"Al Quds" means "the holy place," which sounds just fine until you realize it's Ayatollah Khomeini's name for a day to whip up genocidal rage against Israel. The "holy place" they refer to is Jerusalem, which has a history going back about a thousand years BCE. Mohammed lived in 7th century Arabia, about 1,500 years after the city of Jerusalem arose. But he met (and waged war) against Jewish tribal peoples in the Arabian desert, borrowed ideas from Christianity and Judaism, and then had to discover a divine right to three holy places: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.  The first two problems were solved by conquest, including, yes, another genocide against the tribe of Qureisha. Oh, well.  The Muslim "right" to Jerusalem was solved by mythology. Mohammed flew on his horse to heaven, when he died in a tent in Arabia. But he flew from the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, so Muslims own Jerusalem, too.  Today Al Quds Day, as defined by Khomeini thirty years ago, is celebrated in...(Read Full Post)