By
Dr.
Mahjabeen Islam
Toledo, Ohio
When
Custodians Destroy
“If there is
another 9/11 we should take out their
holy places,” said Congressman
Tom Tancredo of Colorado, referring
to Makkah and Madina. The literalistic
interpretation of Islam and the obsessive
Saudi fear of idolatry fuel the bulldozer
that within an hour razes and pours
concrete over historical sites revered
by the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.
Wahabism is the severe interpretation
of Islam named after Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahab,
an 18th century scholar. It took hold
in Saudi Arabia in 1920 after the partnership
of the Saudi royal family and the “ikhwan”
or brotherhood followers of Abdul-Wahab.
This literalistic interpretation has
the avoidance of idolatry as one of
its central tenets. Based on this obsession
the graveyard where the companions and
family of Prophet Muhammad were buried
was leveled in the 1920s. Now one has
to rely on hearsay to know where his
daughter Fatima is buried for instance,
and women are not allowed in. While
at Hajj, I peered behind a metal grille
while men strolled between the earthen
unmarked graves.
Over the last two decades 95% of Makkah’s
1000-year-old historic sites have been
bulldozed and replaced by hotels and
other concrete jungles that churn out
millions year round.
The Saudis are now set on razing the
birthplace of Prophet Muhammad. In a
land where dissent is punished by a
helicopter drop in the desert, lives
a supremely courageous man, Dr. Sami
Angawi. An architect and sole activist
against the Saudi destruction of historic
sites, he told the London newspaper,
The Independent, "The house where
the Prophet received the word of God
is gone and nobody cares ... this is
the end of history in Mecca and Medina
and the end of their future."
On August 6, 2005, The Independent carried
the article “The destruction of
Mecca: Saudi hardliners are wiping out
their own heritage”. Prince Turkey
Al-Faisal the Saudi ambassador to the
UK responded in a letter to The Independent
with “what rubbish” saying
that Dr. Angawi was a “disgruntled
man” and that “every artefact
discovered has been preserved and protected
and will be displayed in new museums
in Makkah and Madinah”. The Saudis
perpetually display arrogance and consider
other Muslims inferior, and this statement
is so typically transparent. Why would
you preserve artefacts (if you indeed
have) and destroy the original abode
that housed them?
According to the London newspaper, “The
Wahhabists now have the birthplace of
the Prophet in their sights. The site
survived redevelopment early in the
reign of King Abdul al-Aziz ibn Saud
50 years ago when the architect for
a library there persuaded the absolute
ruler to allow him to keep the remains
under the new structure. That concession
is under threat after Saudi authorities
approved plans to ‘update’
the library with a new structure that
would concrete over the existing foundations
and their priceless remains.”
Dr Angawi says that the bulldozers could
come “at any time”. It is
to be replaced with a parking lot and
high-rise hotels and apartment complexes
under the Jabal Omar scheme.
My attention was riveted only recently,
August 17th 2005 when Pakistani columnist
Khalid Hasan wrote an article “Muslim
silence over Saudi demolition of holy
site puzzling”. I attempted to
galvanize about 1000 people living mainly
in North America and Pakistan by email,
urging them to protest in a variety
of ways.
One of the recipients called the Saudi
embassy in Washington and was told that
the reason for their plans was for the
comfort of the millions of pilgrims
and that they would never do anything
to the Grand Mosque. Well! Whoever said
anything about the Grand Mosque? In
satellite pictures the palace of the
Saudi king occupies 20% of the haram
or Grand Mosque. Enacting the angst
of Hagar, pilgrims run between the hills
of Safa and Marwa. In the 1980s the
Saudis demolished a part of these two
hills to make way for the palace of
the late King Khaled.
When you exit the Grand Mosque the Saudi
palace looms in your face like a fortress,
stretching for a long walk, in one direction
and way above the Kaaba in the vertical
one. What significance does the Saudi
royal family and their palaces have
in the minds of Muslims? And what comparative
importance does the house where Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) received
Qur’anic revelation have for the
same?
