The Middle East boasts a tapestry of sacred sites that draw pilgrims from diverse countries, faiths, cultures, and walks of life year-round and during key festivals. These sites serve as arenas for a myriad of activities, rituals, and influences. Whether nestled within urban sprawls or planted in rural landscapes, sacred spaces intertwine dominant and traditional practices with grassroots activities. The activities they host and the meanings ascribed to them may align with prevailing narratives, yield to them, or challenge them outright. Thus, sacred sites could embody both the dominant order and the one that undermines it, serving the agendas of the hegemonic authority and its rival. 

Sacred sites have taken on various attributions in response to shifting demographics and political changes. With the emergence of colonial and national political orders in the Middle East, certain sacred sites and their surrounding communities have adopted sectarian identities, becoming arenas for political strife and ethnic segregation. Others have evolved into bastions of social harmony, proposing alternative models of coexistence. 

In this special issue of Nexus: A Review of Middle Eastern Religions and Politics we seek to unpack the role of sacred sites in the Middle East, as both focal points of national discord and sectarianism, and as spaces for shared spiritual practices and social harmony.

The special issue contains seven papers written by historians, political scientists, geographers, sociologists, and activists. We posit that this interdisciplinary dialogue can enrich our understanding of this phenomenon, fuel discussions, foster remedies, and invigorate interfaith dialogue. 

Nimrod Luz’s paper, Toward a Spatial Theory of Interfaith and Multifaith Encounters in the 21st Century: Perspectives of a Cultural-Political Geographer, offers us a methodological and epistemological toolbox for the research of interreligious or interfaith encounters. Luz’s methodological argument is that interfaith encounters transpire within a particular spatial arrangement, as with any human activity. They occur in specific places and, therefore, have a spatial aspect. The social organization of religious life and encounters with others is shaped and created by space and spatialization. In this way, viewing religious phenomena through the spatial dimension enables critical and complex discussion and analysis of the nature, characteristics, and essence of interfaith encounters.

Two of the papers provide insight into the role of sacred sites in broader interreligious encounters. Knox Thomas and Emily K. Scolaro’s paper, Sacred Sites Promoting Pluralism, challenges the common perception that sacred places are sites of intercommunal conflict and violence, and presents an alternative perspective on the potential for developing religious pluralism offered by sacred sites. Thomas and Scolaro illustrate their argument using examples such as the tomb of Nahum in Qaraqosh, Iraq, and others. Additionally, they explain the Sacred Sites Promoting Pluralism (SSPP) initiative, launched by the Program of Global Faith and Inclusive Societies at Pepperdine University. This unique project aims to examine how to leverage local histories of sacred sites to promote religious pluralism, peace, and respect for other religious beliefs, as well as their sacred places and places of worship.

A similar approach can be found in Peter S. Henne’s paper, Sacred Spaces as an Opportunity. By illustrating some Middle Eastern study cases, Henne asks us to focus on the opportunities sacred spaces around the Middle East present for states and civil society. Moreover, Henne argues that these sacred spaces offer policymakers and religious peacebuilding advocates some guidelines on how to resolve tensions over the sacred spaces themselves. 

The following four papers address a specific study case. Three of them focus on the most triggering case study—Jerusalem. Kristine Swarts-Zanin’s paper, titled “The Responsibility for the Safety of the Fabric [of the Basilica]”: British Construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Status Quo Policy, 1927–1948, provides a detailed account of the initiations of the British Department of Public Works at the Holy Sepulchre, as well as the delicate relationship between sacredness, colonial power, international relations, and architectural preservation. Yisca Harani’s paper, Christian Processions in Jerusalem—The Physical Manifestation and Display of Rights, illustrates the interreligious dynamics surrounding the Christian processions and their important role as a manifestation of Christian presence and rights in Jerusalem. In particular, Harani focuses on the harassment of Christians and Christian processions by Jewish extremists and illustrates the civil activity of the organization “Window to Mount Zion.” Volunteers from this organization accompany the Christian processions, approach individuals who appear likely to disrupt the event, and diffuse potential conflicts through conversation or distraction. As a contrast to those Jewish individuals who have a different perspective on Christian rights and their physical manifestation, and who claim Jewish spatial superiority, this initiative highlights the ongoing struggle to safeguard religious pluralism in Jerusalem. Eran Tzidkiyahu’s paper, Israel, the Mount and the Mosque, focuses on the essential role of the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and in the Iron Swords/al-Aqsa Flood war between Israel and Hamas. In Tzidkiyahu’s view, the mount plays a central role in the thinking of both Palestinian and Israeli fundamentalist extremists, and the Israeli discussion of the mount embodies the debate over the nature of the state. Thus, he argues that in order for Israel to become a free, democratic, and prosperous country, which respects civil liberties and human rights, it must ensure that the al-Aqsa Mosque will remain standing on the Temple Mount. Moreover, according to Tzidkiyahu, Israeli–Palestinian peace based on equality and partnership is also the only scenario in which Jews will receive recognition of their attachment to the Temple Mount, and perhaps, one day, also obtain religious rights there, subject to equality in power relations outside the Holy Esplanade—in the entire country. Last but not least, Thamar E. Gindin’s paper, The Esther and Mordechai Mausoleum Challenges the Islamic Republic’s Distinction Between Jews and Zionists, shifts the discussion from the Israeli case to the shrine of Mordechai and Esther in Hamedan, Iran. By focusing on this Jewish sacred site and the events that occurred there following October 7th, Gindin illustrates the intricate relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Iranian people, and the Iranian Jewish minority. Gindin argues that this sacred space reveals something about the Iranian duality between anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish sentiment among the regime officials and Iranian people.

Some propositions and ideas in this issue may seem naïve, while others demonstrate the realistic nature of sacred places and, by extension, humanity. We believe that neither of these approaches can be taken on their own. Religion and sanctity, as human phenomena, feature the human urges to conquer and rule, as well as their abilities to negotiate, share, and cross-pollinate. Hopefully, this special issue will contribute to the understanding of sacred spaces’ role in these human phenomena and the increase of the second over the first.