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Islam is a major religion in Israel. Muslims, who are mostly Arab citizens of Israel, constitute 17.4% of the Israeli population,〔(Israel ). CIA Factbook〕 making them the second largest religious group in Israel after Israeli Jews. Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest city after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.〔(From the article on Islam in Palestine and Israel in Oxford Islamic Studies Online )〕 The ''Haram al Sharif'' (Temple Mount) of Jerusalem is believed by Muslims to be the location from which Muhammad ascended to Jannah (paradise). This widely accepted Islamic belief raises the religious and spiritual importance to them of the Dome of the Rock and the adjacent al-Aqsa Mosque. Only Muslims are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount which is managed day to day by the Islamic ''Waqf'', an administrative body taking responsibility for the conduct of Islamic affairs in the region of the Temple Mount. ==History== Islam was first introduced to the region of Palestine during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, when armies from the Arabian Peninsula under the Rashidun Caliphate conquered a territory previously under the control of the Byzantine Empire.〔(A Concise History of Islam and the Arabs ) MidEastWeb.org〕 As a result of the rise of the Ottoman Empire, from 1516 to 1917, the Sunni Ottoman Turks ruled the Levant. Their leadership reinforced and ensured the centrality and importance of Islam as the dominant religion in the region. The conquest of Palestine by British forces in 1917 and the subsequent Balfour Declaration opened the gates for the arrival of large numbers of Jews in the Mandatory Palestine, who began to tip the scales in favor of Judaism. However, the British transferred the symbolic Islamic governance of the land to the Hashemites based in Jordan, and not to the House of Saud. The Hashemites thus became the official guardians of the Islamic holy places of Jerusalem and the areas around it, particularly strong when Jordan controlled the West Bank (1948–1967). In 1922, the British created the Supreme Muslim Council in the Mandatory Palestine and appointed Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895–1974) as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The council was abolished in 1948. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Islam in Israel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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