Monday February 12, 2007

Column:

On the one hand - there is reality. On the other hand - there are myths. In the Muslim Middle East it is hard to tell which is which. Myths, in the right hands, can have a powerful effect on the people. Reality, truths, is more easily sloughed off.

Often, myths beget conspiracies, conspiracies beget hoaxes. Right now, today, a hoax is brewing in the Muslim world.

Muslim leaders and their disciples, the Arab press, have several pet myths, stories that they perpetuate and perpetuate and perpetuate. One myth tells of the dangerous encroaching West out to destroy the entire Arab world. Another tells of dangerous Israel, a threat to the very foundation of Islam. Most modern Muslim myths center about the intent of the rest of the world, the non-Arab world, to annihilate the entire Muslim Arab world.

Often, hoaxes beget violence. Often, hoaxes get out of control and the result is mayhem - political and physical mayhem. Right now, today, we are on the verge of mayhem. Right now, because of the myths perpetrated by Muslim leaders, Muslim religious adherents are on the verge of rioting and rioting in the Muslim Middle East leads to deaths.

The hoax that is now fueling the fire of the Muslim world centers on the ramp or bridge to the Mugrabi gate.

The rubble ramp was constructed by Israel in 1969 as an access approach for curious non-believers wanting to visit one of the sites holy to both Muslims and Jews. Composed of earth and stones, it was the passage way to the mount top. Once upon a time, the gate was at ground level. But after 1967, when control of the area was in Israeli hands, Israel lowered the ground to the level it had been at 2,000 years ago and new access to the gate was required. And so, voila, the ramp was built.

The ramp leads to the place Genesis 22 calls Moriah, it leads to the Temple Mount where the Temple of Solomon, the first Temple, once stood and where the remains of Herod's Temple, the second Temple, still stand. Today, atop the Herod-made platform is the shrine of The Dome of the Rock and the al Aqsa Mosque. The ramp sits above the Western Wall.

Lowering the ground and leaving the ramp allowed for an awesome view of the walls of the Temple that Herod built. The dimensions of the Temple were 250 yards wide by 500 yards long and as high as 11 stories. When the Israelis lowered the ground they created a large public forum exposing the Western Wall and showcasing a building that was constructed with stones weighing as much as 200 to 400 tons. Even average size stones used in the building weighed in at 70 tons and small stones are a mere 5 tons.

From 1969 until now the path to the Mugrabi gate had an earthen ramp sloping down from the gate creating an access to the al Aqsa mosque. The path is falling apart and the Israelis decided that repairs to the walkway are called for and so they consulted and coordinated with the Wafq, the Islamic Trust that is in charge of religious activities at the Temple Mount and even with Jordan. And now Muslim leaders are calling for their people to ready themselves for war in order to protect Muslim holy sites.

Muslim leaders have morphed the repair of a well-traveled walkway into an excuse to revive the myth of dangerous Israel threatening the very foundation of Islam - this time not just figuratively, but also literally.

Truth is, Israel is not even touching the outer walls of the Temple Mount let alone the mosque. Israel is simply building a more stable ascent to the Mugabri gate. Actually, nothing is simple when it comes to building or changing or leveling anything in the ancient city of Jerusalem. Even though revamping the ramp is not a conventional archeological dig, it is a salvage dig, all the earth that is moved must be sifted and photographed and documented. This ground has not been disturbed in 2000 years. And while the intention is not to dig and learn about the past but rather to improve the current above ground situation, standard rules of archaeological digs must be followed to make certain that nothing significant from the past is lost or destroyed.

But truth has very little to do with this. Myths and hoaxes are what the people believe. The myth surrounding the Mugrabi ramp will unite the Muslim world in anger against Israel. It is being used to foster hatred not to encourage hope.

This same myth turned hoax has been revived and resurrected several times in recent years. This is the myth of the tunnel wall excavations of September 1996 that sparked riots when the Muslim world falsely accused Israel of digging under the Temple Mount and eroding the foundation in order to find the secrets buried below. This is the myth of the 2000 Sharon visit to the top of the Temple Mount, the myth that ignited the second Palestinian Intifada with claims that the soon-to-be prime minister was on top of the Mount in order to stake Israel's claim over the Mount when really the Intifada had been planned and the Sharon visit gave Muslim leadership the excuse they had been waiting for.

And this is the myth of the cartoon depiction of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in the Northern European press and rocked the world. Muslim masses were fomented into anger and violence and riots by their leadership. Most of the people rioting had never seen the so-called sacrilegious depictions, many rioters were not even literate. Embassies were burnt, people trampled to death. Evidence of the hoax is that the caricatures appeared in the press on September 29 and Muslim news agencies did not send out the call for revenge until January.

Once a myth has been disseminated there is no taking it back, no changing it, no correcting it. No evidence to the contrary and no testimony will ever persuade a believer that he has been led astray. Refuting a myth heightens a sense of conspiracy which fuels the intensity of the hoax. And that is what keeps Muslim leaders in power.