A Most Controversial Site

Foreign Policy magazine decided to make up a list. A list of the world's most controversial religious sites.

As they explained,

Politics and religion can be a deadly concoction. Nowhere is that more true than at the world’s holiest shrines, temples, mosques, and churches. From Japan to South Carolina, FP takes a look at some of the world’s most contentious religious sites—and the politicians who inflame their faithful followers.

Here it is and I've selected the Temple Mount to highlight:-

The List: The World's Most Controversial Religious Sites

The Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif
Jerusalem, Israel

Why it matters: The focal point of the Crusades, it’s still the most contested religious spot in the world. To Jews, it is the hallowed Temple Mount, site of the first and second Jewish temples and the place where a third will be built when the Messiah returns. To Muslims, it is known as Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, home to the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven. Together, as Time magazine has noted, that makes this corner of Jerusalem’s Old City the “most controversial 35 acres on Earth” and “as dangerous these days as a ticking atom bomb.”

What’s the rub: Neither side wants to share this holy site. Violent clashes between Jews and Muslims over prayer and other rights to the Temple Mount date back to at least the 1920s. In 1996, Israeli excavation work near the site resulted in riots that killed 75 people. Ariel Sharon’s walk here in September 2000 sparked the second intifada uprising, [not true - YM] which continues nearly seven years later and has taken the lives of thousands. The site continues to be a flashpoint: Recent Israeli excavation work near al-Aqsa was enough to convince Muslims to declare a worldwide “day of anger” last month.

What’s next: More violence. Israel is rebuilding a pedestrian ramp, which had existed under a long-standing agreement, that gives tourists and Israeli security forces access to the Temple Mount. The original ramp was damaged in a 2004 earthquake and rebuilding it might have been simple enough were it not for Israel’s decision to double the capacity of the ramp. Israel claims the increased size will accommodate more tourists. Muslims fear it will also accommodate more security forces.