More than Just Al-Aqsa: The Changing Ways Muslims Explore Israel

FEBRUARY 22, 2020 22:52

Muslims tourists are not a rare sight in Jerusalem’s Old City, but a group of 30 young people, mainly women, traversing their way through narrow medieval streets and slippery stone staircases is enough to turn heads. Elderly women stick their head through small windows three stories high to glean a hijab-clad swirl being lead through streets that can barely fit a tractor.

Leading them is their dashing 23-year-old guide, Bashar Abu Shamsiyeh. He stops the mass frequently, in cramped alleyways and dark, crumbling pathways, rising onto any platform he can find. He delivers minutes of exposition and explanation of the historic buildings that the group is crammed like sardines up against. Thirty phones come out, recording, tweeting and even livestreaming the young man’s passionate and powerful oration about the city’s ancient and medieval past.

Pilgrims and tourists outside Al-Aqsa Mosque after the second prayer of the day
Credit: Shakir Rimzy

Bashar Abu Shamsiyeh guides Vakt-i Kıraat group in Jerusalem’s Old City
Credit: Shakir Rimzky

Vakt-i Kıraat group stops for a photo in the Muslim Quarter of the Old
Credit: Shakir Rimzy

Robeen Falah Abu Shamsiyeh at the Austrian Hospice
Credit: Shakir Rimzy