Islam: The Untold Story Page #3

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they followed a guide or instructor.

But, in general, their understanding

of what the Arabs believed

was deeply confused.

Was it a form of Judaism

or some kind of Christianity?

Did they have a whole new religion

of their own?

For the Jews,

as well as for the Christians,

these are people

coming from the desert.

They don't know who these people are.

They don't really know what

they believe. They hear things.

But perhaps there was a clue.

At first, the new Arab rulers

seemed closer to the Jews.

They weren't interested

in the Christian holy places.

Instead, they began praying on

the ruins of the old Jewish Temple.

All this only added

to the Christian sense of paranoia.

Behind the invasion of the Arabs,

they began to suspect

a Jewish conspiracy.

The moment the Arabs

took over Jerusalem,

they headed straight up here

to what then, as now,

is a broad, open,

man-made esplanade.

The holiest place for Jews

anywhere in the world.

The fact the Arab conquerors

came up here

and started building a prayer hall

on such a sensitive spot,

inevitably served

to raise quite a few eyebrows.

The Jews hope that these Arabs

from the desert come as liberators.

They permitted the Jews to come back

to the Temple Mount and pray there.

And the Jews started

believing that, maybe,

there is something Messianic

in these people,

and maybe their leader

is the Messiah,

who will permit them

to rebuild the temple.

Christian theologians,

who speak about the Arab conquerors

find it very hard to understand

that they are dealing

with a new religion.

Who are they?

One thing is absolutely clear.

Nobody had any notion that the Arabs

were doing what they were doing

in the name of a freshly minted

and coherent new religion.

Still less that what they were doing

was in the name of something

called Islam.

So, did Islam even exist

in those early years after Mohammed?

In Jerusalem, 30 years after the

conquest, it was business as usual.

There were Christian pilgrims

in the streets.

The churches were full.

Ancient religions were practising

their ancient rites.

But where was the prophet

in all this?

30 years after the death

of Mohammed, here in Jerusalem,

an Arab warlord called Muawiyah

was hailed as leader

of the new Arab empire.

But if Muawiyah was a Muslim, he

showed precious little sign of it.

The astonishing thing is

that nowhere,

not on his inscriptions,

not on his coins,

not on any of his documents,

is there so much as

a single mention of Mohammed.

'I've been trying to trace

the origins of Islam.

'But it's a bigger mystery

than I'd ever imagined.

'This is the holy book of Islam.

'And it's the earliest source

for Islam that we have.

'Find out where the Qur'an

was composed

'and you find out

where Mohammed was operating

'and then you get a picture

of where Islam might have begun.

'In the Qur'an,

'it tells Mohammed

to follow the path trod by Abraham.

'Maybe that's the place

to start looking.'

I'm in Hebron which is a town

on the West Bank

and I'm currently

in a Jewish settlement.

But Hebron is also

very much a Palestinian city,

and so the atmosphere here is

probably as tense as it is anywhere

between Israelis and Palestinians.

There are Israeli soldiers here

with very large guns.

And what they're guarding is this,

the burial place of Abraham.

(SINGS PRAYER)

'Abraham, through the line

of his son Isaac

'was the father of the Jews.

'When everyone else was still pagan,

'Abraham worshipped

the one true God.

'And, for this, God rewarded him

'and his descendants

with the Promised Land,

'part of which, today,

goes by the name of Israel.

'This is the tomb of Abraham.

'And the reason

that the soldiers are here

'is that these are not

the only people

'who regard him as their ancestor.

'And they're not the only people

who believe that God gave them

'the Promised Land.

'On the other side of the grill

are Muslims.

'And they tell a different story.

'This is the Muslim side

and the reason they revere Abraham

'is because, as well as Isaac,

he had another son.

'Ishmael, the father of the Arabs.'

This is the tomb of Abraham that

we saw earlier from the Jewish side.

But we're now looking at it

from the Muslim side.

The significance of Abraham

and this association that was made

between Arabs and Ishmaelites,

the children of Ishmael, is actually

much older than Islam itself.

It remains central to Islam

to this day.

According to Muslims,

Abraham is their prophet

and the religion he founded

was not the religion of the Jews,

but Islam.

And in the Qur'an, we read

that Ishmael helped Abraham

to build a house of God

at a place called Bakkah.

'Neither the Qur'an

nor any contemporary source

'actually specifies

where Bakkah was,

'but Muslims, now, would have

absolutely no doubt

'that Bakkah is another name for

a place deep in the Arabian deserts.

'Mecca.

'The holiest city in Islam.

'The birthplace of Mohammed .

'This is the largest mosque

in the world.

'At its centre,

'the Kaaba, the House of God.

'First built by Abraham

and his son Ishmael

'on foundations laid

by the first man, Adam.

'It is older and holier

'than anywhere else in the world.

'It was in the hills above the city

'that Mohammed received the first

of his revelations from God.

'These revelations would form

the holy book of Islam,

'the Qur'an,

'the very word of God.

'Mecca...

'is where Muslims believe

everything began.

'The crossroads of faith

'and history.

'Surely here then, you would think,

'we could find solid evidence

for Islam's beginnings.

'But there is a problem.

'Aside from a single, ambiguous

mention in the Qur'an itself,

'there is no mention of Mecca,

'not one,

'in any datable text for over

100 years after Mohammed 's death.'

How can we know that Mohammed

does come from Mecca?

We can't.

But, on the other hand,

if he doesn't come from there,

you'd have to come up

with a plausible alternative

for where he might have come from and

why would you want to take that on?

'Why do they go on?

'Well, you know,

it's what historians do.

If things don't fit, you try

something else that might fit.

Here we go.

So this is it?

Yeah, here we are.

'In the Qur'an, the

faithful are instructed to prayer

'in the direction

of a holy sanctuary.

'But what it doesn't ever say is

that this sanctuary stood at Mecca.

'And, to some archaeologists,

'a few early mosques

suggest something different.'

We're talking about

one of the earliest examples

of a mosque.

And you date it

100 years after Mohammed ?

Somewhere within 100 years or so.

Because here, as we go into it,

you can see.

This is it?

This is it, yeah.

This is the mosque?

This is the mosque.

And what you can...

It's...

What you can see here.

(LAUGHS)

We have an apse which is not facing

Mecca, it's not facing the south.

It's actually facing

towards the east.

Towards the sun rising.

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