Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jurusalem
In 638, the Christians were forced to surrender Jerusalem to Muslim control under caliph Umar al-Khattab. In a remarkable gesture for the time, Sophronius invited Umar to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but Umar refused the invitation, saying, “If I had prayed in the church it would have been lost to you, for the Believers [Muslims] would have taken it saying: Umar prayed here.” In other words, Umar declined the offer, fearing that accepting the invitation might endanger the church’s status as a Christian place of worship: The Muslims might break the treaty and turn the church into a mosque. Such was the respect that caliph Umar showed towards the place of worship of other religion. Today, we witness attacks on churches by Muslims in our home country. These irresponsible acts are in complete contradiction with the great spirit shown by the rightly-guided caliph Umar. (more…)