The end of days - Gershom Gorenberg

End of Days is a study of the apocalyptic views and struggles between various religious groups, namely Jews, Christians and Muslims, over Jerusalem's Temple Mount, believed to be the key to salvation as the end of the world, the apocalypse, draws near. In this book, Gorenberg weaves a story that stretches from California churches to West Bank settlements, explaining why believers hope for the End, and why prominent American fundamentalists provide hard-line support forIsrael, while looking forward to an apocalypse in which they expect Jews to die or else convert. He makes sense of the messianic fervor that has driven Israeli settlers to oppose peace, and describes the Islamic apocalyptic visions that cast Israel's actions in Jerusalem as diabolic plots. At the centre of thisturmoil is the site known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Al Aqsa. Modern Jewish and Christian messianic activists have aspired to rebuild the Third Jewish Temple, each in fulfillment of different biblical prophecies. Meanwhile, popular Muslim thinking holds that a Jewish desecration or destruction of Al Aqsa may also be a preliminary event to the apocalypse and the ultimate triumph of Islam. Ultimately, the site as described by Gorenberg, is the "single stage onwhich three different plays unfold...the final day beliefs of the world's major monotheistic faiths" and this book is an exploration of the diifferent religious groups' struggle to reach a final resolution.