February 26, 2004

The Seatbelt as Bid’ah (Religious Innovation) and the Destruction of Muslim History

By: Sadik H. Kassim

During our ride out of Medina Airport my uncle queried our Wahabbi driver about why people in Saudi Arabia do not wear seatbelts. Our driver immediately went into a grand bit of histrionics declaring the seatbelt to be a bid’ah (religious innovation) and therefore impermissible for all true Muslims to use. He continued his tangent by suggesting the seatbelt to be an American/Israeli invention intended to subvert basic Islamic principles. Our driver’s fatwa, although not legally binding, serves to illustrate the paranoid and irrational world outlook of the Wahabbi school of thought. This worldview, in addition to contributing to the intellectual retardation of the Ummah, has been used to justify the destruction of some of Islam’s most sacred and important historical and cultural sites. This decimation remains an ongoing process scarcely reported in either western media outlets or the media of countries with a Muslim majority population.

Religiously, Wahabbism shuns the visitation of all historical sites, especially gravesites. These visitations are considered acts of shirk ascribing partners to Allah. Such acts supposedly engender polytheism and therefore undermine the foundations of Islam’s monotheism. Historically, the Al Saud family through their alliance with the Wahabbis has exploited these religious prohibitions for financial gain. Under the cloak of preserving the faith, the Al Saud family has desecrated, destroyed and plundered some of Islam’s most notable sites.

In 1801, the Saudis-Wahabbis waged a campaign against the Muslim “polytheists” and “heretics”. The outcomes of the campaign “shocked the entire Muslim world…by brutally destroying and defacing the sacred tomb of the martyr Hussein Bin Ali (Prophet Mohammad's grandson) in Karbala, Iraq, a particularly holy shrine to Shia Muslims1.” It was during this raid that the Saudis-Wahabbis “mercilessly slaughtered over 4,000 people in Karbala and stole anything that was not nailed down. It took over 4,000 camels to carry the huge loot (1).”

Later, in 1810 during a pillaging campaign that swept the Arabian Peninsula the Saudis-Wahabbis “attacked and desecrated Prophet Mohammad’s Mosque, opened his grave, and sold and distributed its valuable relics and expensive jewels (1)”. The Wahabbis had intended to raze the green dome of the Prophet’s Mosque in pursuit of the golden globes and crescents surmounting it in those days. Yet, as Sir Richard Burton notes in his Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, “an accident prevented any further desecration of the building…Two of their number [Wahabbis], it is said, were killed by falling from the slippery roof, and the rest, struck by superstitious fears, abandoned the work of destruction.” The siege of the Prophet’s Mosque did however injure “the prosperity of the place [Madinah] by taxing the inhabitants, by interrupting the annual remittances, and by forbidding visitors to approach the tomb (2).”

The damage at Madinah extended to Jannat-ul-Baqi, the graveyard lying in the east of Madinah where innumerable companions (nearly 10,000 by some estimates) and family members of the Prophet Muhammad are buried. Burton writes that “the ancient monuments [of the Baqi] were leveled to the ground by Sa’ud the Wahhabi and his puritan followers, who waged pitiless warfare against what must have appeared to them magnificent mausolea, deeming as they did a loose heap of stones sufficient for a grave (3).” The monuments of Jannat-ul-Baqi were later rebuilt by the Ottoman Sultans Abd al-Hamid and Mahmud only to be destroyed again by Ibn Sa’ud upon the founding of Saudi Arabia in the early 20th Century. The same fate befell Jannat-ul-Mualla, the graveyard in Mecca where some of the Prophet’s family and companions, including his father Abdullah, his beloved wife Khadija, his eldest son Qasim and his uncle Abu Talib are buried.

The rate of destruction has not waned since the founding of Saudi Arabia. During the late 1970’s, for example, the historic quarters of Mecca and Medina were completely bulldozed. The former contained the site of the Prophet’s house, while the latter contained the houses of many of the Prophet’s family members and companions. During my trip to Mecca earlier this year, it was pointed out to me by the locals that the site of the Prophet’s former house has been turned into a bookstore.

