INTRO: Most of us think
of Saudi Arabia as the oil kingdom. They’re one of the most dominant voices in the industry and
they profit hundreds of billions of dollars every single year from pumping out oil. But, something
that many of us overlook is that Saudi Arabia is also the Islamic kingdom. Saudi Arabia is home to
Mecca which is said to be the holiest of Islamic cities. The founder of Islam, Muhammed the Prophet
was not only born in Mecca but this is also where he had his revelations way back in the early 7th
century. Given this religious signficance, I don’t think you’d be surprised to hear
that most Muslims try to pilgrimge to this holy city atleast once their lifetimes. This is what
leads to an influx of millions of pilgrims to the country an on annual basis. For the longest time,
the only way you could even get into Saudi Arabia was to either be a pilgrim or have a work Visa. It
wasn’t till September of 2019 that Saudi Arabia started accepting tourists. But, even today,
Mecca is restricted to only Muslims and trying to sneak in like Airrack is taken extremely
seriously. Hearing all this, you would think that Saudi Arabia would also be super keen on
protecting the city’s cultural and architectural history. But, this is actually not the case. In
fact, Saudi Arabia has been actively destroying Mecca’s architecture for decades. Since 1985,
Saudi Arabia has destroyed 98% of their historical and religious sites, the vast majority of which
was in Mecca. If this number were 5 or 10%, you may be able to argue that there’s no agenda. But,
at 98%, there’s clearly something going on here. One researcher puts it as “It’s as if
they wanted to wipe out history.” And it’s not like they’re building new religious sites on
top of these ruins either. More times than not, they’re building hotels and resorts,
and sometimes it’s a lot worse. For example, they destroyed the house of the Prophet’s first wife
in order to build public toilets. I mean, at this point, they’re just being insulting. So,
why in the world is Saudi Arabia destroying their cultural heritage?
WAHHABISM:
Taking a look back, the destruction of Mecca is not a new phenomenon by any means. In fact,
it has been an ongoing trend for nearly a thousand years dating as far back as 1205. While it’s been
a long time since then, the reasoning behind current destruction is not that different. It
all comes to down to the beliefs of one sector of Islam called Wahhabism which is a part of
the broader Sunni sector. Wahhabism is the prevailing form of Islam across Saudi Arabia,
and they’re not fans of worshipping people. Visiting the shrines and tombs of even prophets
and saints is heavily frowned upon. It’s thought that visiting such places will result in Islam’s
gravest sin which is to worship anyone other than god. This does make sense to a degree. If
millions of people visit the homes and tombs of religious figures, it’s only natural that some of
them start to see these religious figures as god themselves. But, while that is a risk, it does
seem rather harsh to wipe out centuries worth of heritage just to prevent a few from quote on quote
“going out of line”. The way that Saudi Arabia justifies this is by building structures that
support their view of Islam. Just because Saudi Arabia has been destroying most of Mecca does not
mean that they’re looking to destroy all of Mecca. When it comes to sites that they believe are truly
pure and holy like the Kaaba, they not only protect it, but they try their best to enhance
it. Over the years, Saudi Arabia has poured tens of billions of dollars into the Kaaba and the
buildings that surround it. A perfect example of this is the glorious clock tower that they
built right next to the grand Mosque of Mecca. Not only does the clock tower look magnificent,
but it has extraordinary capacity. The main tower itself has over 16 million square feet of floor
area and contains 1,618 rooms. Hearing this, I don’t think you’d be surprised to hear that it
cost $15 billion to construct. And this is just one of their many Hajj related projects. They’ve
build several top of the line hotels, parking garages, restaurants, and everything else that you
might need to have a positive pilgrimage. They’ve also spent substantial time and resources trying
to expand the area that surrounds the Kaaba. This way, more people can visit on an annual basis. The
most recent expansion project was completed in 2018 which brought the total size of the Great
Mosque to a 187 acres, capable of supporting 2.5 million worshippers. As you can see, the
Saudi Royal family is by no means anti-Islam. If anything, they’re actually massive supporters, but
the key thing to note is that they only support their view of Islam. Historically, they had no
issues just blatantly raiding and destroying people of different sects. But, in modern times,
Saudi Arabia’s approach to the situation has become more sophisticated. They’re not destroying
these cultural sites just to destroy them. They’re destroying them so that they can build structures
that support Wahhabi Islam. By framing it like this, the Saudis have been able to shift focus
away from their destruction of heritage and move it over to their construction of heritage. And
this framing has allowed them continue their destruction with substantially less backlash.
THIRST FOR POWER:
While the Saudi family likes to perpetuate that their destruction is driven by pure and
holy religious reasons, there’s little doubt that keeping power likely also played a role in their
decisions. Saudi Arabia is an absolutely monarchy meaning that they still have kings and princes and
these are the guys that rule over the country. They don’t have an elected prime minister or
president or anything along those lines. In fact, they virtually never have elections. Power over
the country is slowly passed down within the royal family alone. History has taught us that
such monarchies are almost always overthrown by rebellions and wars. But, Saudi Arabia has
actually had a pretty successful history with a monarchy. Now, this isn’t to say that Saudi
Arabia has been perfect. They’ve had a rather shady history when it comes to human rights and
women’s rights. But, neither of these have been enough to spark rebellions within the country. And
the key reason for this is that the kingdom has given it’s people the 3 gs: god, gold, and glory.
