Daily Alert Archives

The Destruction of Holy Sites in Mecca and Medina

(Islamica Magazine) Irfan Ahmed - In Saudi Arabia almost all of the Islamic historical sites are gone. In 1803, an army led by the sons of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism) and Muhammad ibn Saud occupied the holy city of Mecca where they executed a campaign of destruction in many sacred places and leveled all the existing domes, even those built over the well of Zamzam. In 1998 the grave of Amina bint Wahb, the Prophet's mother, was bulldozed in Abwa and gasoline was poured on it. The mosque and tomb of Sayyid Imam al-Uraidhi ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq, four miles from the Prophet's Mosque, was destroyed by dynamite and flattened on August 13, 2002. Imam al-Uraidhi is ninth in line from the Prophet. Dar al-Arqam, the first school in Islam where the Prophet taught, has also been demolished. The authorities plan to demolish the house of Mawlid, where the Prophet was born, to make way for a car park and hotels.
2006-05-19 00:00:00
Full Article