in Jerusalem that Muslim conquerors, the Umayyads and the Abbasids, the Fatimids, Mamluks and Ottomans, would assert their dominance over the city. They too would look down on the Jews because they did not embrace Islam. Islam had supported and superseded Judaism, albeit recognising Judaism as paving the way for the Prophet.

As the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks observed, Jerusalem, as capital of the independent State of Israel, "continues to be a major obstacle to the restoration of the Caliphate, the imperial dream by al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hizballah." To arrive in contemporary Israel, to live in Jerusalem for a week with Christians and Muslims, is therefore bound to challenge and confront. And this is despite those who self-selected for the joint journey being brave enough to give interfaith, if not peace, a good chance.