The cult of sacred space often involves a ritual separation of the site from its profane surroundings, which can make the cult exclusive. Gentiles were barred from the Jewish temple, while non-Muslims are still forbidden to enter Mecca. But Muslims had a more inclusive vision of Jerusalem's holiness. Under the Christian Byzantines, Jews had never been allowed to reside permanently in the city, but when Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem in 638 he invited them to return. He also ordered that Christian shrines in the city must not be expropriated or attacked. In contrast, when the Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem in July 1099 they slaughtered 20,000 Jews and Muslims in two days, clearing them out of the holy city like vermin.
The emotions that lie behind many traditional religious practices have not been swept away by the cool rationality of the Enlightenment. If they become infected by the experience of cruelty, oppression and terror or by a lust for power and control, they can, as we know to our cost, result in atrocity.
Religion is often misunderstood in our secular society. Like art, it is difficult to do well. It is not about private ecstasy or self-affirmation. While it can endorse our sense of identity, the chief aim of religion at its best is to introduce us to transcendence by curbing the destructive forms of egotism, hatred and greed.
Karen Armstrong is the author of A History of Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths.
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