May 7, 2005

The Jews should own the 'Kingdom of Heaven'

By James Arlandson
In Ridley Scott's monumental movie,  'The Kingdom of Heaven' (May 2005) (the phrase is another way of saying 'Jerusalem' in the film), the European Crusaders and the Muslim Crusaders fight over the city, with the Muslims coming out victorious. The unexpected consequence effect of the film, on me at least, is that I came away from it with a deeper conviction that neither the Muslims nor the Christians should have fought over Jerusalem. The city historically and originally belonged to the Jews; they owned it for a thousand years before Christ came and for 1600 years before Muhammad came (and when they were exiled, many came back). So it belongs to them today. It is simply a myth to assume that Muslims or Christians won Jerusalem by some kind of divine right or by an unchallenged assumption that says, 'of course they own the region.' With that said, however, the film makes an erroneous assumption. It assumes that the European Crusaders and the Muslim Crusaders stand on an equal...(Read Full Article)