Jerusalem: Three religions, three families | Faith Matters

[Music] for almost a century Arabs and Jews have fought for control of the Holy Land Jerusalem is sacred to all three monotheistic religions Judaism Christianity and Islam and here politics and religion are profoundly linked all three religions associate the city with their core beliefs so how do those who live here cope with this tense situation [Music] for Christians Jerusalem is the city where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on the site where these events are believed to have happened for Jews Jerusalem is the holy city that God has given them the Western Wall is all that remains of the second temple destroyed by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago where the temple once stood al-aqsa mosque now rises into the heavens after Mecca and Medina this site in Jerusalem is the holiest in Islam the Dome of the rock is built on the spot where Muhammad is believed to have ascended into heaven [Music] in the old city which covers less than one square kilometre the three religions live side-by-side in clearly defined districts all three view Abraham as their father and they all believe in the same God but there are differences [Music] there's also the political dimension in 1967 Israel occupied East Jerusalem and it's here that a mountain of contention lies the elevation that the Jews called Temple Mount and Muslims al-haram al-sharif we are struggling him politically to run our boat to get the most validity from all the different countries Europeans America etc because we have the Arabs nation against us homeboy you know so we always feel it we always have our finger on a pulse the Jewish state is trying to have all the cake for their onset there yourself this is difficult this might make some words [Music] the Syed's are Arabs and devout Muslims today the women of the family are going together to pray at the nearby Dome of the rock Henan is the eldest of the three girls their father Yasin considers it his duty to bring up his daughters according to the Quran Arabs call it al Haram al-sharif the noble sanctuary and that's exactly what it is to the sides from an early age the children have been introduced to the religion of their parents in this sacred place this is where the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have ascended into heaven on a winged horse to receive Allah's Commandments in what Muslims refer to as his Night Journey after prayers the family goes out into the old city Yasin works here in a restaurant freshly squeezed pomegranate juice is on sale all over Jerusalem for the girls it's a nice treat before they meet their father and accompany him on his way home from work here in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter the cry of the moussine calling the faithful to prayer echoes through the narrow alleys five times a day [Music] Yassin is a devout Muslim even though he doesn't pray five times a day he has a strong connection to his religion you know when I wake up in the morning I say Ya Allah in the way of God so never mind which direction I choose but I say in the name of God I by beginning my day at the other end of the old city on Mount Zion live the Goldstein's an Orthodox Jewish family before the evening meal the girls sang hih Vanya Raquel Rivka and Esther have time to play the boys Moshe and Shlomo helped their mother Shoshanna in the kitchen their father rabbi Goldstein has just arrived home being able to live here with his family is very important to him I live here Mount Zion has got prophesized the Jews will come back to mount on then we there and this is part of the gift of God created the world and he promised and his Bible to give it back to the Jews those promises be fulfilled basically the people in this area most of them are very religious and their religion is that core of the existence that's a primary in the life as their religion and the only way that the people he live is because people have the necessity to live and part of living is they have to they have to relate to one another and business and different relationships which requires life and therefore in those aspects they relate to each other with respect then with the cover of honor and peace but when it comes to the point of one religion is a comfort with life because I want to protest or say a statement in different situations or different timings so then the same person which is your friend or you worker or your boss it can be a totally different person and they can come to the level of violence and even to the level of killing the culture here the middle-east culture is not where you come from it's a total different culture totally different culture the religion is a primary honors primary values you come from the world of the Western world which is a physical and there's more wealth so so people talk about love and care but when you come from more of a survival society the values are honor religion it's a total different world here describes that world took me to obey God's commandments share with others help my mother and make God happy in synagogue there are Torah readings on three days of the week on the Sabbath on Monday and on Thursday the service begins early in the morning according to Orthodox tradition at least 10 males over the age of 13 must be present a Jewish boy is considered spiritually mature at 13 a new section of the Torah is read out each week so that the first five books of the Bible the law of Moses are read each year in their entirety the women are separated from the men and participate silently what does Rabbi Goldstein think is the essence of religion I would say a few things a few steps number one is the Jewish religion is built and a very very strong foundation the Bible claims that a few million Jews saw God and stayed alive and continued on the dista fire that's there something very powerful that nobody can deny rabbi Goldstein also believes that all God's prophecies have been fulfilled so far this proves that the scriptures are true he says and that God has chosen the Jewish people what would he say if one of his children wanted to marry someone from another religion my first reaction will be as I see if it's serious I will try to convince the other spouse to become Jewish to accept the Jewish religion and my second thought will be that if example it is my door go into the Jewish religion if the mother is Jewish and the father's not Jewish the children are still Jewish so our focus very much to keep the relationship with that with the husband because my goal be is children because it's Trojans to Jewish easier to understand and by Jewish religious people which train kids from very young age the Jewish values back to the Muslim Quarter how are the Syed's bringing up their children their daughters mean everything to them what do they want to pass on to them to be humans how to be humans how to to grow up in good with good and enough experience in life Hanan is 13 and Doha 11 the elder sister already knows what she wants to do when she grows up to go to university become a lawyer with regard to their daughter's education the science are very modern and open-minded at school the children come into contact with other religions this young open-minded generation may hold the key to better relations between the communities however reconciliation would hardly be possible without the religious leaders also wanting it and that is not always the case in a small mosque in the old city Imam Haj Rabia el bakry makes ready to say his prayers how would he describe his religion to an outsider islam to surrender for god