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Saudis
Announce a Turn Away from Wahhabi Cultural Vandalism
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The
Cave of Hira on the "Mountain of Light," the site where
Muhammad is said to have received his first revelations from God.
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The rulers of Saudi Arabia have announced a new program for cultural
renovation of architecture associated with the life of Muhammad. As described in the leading pan-Arab daily Asharq
Al-Awsat, a Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH)
has begun planning rehabilitation of sites in Mecca, the direction of
prayer for Muslims around the world, and Medina, which includes the
Prophet's Shrine, where Muhammad is said to be buried.
The restorations would include Jebel Al-Nur, the "Mountain of
Light" in Mecca, where Qur'an is believed to have been first revealed
to Muhammad, and locations where he is said to have sojourned. Jebel Al-Nur
is a key topic in this discussion. In Medina, sites identified with battles
fought by the Muslims, and four early mosques, are due for reorganization
and restructuring. Museums drawing on Islamic military history and other
themes will be opened and guides to the attractions provided.
The endeavor has been endorsed by Prince Sultan bin Salman, the
60-year-old son of the current ruler, King Salman. Prince Sultan is best
known for having traveled in 1985 on the U.S. space shuttle Discovery.
SCTH president Saad Al-Rashed will head the undertaking.
Wahhabis argue that protection of
architectural sites, even Islamic ones, is 'idolatry.'
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If carried out, the effort will represent a break with the doctrines of
the Wahhabi sect that has maintained a close alliance with the Saudi
monarchs for more than two centuries, and is the official Islamic
theological dispensation in the desert kingdom. Wahhabi iconoclasts have
been infamous as wreckers of the heritage of Islam and other religions.
They argue that protection of architectural assets, including sacred structures,
is "idolatry" prohibited by Islam. Those so accused are judged to
have abandoned Islam and are subject to execution.
The Saudis and Wahhabis invaded and sacked the Shia Muslim holy cities
of Karbala and Najaf in today's Iraq, following the emergence some 250
years ago of Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, the preacher for whom the
fanatical creed is named. This violence against Shias, whom Wahhabis
condemn as alleged apostates from Islam, and their monuments was repeated
frequently. To the Wahhabis, the contemplative traditions of Sufism
constitute another form of "polytheistic apostasy," along with
Shia Islam, in that Shia and Sufi adherents alike honor Muhammad and other
spiritual figures, rather than Allah alone.
Wahhabis zealously condemn ritual
respect paid even to outstanding Muslims.
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In their zealous condemnation of ritual respect paid to outstanding
Muslims, Wahhabis further decry such practices as an imitation of
Christians, for the love the latter show toward Jesus. After the Saudi
conquest of Mecca and Medina in the mid-1920s, tombs in the sacred
cemeteries housing the remains of Muhammad's family and early companions
were levelled.
The same addiction to demolition was seen in the Taliban assault on the
Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan in 2001, and in its most spectacular
form, on September 11 of that year, in the wrecking of the World Trade
Center towers and the crash of a hijacked jet into the Pentagon. Those
structures were additionally viewed as "idols" by the Wahhabis of
Al-Qaida.
In an excess of metastasized Wahhabism, these destructive urges are visible
in the devastation of the pre-Islamic legacy of Palmyra in Syria last year
by the terrorists of the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS), who
also blow up Shia and Sufi installations.
The Saudi regime seems to have decided suddenly to adopt a new perspective
on the matter, having hitherto neglected to restrict Wahhabi interference with Islamic
heritage. "Saudi modernization" is a convoluted process at best.
While the house of Saud long allowed the Wahhabi clerics to hinder visits
to Islamic religious sites, they did not censure as "idolatry"
the recent erection of grotesque and garish hotels and malls surrounding
and dwarfing the Kaaba, the black stone cube at the center of the Grand
Mosque of Mecca, and the ground where Islam originated. Seen from above,
the Kaaba is now a tiny structure far overshadowed by a Stalinesque clock
tower. To facilitate construction of the clock tower, an entire hill and
the Ottoman fortress on which it sat, protecting the Grand Mosque since
Ottoman times, were bulldozed.