More recently, in 2002, the Saudi government demolished the 220-year-old al-Ajyad fortress. Built in 1780 by the Ottomans to protect Mecca, the palace was demolished to pave the way for a massive $533 million construction project financed in part by the BinLaden group. The project entails the construction of 11 high-rise residential towers, consisting of apartments, a twin tower five star hotel, restaurants and a shopping center. The Saudi government claims that the project is intended to house pilgrims to Mecca and therefore “in the interest of Muslims all over the world (4).” Yet, “the luxury nature of the apartments and hotel complex, to be built on the grounds of the former castle, clearly shows this accommodation is not meant for ordinary Muslim pilgrims…but the wealthy. Access to these facilities will only be open to a thin layer of the richest visitors (5).”

Unfortunately, “the Saudi government’s obliteration of al-Ajyad is only the latest in a deplorable history of destroying architectural treasures from Ottoman period. Numerous Ottoman houses, cemeteries, castles and fortresses have been sacrificed to the building of new developments in Mecca and Medina (5).”

The al-Ajyad palace controversy caused a small international uproar and briefly placed the spotlight on the Wahabbi/al-Sa’ud family’s fondness for destruction. Yet, many sites continue to be altered or destroyed outside of the public eye. One such case is the Sab’ah Masajid (Seven Masjids) area of Medina. The site used to contain 7 masjids where the Prophet is believed to have prayed. Four of these seven masjids have been demolished (6). Plans to clear the remaining three masjids have been temporarily put on hold. Meanwhile the site of the Battle of Khandaq (Battle of the Trench), near the Sab’ah Masajid area, has been paved over into a roadway, while Uhud battleground has been turned into a parking lot (6).

Then there is the case of Masjid Al Qiblatain (Masjid of Two Qiblas) in Medina. One of the oldest masjids in Islamic history, it is the site where the Prophet, while leading salat al dhuhur (noon prayer), received the revelation to change the Qibla (direction of prayer) from Jerusalem to Mecca. The revelation caused the Prophet to change directions while in mid prayer. Therefore, it is the only masjid in the world to contain two mihrabs (prayer niches). One facing Jerusalem the other facing Mecca. Last year, the Saudi government demolished the second mihrab putting put up an entryway in its stead. Above the entryway, the Saudis have placed a plaque indicating the site of the previous mihrab.

The current program of destruction extends beyond Saudi Arabia’s borders. In Kosovo, under the banner of restoring war-damaged masjids, the Saudi government has destroyed ancient sites. In the capital, Prisitina, the Saudis paid a demolition gang to tear down the undamaged 18th century Kater Llula masjid “to build a new one on the site, complete with a shopping mall on the ground floor (7)”. While in the western Kosovo town of Rahovac, the Saudi government tore down the town’s oldest masjid, which was built in the 17th century, and replaced it with a new one made from reinforced concrete. According to Andras Riedlmayer, a Harvard conservationist specializing in the architecture of Kosovo, “the Saudis have been very destructive…their approach is to say they will build everything bigger, better, newer, and more Islamic…the Saudi mission [in Kosovo] has to do with their own sectarianism and agenda(7).”

These cases demonstrate that sites of common historical value should not be placed under the whims and controls of one entity, the Wahabbis-Saudis in this case. Rather, these sites should be administered by an international body whose sole aim is to preserve. Unless Muslims act to pressure the Saudi government and their own governments, we can look forward to further wanton destruction.

Sadik Kassim is a student at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. He may be contacted at shkassim81@yahoo.com

Notes:

1. Sindi, A. “Britain and the Rise of Wahabbism and the House of Saud.” Kana’an Online. 16 January 2004, Vol. IV Issue 361.

2. Burton, R. Personal Narratives Of A Pilgrimage To Al-Madinah &
Meccah – Volume 1. Pg. 369-371. Project Gtenberg. Nov. 2003.

3. Burton, R. Personal Narrative Of A Pilgrimage To Al-Madinah &
Meccah -- Volume 2. Pg. 33. Project Gutenberg. Nov. 2003.

4. “Saudis hit back over Mecca castle.” BBC News. 9 January 2002.

5. Wheelan,S. “Saudi government demolishes historic Ottoman castle.”
World Socialist Web Site. 28 January 2002.

6. Dorsey, J. “Turks angry at fate of Mecca fort.” The Scotsman. 10 January 2002.

7. Ford, P. “Second casualty of war: historic architectural sites.” The Christian Science Monitor. 25 July 2001.

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