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 == Jerusalem in the Quran == 

  
 , please stop mentionig that Jerusalem as a text is not mentioned in Quran. The Arabs had several names to Jerusalem, Eliya, Bayt al Maqdis, Urshaleem (Canaanite not Hebrew by the way) and so on. God himself, decided to call it his way! This way of calling Jerusalem has been mentioned in Hadith. That is after the Quran is recited from the mouth of Prophet Muhammad and after it is written by the writers, he pause then he say a Hadith (not quran) again out of his mouth, saying that this is in Bayt al-Maqdiss, this is here, this is there, etc... This is the Islamic Scripture, Quran + Hadith. Quran without Hadith may mean nothing! After all, the Quran mentioned that a muslims should Pray, but it never mentioned how. This has been elaborated more in the Hadith! Certainly, it is Jerusalem as an area that has been blessed in the Quran. Mecca and Medina as cities were not blessed explicitly as done for Jerusalem. However, Mecca and Medina were decalared Sanctuaries and banned on non muslims. Jerusalem is not! For example, even though al-Aqsa mosque has been also named as the Noble Sanctuary, per the strict Islamic law, al-Aqsa mosque is not a sanctuary. A muslim sacntuary is a place where one may not cut a tree, nor kill an animal, and no nonmuslims are allowed to pass in! So you see Sharmi1, that there are quite so many things here that are missing and frankly I do not see your edits are getting the big picture. We should work together not against each others please! Also, you may want to read this paper Jerusalem in the Quran. If it helps, I may send the paper to anyone who likes to his email! At least, seventy time reference to Jerusalem is mentioned with different approaches, etc... 

 Finally, Moses was mentioned 122 times, Muhammad 4 times. Mecca was mentioned on once in the Quran as Mecca. Once it was mentioned as Bekka, and that is it. It was not mentioned explicitly in the verse 17:1 nor Jerusalem was. But immediately it was mentioned in the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad. So you see, the Islamic scripture is one package, Quran looses much of its meaning if Hadith is excluded. Also, there are hundreds of Hadiths talking explicitly about Bayt al-Maqdis. 

 I would like also to mention that the night journey is not the reason for the importance of Jerusalem in Islam. In fact, many Hadiths regarding Jerusalem and references in Quran were made even before the night journey! The matter is that Quran mentions that Muhammad is not preaching for a new message, but he is reviving the message of the previous prophets, even if many of them happen to be Israelites. In fact, the Quran talks about them, possible half of the Quran is only talking about Moses, Jesus, solmon, David, Abraham, Adam, Zakariya, Yahya John, etc...... 

 Our job here at WikiPedia is not really discussing our believes. Every one is entitled to his belief, but we are to report accuratley documented sources that talks about the holiness of Jerusalem for these religions. We are not and should not put the faith of each others down, please. This does not make sense. The article should clearly mentions the basics of why each religion glorifies Jerusalem. There is no point in tryint to show who glorifies Jerusalem more, it is irrilevant and does not make much sense anyway. Finally, some body mentioned third holiest stuff. Well, Jerusalem is called in Arabic Third of the two Sanctuaries. (Arabic: ثالث الحرمين; Translit: thālith al-ḥaramayn) . No other site is called this way in Arabic. this has been translated in third holiest in english. The term ثالث الحرمين has been used to refer to this mosque at the early times of Islam. 

 Finally, the word masjid in Arabic means a prostration site. Although the english word mosque is translated from masjid, the Arabic word masjid may refer to a proper building (proper mosque) or it may refer to a site where prayers are permitted. Certainly the whole earth is made a mosque for muslims. It should be mentioned that Jews prostrated only in the Temple, and not any where else. Prophet Muhammad in a Hadith said that the whole earth is a masjid for a muslim, and whenever the time for prayers came, pray! 

 You should also note another term in Arabic (Jamii) which translates exactly to a congregation building. In general, in the Islamic word, when they talk about a mosque they use the word Jamii rather than using the word masjid. Jamii cannot refer to a site, but usually to a constructed building. 

 I hope I was helpful. We should edit in faith here, no point in proving that somebodies faith is not good as my faith, and vice versa...!