Moose's message was until the time of Jesus when Jesus came the message of Moses is end we have no more religion of Moses you have to believe in Jesus now every human beings believes in the message of Jesus until the Prophet Muhammad came when the Prophet Mohammed Azharuddin came he came with the Quran the Quran collect all the messages which has been before by Moses and by Jesus so after Muhammad Ali salat WA Salam everybody should believe in the message of Muhammad which is the Quran however there are various interpretations of the sacred writings yeah Singh's wife comes from Jordan his relatives arranged the marriage Islam rejects the notion that the Jews are God's chosen people it fused the Christian notion of a Trinitarian God as blasphemous nevertheless Yasin gets along well with Jews and Christians but what would he say if one of his daughters wanted to marry someone from another faith I was in either Hickam Muslim or no it's not allowed in our religious how did Christians live in the old city close to the seventh station of the cross on the border between the Muslim and Christian quarters live the Shahada the father is a cook and treats his family to his culinary skills today there's lamb with almonds on the menu the Shahadah Tsar Arabs and devout Christians only Christians live in this apartment building although it's in the Muslim Quarter the Shahada is flat looks out onto the colorful alleys of the bazaar [Music] rooty Shahada is a nurse at a Children's Hospital today she has a night shift but that doesn't bother her I love my job in a few words that real I love my job I don't mind who they are what they are you know the Hospice of their penty Muslim Christian Jewish even other religious Antartica is as nothing said therefore everybody is the same the residents of Jerusalem are generally helpful and respectful towards each other but when it comes to religion tensions suddenly surfaced some people even get angry about their own religion every story had had the mission of the story had something that we have to say a life that we have to say to see in how great Jesus is I can't say there's a special part you know but what I don't like what I don't like in Jesus story that when he tell there when somebody hits you on your left turn him on your life all right so our face will be like your fan you know this way you know the Jewish problem part of Israel the most difficult thing to love is your enemy but like what Jesus said that you have to love your enemy what's very different difficult for us because we are occupied and we have a lot of enemies so we're trying to love our enemies as much as we can elvira wants to go to university and become a chemist however in a city like Jerusalem where even children are drawn into political and religious tensions she's anxious about her future now I'm living my life but in the future what will happen if we have a lot of fights with the other religion like how we will live in a lot of rare place work with killing I will live we will live happy yeah how would God tell us like to live happy and we have a lot of fighting lot of things coming through us like it I hope in the future it will be more better than what I think like what is today to be really hard for them really really hard [Music] for example I will not I will not allow my daughter now she's now 17 she would get married he gives later and unaware but I will not expect to marry another furniture looking east from jerusalem you can see the seven meter high wall that Israel has built to enclose the Palestinian territories those territories include the West Bank and part of the Judean Desert in the six-day war of 1967 Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank as well as Gaza the Palestinians want to see the pre-1967 borders reinstated and the recognition of an autonomous Palestinian state this political conflict is inseparable from the diversity of people's and their centuries-old religious conflicts father Josef Suk beanies sees little progress glider in orient isn't very lagoon and sadly religions are sometimes a source of division in the Middle East rather than a basis for living together among the people of the Middle East religious feelings are the most sensitive in finding food damn it can man fear so they can easily be played upon and manipulated sometimes we suffer from the fanatical Orthodox Jews as well as from fanatical Muslims but the political question is the most important what will the Israelis trade for peace will they give up East Jerusalem will they return Palestine to its pre-1967 borders yes everybody has their rights we are all humans God's creation that's the Christian view when we in the church talk with others it's about peace about the rights of both nations the Jewish people and the Palestinian people both have rights the reality that we experience is that peace is a long way off isn't your fight Vic for freed a model for how diverse cultures and religions can coexist peacefully is the little village of never shalom wahad al salam midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem the name is a combination of Hebrew and Arabic and means oasis of peace Evie Guggenheim a Swiss Jew met the Palestinian Muslim is beta at an intercultural workshop here in 1988 years later they married and they have made never Shalom wahad al salam their home founded by the French priest Bruno SR in 1967 the spiritual center at never Shalom waha Al Salam welcomes both Arabs and Jews people from various cultures and religious backgrounds meet up here in an effort to understand each other in their faith in the school of peace we've observed encounters between people that give me some hope in this dead-end situation gossiping [Music] I think the feeling towards the others all the negative attitudes all the what we call the fundamentalism it's not belong to religion its belong to the psychological social attitude of the person we use our religions to be a fundamentalist we are not not the religion in speaking the main concept of all religions and especially the three military technologies it's based on peace there's a place on the village slopes where everyone is welcome to pray in silence or to meditate the name of this building is dunya Sakina dunya in Hebrew Sakina in arabic it means deep silence Satan the Schrag silence is the common language of all religions because god's word abides in silence let's vote courtesan you know when I see Jerusalem it's part of paradise Jerusalem it's part of paradise when it will be shallow peace the people will have paradise over here Jerusalem Beth's house of God so house of burden except everybody Jerusalem has a unique symbolic significance politically and religiously and can't really be compared with any other place on earth 3,000 years ago King Solomon built the first Jewish temple here as the city of the temple Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish faith but since then it has been subject to various cultural and religious influences the claims of individual groups that the city belong to them alone have repeatedly been the cause of war in spite of all the failed road maps and diplomatic initiatives the conflicting parties say they want peace and there is a real possibility they could achieve it but for that to happen two nations and three religions would have to become reconciled [Music] you [Music]

Channel: DW News

Views: 2,699,362

Rating: 4.6015325 out of 5

Keywords: Jerusalem, Jews, Christians, Muslims, tensions, religion, faith matters, dw, deutsche welle

Id: 3inhQffPlAI

Length: 26min 6sec (1566 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 01 2015