In terms of god, it’s clear that they’re supporting the prevailing form of Islam within
the kingdom, Wahhabism, to the maximum extent. Most Muslims within the kingdom are either netural
regarding this issue or they actually support the destruction. “This is good. الحمدلله We don't
worship/decorate graves. This proves it.” Most of the Muslims that are unhappy with the destruction
are located outside the kingdom, so they don’t present that much of a threat to the Saudi
family’s power. In terms of gold, Saudi Arabia has literally stacked their reserves with nearly
half a trillion dollars worth of cash of gold. And they have extremely lenient taxation and welfare
policies when it comes to Saudi nationals. In fact, Saudi Arabia has no personal income tax. So,
most Saudi nationals have no complaints when it comes to the economy. And finally,
in terms of glory, Saudi Arabia is literally the most prominent Islamic country in the world both
religiously and economically. When Saudi citizens are getting all three gs, they have very little
reason to rebel or question the power of the Saudi family. But, imagine for a second if Saudi Arabia
didn’t destroy these historical buildings. Not only would they not be appeasing the Wahabis
within the country, but they would simultaneously be creating an opportunity for non Wahhabi beliefs
to grow and prosper within the kingdom. This is clearly not something that they want given that
they try to discredit historical sites with every opportunity that they get. For example, Muhammed
the Prophet’s apparent birth place is surrounded by signs in four languages that tell visitors
that there is no proof that Muhammed was actually born there. If the Saudi’s didn’t do this, they’d
just be asking for non-Wahhabi sects to grow which would not only create tension between this group
and the government but also between this group and the rest of Saudi Arabia. So, you’d essentially be
cultivating a rebellion or a civil war. You’ll see people questioning the power of the Saudi family
and you’ll probably see some religious figure rise up and lead the revolution. And based on history,
religion based conflict is usually the most danegerous form of conflict given that both sides
have unbreakable beliefs. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the Saudi Royal family wants to
end up like the Iranian Shah. So, they likely wont be stopping the destruction anytime soon.
ESCALATING RESENTMENT:
While the Saudi’s policy of destruction has played out decently well within Saudi Arabia itself,
the same cannot be said about non-Wahhabi muslims. To many of them, Saudi Arabia’s actions lack even
the basics of decency. In the modern world, just because you don’t agree with another
person’s religion does not mean that you get to go destroy their history. And even if these sites
aren’t holy like the Saudi’s claim, they’re at the very least important to their own history and
culture. The Saudi’s decision to destroy these sites despite this connection has come off as
extremism to many. The common belief amongst these people is that the Saudi family’s ego
is way too high and that they’re putting control and profits over history and culture. After all,
it’s not like they had to destroy these sites to even build their hotels in the first place.
There’s plenty of space on the outskirts of Mecca where insane hotels and resorts could have been
built instead. It’s not just non-Wahhabi muslims that are upset with Saudi Arabia’s actions either.
Historians and archeologisits are also not a fan of this behavior either. These historical
buildings likely would’ve given more context as to how people survived on the peninsula
for past several millenia. For them, this is not just a matter of protecting Islamic history but
a matter of human history. Many historians and activists have been posting pictures of
Islamic historial sites on social media to try to raise awareness surrounding the situation. But,
this hasn’t really done all that much because no one is willing to speak out against Saudi
Arabia. Neighboring Muslim countries don’t want Saudi Arabia to reduce their hajj pilgrimage
quotas. Meanwhile, western countries don’t want to jeopardize their source of oil. The only exception
to this is the former president of religious affairs of Turkey, Mehmet Gormez. He told the
Saudi minister of the Hajj that the skyscraper overshadowing the Kaaba destroys history. But,
honestly, I don’t think the Saudis really cared about his thoughts. So, while resentment is
building outside the kingdom, this probably wont be leading to any sort of change anytime soon.
THE STATE OF MECCA:
In the end, the destruction of much of Mecca is truly quite a shame. Whether these places
are holy or not, their important pieces of human history that should be studied and appreciated.
But instead, the Saudis have been slowly destroying the city for hundreds of years and
this has especially accelerated within the past few decades. They justify their destruction by
claiming that these sites lead to sins and that they’re not in line with the Wahhabi way. But,
while they don’t admit it, it seems like keeping control and power also plays a major role this
decision. While this has angered many Muslims and non-Muslims alike, there’s simply not much that
anyone can do about it. After all, it’s not like the Saudi’s are going over to Egypt and
destroying their pyramids. The Saudi’s are simply destroying their own buildings. So,
you can’t do much more than just give them another perspective. Whether they
continue the destruction or not is completely up to them. Did you realize that Saudi Arabia
was destroying their own history? Comment that down below. Also, drop a like if you hope these
sites rest in peace. And of course, consider checking out our discord community to suggest
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