keeping the peace
Slacktivist made mention last week of the interesting dynamic at Jerusalem’s Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, the supposed location of the crucifiction, entombment, and resurrection of Jesus. The church is managed by an uneasy, tenuous collective of half a dozen competing branches of Christianity, with one other influence continually present to keep the peace between these competing factions over the past 1300 years:The Nuseibeh family. Members of this Muslim family have served as custodians and doorkeepers of the Church for centuries, and they take their role seriously.
As current caretaker Wajeeh Nuseibeh said in an interview a few years back regarding his role as the mediator between the competing factions:
Like all brothers, they sometimes have problems. We help them settle their disputes. We are the neutral people in the church. We are the United Nations. We help preserve peace in this holy place.
I love the image this situation projects, a simple image of respect, tradition, and ecumenism in a place held holy by a significant portion of the world’s religious culture. It’s the kind of thing more people should know about, as it flys in the face of the common American misconception of Muslims and dissident troublemakers – more Christians should know that the force that maintains the peace,tranquility, and sanctity of the religion’s holiest site isn’t necesarily the spirit of Christian brotherhood, but a humble family of Muslims dedicated to doing the job for over a thousand years.
