by YAZAN AL-SAADI
Well of Tuwa in Mecca near Jabal Kabba. This site associated with the prophet Muhammad, is now facing demolition although it still produces water. PHHOTO/Islamic Heritage Research Foundation
For over a decade, Mecca – the holiest city in Islam – has been undergoing an unprecedented level of reconstruction to accommodate millions of pilgrims arriving year round. However, critics argue the massive expansion efforts have mercilessly destroyed invaluable historical and cultural sites, substituting them for crass commercialization and symbols of Saudi rule.
Without a doubt, Mecca is an extraordinary city. With a history stretching back before 600 BCE, Mecca has always been an important religious and economic center. But after the seventh century, with the emergence of Islam, the city, with the Kaaba at its core, became a commanding symbol of faith and power.
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Today, Mecca and its surroundings – with an estimated resident population of two million living in an area smaller than the city of London – is visited by at least 15 million Muslims throughout the year, three million of them descending at once during the Hajj period.
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An estimated $20 billion has been spent on mega-projects which include a planned train system, mosque expansions, and the construction of fancy hotels and residential and retail complexes.
But these developments have taken a heavy toll on the cultural and historical relics that existed in Mecca for over a thousand years, a majority of which were removed to make way for the modernizing developments.
Saudi authorities, supported by religious scholars, offer a twofold argument for the removal of heritage sites: first, these sites pose security risks for visiting pilgrims due to their structural instability; and secondly, that these sites, while lacking any religious significance, may result in shirq, the worshiping of a person or object at the same level as God.
“The expansions for the Two Holy Mosques cannot be possible without the removal of these historic and religious relics, that can also potentially harm Muslims if they stay,” Saudi-based Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zoaby explained to Al-Akhbar.
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Sign in Mecca posted by the religious police directed at pilgrims. PHOTO/Islamic Heritage Research Foundation)
Dr. Abu Bakr Bagader, an official for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an international group based in Riyadh meant to represent Muslim-majority countries, echoed this reasoning.
“The position taken by the government and officials in Saudi Arabia is to ease the mobility of Muslim pilgrims and to expand space for them to perform their rituals,” he said.
“I think [the development] is supported by many. They are not demolishing the relics to make them disappear, but because these weak structures can fall,” he added.
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“This is absolutely rubbish. The OIC is a Saudi puppet, under the influence of petrodollars. It is a disgrace for them to say that,” retorted Dr. Irfan al-Alawi, an academic and founder of the Islamic Heritage Foundation as a means to document and raise awareness about the fate of heritage sites in Saudi Arabia.
Al Akhbar for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)