By Judi McLeod
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Bethlehem is the birthplace of the Messiah, but Nazareth where he grew up is his hometown.
Steeped in history, majestic in nature, Nazareth is one of the most important Christian holy sites anywhere in the world. It doesn't have to be Christmas for the human imagination to see the sandal-wearing apostles of Christ walking the streets of the age-old City of the Holy Family.
The Christmas season of 2006 heralded the harbinger of a coming new Nazareth, agents of which inexorably began rewriting history's main story
On New Year's weekend the quiet streets of Nazareth exploded in a militant march by Islamic groups.
The Islamic Movement, the main Muslim political party in Nazareth, said its members took to the streets in a march to celebrate Eid ul-Adha, or the Feast of the sacrifice, which commemorates the Muslim belief Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. Christian and Jewish faiths believe it was Isaac, not Ishmael, whom Abraham almost sacrificed.
But it is not just Abraham whose role is being rewritten in Muslim.
The march coming so soon after Christmas Day and the Dec. 28th Feast of the Innocents, commemorating the legions of baby boys killed by an enraged King Herod seeking the infant Christ, was symbolic in nature.
The modern mosaic was breathtaking in its boldness. Christians and tourists hid behind shutters as Islamic Movement leaders marched down Nazareth's main street, hoisting their party's green flag. Young Muslim men decked out in battle gear paraded and beat drums as a loudspeaker blared out the words in Arabic, "Allah is great."
Hundreds of activists screamed out Islamist epithets, including "Islam is the only truth" and "Islam shall rule all."
At one point the marchers confronted three Christian shopkeepers, but stopped short before taking the confrontation further.
Tens of thousands of cheering Muslims flooded the streets to watch as the parade passed along.
More than 2000 years later, Christians are a minority in the town where Christ spent his childhood.
"The Islamic parties, once in the minority, are now one seat away from dominating Nazareth's city council." (Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily January 1, 2007).
During the last elections, Muslims on the streets were openly threatening the Christians, trying to stop some of the Christian cars from making it to the polling booths.
Due to fear of reprisal, many incidents of Muslim violence go unreported.
In October 2000, the Arab Christian mayor of Nazareth, Ramiz Jarisy, was reportedly beaten by members of the opposing Islamist party.
Not so long ago, travel brochures described Nazareth as "a city with a population of 60,000 half Christians and half Moslems living together in harmonious co-existence."
Those were certainly the days before 1998, when Israel approved a local Muslim request to build a mosque in front of the Church of the Annunciation.
The Church of the Annunciation, which began construction in 1909 completed in 1966, houses the Grotto of Annunciation when Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary with the news that she would become the Mother of Jesus. Millions of tourists flock to the church, which is the largest in the Middle East.
Muslims wanted to build their mosque at an adjacent, 6,500-square-foot site, which they say is the burial place of a nephew of Saladin, the Muslim commander who led the army that defeated the Crusaders in 1187. A public school had originally stood on the site.
Christians charge that the site was not previously considered holy by Muslims and that the planned mosque was meant mainly to overshadow the church.
"Dave Parsons, a spokesman for the International Christian Embassy, said the proposed mosque might contain multiple spires that would tower over the Annunciation Church's large, black-coned dome." (WorldNetDaily, Jan. 1, 2007).
Trouble came to stay in Nazareth when in 2002, Israel rescinded permission to construct the mosque following worldwide outcry and protests from the Vatican and White House.
Nazareth Muslims temporarily occupied the site and erected a tent mosque, while Islamic Movement leaders demanded Nazareth officials deed the property over to local Muslim authorities.
Muslims have been holding regular prayer services at the site throughout the week, usually drawing large numbers of worshippers on Fridays, ever since
Christmas 2006 was a sad one for Nazareth.
For centuries Nazareth has been the Christian centerpiece of the Holy Family, the place where Christ spent his first 20 years on earth.
Will historians someday record that the beginning of the end of Nazareth started to take place in the Christmas season of 2006?
By dint of architecture, one structure can always be built to out shadow another. But it takes much more than bricks and mortar to make Jesus of Nazareth fade from the human heart.