King Salman Bin Abd Al-Aziz, in power beginning last year, and
succeeding his half-brother, the reforming King Abdullah, promised after he ascended the throne that he would
continue on the path of positive change pursued by Abdullah. Of course,
real social reform—allowing women to drive, for example—is impossible
without curbing the power of the Wahhabi clerics. Despoliation of Islamic
historical structures is the most obvious symbol of Wahhabi radicalism.
The blind Wahhabi Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdullah
Bin Baz [1910-99], known for his intransigent views, issued two fatwas
against participants in Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca visiting and praying at
places traditionally seen as appropriate for such devotions. In the first,
Bin Baz opined that walking up Jebel Al-Nur to a cave known for Muhammad's
revelation was a "means leading to [polytheism]," and must be
banned. The restriction is not enforced, but the steep climb up the steps
of Jebel Al-Nur, in raging heat, is daunting to most pilgrims.
The second such fatwa by Ibn Baz was more sweeping, and
summarized the Wahhabi hostility to historic preservation. It stated,
"It is impermissible to exaggerate the importance of historical sites
and buildings, because this might lead to [polytheism]. The laypeople may be
tempted to believe that such places are blessed, and be driven to commit
acts of disbelief. . . . It is, therefore, obligatory to neglect and
abandon such a deed and to warn against it." The "acts of
disbelief" execrated by Ibn Baz consist of commemorative prayers to
Muhammad and other Muslims deemed virtuous.
Arab media reporting on the new Saudi approach to the Islamic legacy
lack any reference to three of the most controversial issues involving the
cultural legacy of Mecca and Medina. These are the identification and
reconstruction of houses in Mecca, in one of which Muhammad was reputedly
born and another where he is thought to have lived with his wife Khadijah;
ongoing Wahhabi demands for a desecration of Muhammad's tomb and shrine in
Medina by removal of an Ottoman dome constructed over it, and rebuilding of
the cemeteries obliterated in the 1920s. The latter subject produces annual
protests at the Royal Saudi Embassy in Washington, mainly by Shia Muslims.
Why have the Saudis now adopted a public stance in such contrast with
the Wahhabi mischief that lasted so long? Prince Sultan is famous for his
"correction" of Ibn Baz, who preached as unchallengeable Islamic
dogma that the earth was a flat disk around which the sun rotated.
Challenged on this medieval view, Ibn Baz did not hesitate to argue that
being blind, he believed the evidence of his feet rather than what others
told him. After his trip on Discovery, Prince Sultan told Ibn Baz he
had seen the earth and the sun and that Wahhabi astronomy was wrong. Ibn
Baz could not defy a member of the royal house.
Prince Sultan has affirmed that the new preservation enterprise will
reflect a dedication to "a manner that serves . . . Islam; besides
preserving those sites as an integral part of the great history of our
religion." But throughout its history, the Saudi regime and their
Wahhabi partners have acted as if they hate Muhammad and Islam. European
chroniclers of the Wahhabi movement in the 19th century described the
phenomenon as a rebellion against Islam altogether.
The most obvious reason for the promised new turn may be that it is part
of King Salman's commitment to austerity and a reduction of the Saudi
dependence on energy income, with the price of oil falling. To propel
economic diversification, the king may hope that tourism in the kingdom
will expand. A less obvious motivation may be a desire to adequately shield
Mecca and Medina from terrorism. King Salman holds the title
"Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques," but his position was
challenged internationally by the July 4 bombing near the Prophet's Shrine
in Medina. Outrage over the failure of the Saudi rulers to protect Mecca
and Medina has led leading Indian Sufis to call for the liberation of Hejaz, the Arabian province in which the
cities are located.
In the past, the Saudi royals reined in the Wahhabis when necessary.
Given the threat of ISIS, such an action is once again needed, and the
conflict over the preservation of Islamic heritage cannot but dramatize the
situation profoundly.
Stephen Schwartz is executive
director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, DC, and a
fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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