Letters: May 7, 2001

The City of God

"What Jesus saw was a doomed city, now buried under many tons of debris from constant rebuilding." TED HIRSCHFIELD Lehigh Acres, Fla.

The historical overview of Jerusalem from ancient times to the present was exceptional [JERUSALEM AT THE TIME OF JESUS, April 16]. I was struck by the fact that of the three great religious groups--the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims--only the Muslims welcomed followers of the other religions back to Jerusalem to coexist and to worship the one true God common to all three at their holy places. The followers of Muhammad were the only ones who respected in practice the other religions in the Holy Land. Today Pope John Paul II carries on this great Islamic tradition by promoting Jerusalem's becoming an open city. PATRICK R. HUGHES Seal Beach, Calif.

It is sad that the city of peace has seen so much violence from religions based on peace and love. The first Crusaders killed thousands of inhabitants of Jerusalem and bragged about it. And the killing goes on to this day--Jews killing Muslims, and Muslims killing Jews. People are people, however, and we all bleed the same. The continuing violence makes a strong case for the internationalization of Jerusalem. We all worship the same God, whether we call him Adonai or Jesus or Allah. I pray to this God that he help his people choose the path of peace in the city of peace. Let's stop killing in the name of God. RIAZ A. HAKEEM Sugar Land, Texas

Why not put an end to the constant bickering and bloodshed and make Jerusalem the capital of the U.N.? Draw a boundary around all the sacred sites and use U.N. forces to patrol the city and maintain law and order. RON MLEJNEK Hastings, Neb.

Your history of Jerusalem was wonderful and accurate in its acknowledgment of the authenticity and peacefulness of Islam. For many years, whenever the word Muslim or Islam came up, the topic shifted to terrorism. This stereotypical approach to the world's second largest and fastest growing religion has plagued Western minds. Congratulations on allowing many minds to know that Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion. AARON BROWN Jersey City, N.J.

Your report on Jerusalem helped me put many disjointed tidbits of information I had mentally gathered over the years into a concise portrayal of events during a 2,500-year period. Congratulations! As an amateur London tour guide, however, I believe historical-geography professor Joshua Schwartz meant to compare ancient Jerusalem's Temple steps not to London's Hyde Park Corner but to the famous Speakers' Corner, where "scholars would be teaching and would-be prophets would be preaching." MICHAEL EGAN Riverside, Conn.

--The skeptics among you took an especially dim if not downright hostile view of our reporting on Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. "A healthy percentage of your readers probably couldn't care less what Jesus saw or did," griped a Kansan. "Report on Jerusalem today, and leave the theology to someone else." "How nice to have news of the upcoming holiday!" a Wisconsin reader said sarcastically. "If Jesus is on the cover, and it's snowing outside, it must be Christmas. If it's raining, it must be Easter." And a man from Ohio wrote, "Jesus may sell magazines, but what a waste of time! Why not cover little green men from Mars? That will sell magazines too."

Defusing the Crisis