Ali Al-Ahmed of the Gulf Institute sees
through the Saudi government’s
disingenuous premise well. “If
the comfort of pilgrims is the aim,
why not build a railroad between Makkah
and Madina, and Makkah and Jeddah?”
I must add: why not scale down on the
royal palace, which takes up such disproportionate
room in the Grand Mosque and is actually
an assault on the senses? Surely the
Prophet’s (peace be upon him)
birthplace is not anywhere close to
the colossus that the palace is.
The Saudis are mere custodians of the
Kaaba. What gives them the right to
destroy 95% of historical sites and
have the bravado to now aim at Muhammad’s
(peace be upon him) birthplace? Whoever
said that the holy sites belonged to
them? At Hajj and Umra the claustrophobia
of Wahabiism is all but unbearable.
Women are treated as less than human.
Only one hour at dawn and one hour at
midday is allotted to them to visit
the grave of the Prophet (peace be upon
him).
Upon entry to Riyadul-Jannah, the area
between the Prophet’s grave and
the pulpit, which is to be raised, as
is, to heaven, on the Day of Judgment,
female Saudi guards enveloped face,
body and hands in black, scream out
instructions, in Urdu and Arabic. The
sole premise of these is to not worship
the Prophet (peace be upon him) and
to only say “salam” to him.
Many a pilgrim has had their book or
pamphlet that they were using to pray
from, snatched by these over zealous
types, for what the guards might have
imagined was the recitation of idolatrous
verses. I thought that our accounting
on the Day of Judgment would be individual.
That the custodian’s role was
to upkeep the building, not to police
thought or action.
Consequently it gives me enduring pleasure
to remember how I missed the monitoring
glare of the only part of the guard
that showed. I was able to stand within
the Prophet’s (peace be upon him)
mosque, look upon that gorgeous green
dome and read milad-un-nabi or poems
in his praise. For forty minutes at
that!
Imagine my heartache to learn of a report
prepared by the government of Saudi
Arabia wanting that very dome to be
removed, for “it does not serve
any useful purpose”.
My pain is worsened by the silence of
the Muslim world. The inaction of the
imams and scholars of Saudi Arabia who
allowed the destruction of the historical
sites within Makkah and the hills of
Safa and Marwah can be relegated to
the power of the Saudi riyal. What is
the explanation for the reticence of
the rest of the Muslim world? Tarek
Fatah a Canadian Muslim activist is
right: the Muslim world protested the
razing of the Babri Mosque in India.
What is the stature of the Babri Mosque
in comparison to the birthplace of the
man that the Qur’an says was sent
as a mercy to mankind?
I called a highly placed Pakistan government
official requesting a call of protest
to Saudi Arabia. “We are recipients
of a lot of aid from Saudi Arabia, it
would be like biting the hand that feeds
you”. Ouch.
An interesting dichotomy: the Saudi
royal family likes to call itself “Khadimain-e-Haramain-Sharifain”,
the servants of the holy places. Is
it becoming to the servant to outdo
the House of God? Do servants demolish
the house of the master?
My main pain: what opium are the Muslim
masses on anyway? What will it take
to shake their deep slumber? The Saudis
would not have the nerve to destroy
the Kaaba, but the steady pace of destruction
of historical sites, and now Muhammad’s
(peace be upon him) birthplace, places
his tomb, Masjid-e-Nabawi, in great
danger. It is all a matter of extrapolating
the argument of avoiding idolatry.
Soon after 9/11, photos circulated on
the net, depicting a plane going through
the Kaaba. With the Wahabis having demolished
95% of Makkan historical sites, and
the nefarious appetite for more, the
Kaaba is all that Tom Tancredo and the
“Zionists” will need to
worry about. The Saudis will have taken
care of the rest.
Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and freelance
columnist practicing in Toledo Ohio.
Her email address is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com
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