Likud leader Ariel Sharon made a fateful miscalculation when he ascended the Dome of the Rock -- he underestimated a powerful surge of strength coursing through the Arab and Muslim worlds that has rendered their traditional power equation with Israel and the West moot. One key factor in that surge is the final consolidation of power by the Taliban. PNS associate editor Franz Schurmann, who has studied and traveled widely in the Muslim world, is a professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley.

The Dome of the Rock has now become the centerpiece not simply of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but of conflicts throughout the Islamic world.

The golden domed mosque crowns a hill that radiates symbolism. It is the site where Abraham offered his son Isaac to God as a sacrifice. Solomon built his great temple there, the Jewish exiles returning from Babylonian captivity rebuilt it, and the Romans destroyed it in the year 70. The third caliph Omar, who destroyed the Pemborsian Empire and gravely weakened the Eastern Roman Empire, built the current mosque. It embodies Islamic triumphalism.

Likud leader Ariel Sharon appears to have had three reasons for striding up the Rock. One was to underscore Israel's sovereignty over it. The second was to undercut his political rival former prime minister Netanyahu who, only the day before, had been exonerated from corruption charges. The third was to offer a bold new peace plan to the Palestinians. If he had pulled off the controversial visit without incident he had a good chance of becoming prime minister to lead the peace negotiations with Chairman Arafat and the next American president.

On the Thursday before Sharon's visit, two Palestinian organizations, the Islamic Hamas and the secular Fatah, warned him not to go, warning that if he did an "explosion" could occur. They urged "thousands" of their followers to go to the Rock and prevent Sharon and his entourage from climbing the steps leading to the Noble Sanctuary. Sharon went and Friday the great clashes began.

Sharon underestimated a powerful surge of strength coursing through the Arab and Muslim populations that has rendered the traditional power equation between the Arab-Muslim world and Israel and the West moot. For two centuries, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims have been shoved around by Westerners, many of whom had little respect for them. the British long referred to them as "wogs" and the French as "beurs." Jews of Western culture created Modern Israel and many brought with them Western racism. As in the case of all racism, the victims come to believe they are stupid, shiftless and weak. But when signs appear that the week suddenly have become strong, the victims feel empowered -- as if they have moved from the margins of history to center stage.

The Islamic revolution in Iran gave the Arab-Muslim world its first big boost. The second was the final consolidation of power by the Taliban over war-ravaged Afghanistan. While no one can say definitively whether the stone throwing by Muslim worshippers at the Dome of the Rock was spontaneous or planned, they were clearly aware that a mighty new Islamic force hundreds of miles to the east had defeated its secular opponents and humbled the West. To those on the Rock it must have evoked the victories the Prophet scored against the mighty Persian and Eastern Roman empires. As anti-Israeli protests spread, awareness of the shift in Arab-Muslim consciousness is also growing -- and with it fear. On Tuesday, October 3, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak said "tampering with the issue of Jerusalem could bring back terrorism worldwide." "Terrorism" is Western shorthand for "militant Islamic fundamentalism." Mubarak, a staunch American ally, is once again worried about "terrorism," both in his own country and the world.

Amidst world outrage over the killing of so many Palestinians, American intelligence officials decided to publicize their view that the finalization of the Taliban victory in Afghanistan shows "Islam is on the march." Judging from similar information releases in the past, this was timed to coincide with news coming out of Jerusalem. The innuendo was clear: Islam is a big element in the events. Sharon's mistake came from his philosophy. In war and politics, he believes, only the leaders count, the rest are sheep. He thought that the "moderate" Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders so fear the "terrorists" that dealing with Israel is a lesser evil. Both Sharon and Barak accuse Arafat of responsibility for the slaughter. But Arafat has no control over Islamic Hamas which was shut out of the peace process. Sharon calculated that whatever trouble started, the big leaders, himself included, could deal with each other.

The Taliban triumphed because poor villagers and nomads supported them all over Afghanistan. In guerrilla parlance, the poor were the ocean in which the Taliban swam. Aside from some ethnic support, none of the opposition warlords was able to swim in those waters for long.