c. 1999 Religion News Service
NAZARETH, Israel _ From the Anglican church compound on a hillside above this city, the black spire of the Basilica of the Annuciation rises like a compass needle directing pilgrims to one of the Holy Land’s most revered sites.
For centuries, the site has beckoned Christians who regard it as the place where the Angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary.
But a crisis now looms over the basilica, threatening both the city’s upcoming millennial celebrations and its ancient Christian legacy, Anglican Bishop Riah Abd El-Assal observed as he surveyed Nazareth from his hillside perch.
The crisis has been triggered by a Muslim demand to build a mosque alongside the basilica, damaging an age-old religious status quo in which areas around the sensitive church site were regarded as a predominantly Christian domain.”As a Christian Arab, Palestinian and Israeli, I have happily contributed to the construction of many mosques. But I am against the construction of a mosque on this site, in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation,”El-Assal said bluntly.”For 1,400 years, since the rise of Islam, we Christians have lived here with Muslims in good relations. We never imagined such a time would come when fanatics would ruin our good relations,”he added.”This (mosque) may be aimed, in one way or another, at our presence _ at the Arab Christian presence here after 2,000 years.” Displaying a rare unity of feeling, top Arab church leaders of all denominational stripes and colors have dramatically escalated their opposition to a government-brokered proposal to permit the construction of a 700-square-meter mosque on vacant land in front of the basilica _ land that had originally been earmarked by Nazareth’s municipality for a millennial pilgrims’ plaza where Pope John Paul II might even bless crowds of faithful before visiting the famous church.
Israel’s government decided Wednesday that the mosque and the pilgrims’ plaza are to be constructed side-by-side on the plot. Under the plan, construction of both structures would begin Nov. 8.
A local Muslim group has been occupying a portion of the strategic site for two years, demanding control of the entire 2,000-square-meter plot.
The burgeoning conflict has strained Israel’s relations with the Vatican on the eve of the millennium, threatening even to torpedo a hoped-for papal visit to Nazareth next March. The dispute also has kindled latent Christian-Muslim tensions in this mixed city _ tensions that erupted in riots last Easter.
At noon last Sunday (Oct. 10) in the basilica environs, the main evidence of the latent tensions was musical. The crisp tones of Western-style church bells had barely finished ringing from the basilica steeple when the loud drone of a muzzein’s prayer call began booming from a makeshift tent mosque erected on the disputed site. As Christians garbed in Western-style suits and slacks exited the basilica, about two dozen Muslim men, some wearing traditional Arab jalabiyas, or gowns, knelt and prostrated themselves inside the tent for prayer. “Muslims today are 70 percent of the city’s residents, and we want to be able to give our population the basic services, schools, hospitals … and mosques that they deserve,”said Muslim leader Ahmed Zuabi, sitting in a corner of the tent as the prayers got under way.”Look at what the Christians in this city can claim,”added Zuabi, a city council member, gesturing toward the basilica.”They have dozens of institutions and some 750 acres of land. We, in comparison, have almost nothing.” Local Muslim claims to the empty plot of land are legitimate because the land contains a small graveyard and shrine to a medieval Islamic warrior, Zuabi contended.”There are no problems between Muslims and Christians in Nazareth,”Zuabi insisted.”We originally wanted a much larger mosque, but we settled for the government offer of 700 square meters because we wanted to solve the problem.”We want to be happy with all of the world in the millennium. It’s good for all of us to celebrate. But I say to the pope, you are a man of peace. I ask him, don’t get involved in Nazareth’s problems.” Yet in a region where every stone overturned for construction is rife with political and religious symbolism, Christians clearly see the Muslim demand to construct a mosque on the site as a powerful challenge to Nazareth’s image as a Christian city.
Many privately fear the construction of the mosque in the strategic site would be interpreted as a successful power play by Muslim fundamentalists, gaining them even more political clout in the future.
Gradually, areas around the basilica might be transformed from a predominantly Christian and pilgrims’ quarter into a magnet for Islamic prayers and activity. Ultimately, some fear, that could pose a threat not only to Nazareth’s tourism trade, but also to the multicultural flavor of Nazareth.”We’re not against the construction of mosques,”said Fuad Farah, the chairman of the Orthodox National Council and a lifelong resident of Nazareth.”But why here? If this mosque is built now, it will be regarded as an act of defiance, and a victory against the whole Christian world.” Once a majority of Nazareth’s population, Christians today represent only about 30 percent of the city’s 65,000 citizens. Their numbers have been eroded by decades of emigration to the West, Farah said. He fears if the prevailing economic, religious and political trends continue, the indigenous Christian community remaining here could eventually disappear.”If things continue as they are now, the Christian community here, as a flourishing presence, may soon disappear,”Farah said.”Just imagine a holy land devoid of Christians, except for a few clerics and foreigners.” Religion is playing an increasing role in the lives of both Muslim and Christian Arabs in the Nazareth community, observes Salim Jubran, a noted secular academic. He traces the increasing emphasis on religious identity to the demise of pan-Arab and communist ideologies, which once dominated Israeli Arab society.
Yet the religious resurgence too often has been marked by a lack of sensitivity to other faiths, and a disregard for values like pluralism, said Jubran. That is the hidden issue he perceives in the Muslim demand to build a mosque alongside a sensitive Christian landmark.”The struggle in a sense is not between Christians and Muslims,”declared Jubran.”It is between fundamentalism and modernism, multiculturalism and tolerance.”DEA END FLETCHER
